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Vierbicher goes the extra miles
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| Members
of Vierbicher’s Madison Marathon team include (back row, left to right) Ken Maly,
Rod Zubella, Gary Blazek and Sarah Shoemaker; and (front row, left to right) Andy
Graham, Tim Ganser (of Mortenson Investment Group, Madison), Andy Inman and Ben
Zellers. Photos courtesy of Vierbicher Associates Inc. |
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| David Marquardt takes a quick break during the Madison Marathon. |
Ken Maly could feel it in his hamstrings and calves.
Sarah Shoemaker said her hips were really hurting.
For Rod Zubella, the ache was more free-floating, concentrating into a general leg and lower back stiffness whenever he sat for too long.
And that was after two days of recuperation following their running in the 26.2-mile Madison Marathon on May 27.
“In the beginning, you’re excited, and the mile markers are flying by,” said Shoemaker, the 27-year-old community development consultant for Vierbicher Associates Inc.’s Madison office. “It was a matter of, after mile 20, keeping moving and keeping my feet moving one foot in front of the other. The mile markers seem farther apart.
“I swear that last mile was really 5 miles.”
But she finished the full marathon, as did Zubella, Vierbicher’s 41-year-old CEO and president; Maly, Vierbicher’s 32-year-old planning group leader; and David Marquardt, Vierbicher’s 33-year-old landscape architect. The company also was represented by six other employees who either volunteered at aid stations or participated in shorter-distance portions of the race.
And while at times painful, the culmination of months of training was worth it, Zubella said.
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| Sarah Shoemaker, who organized Vierbicher’s participation in the Madison Marathon, finds the energy to smile during her 26.2-mile run. |
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| Rod Zubella crosses the finish line of the 26.2-mile marathon. |
“At the end, everybody was smiling,” he said.
Shoemaker said the idea to run the marathon popped up last summer. She was planning to train with a co-worker, and they decided to see if anyone else from Vierbicher wanted to join in.
“We went to Rod Zubella to see if it could be an office event,” she said. “He said definitely. Then we took it further to see if we could make it a fund-raising event.”
That plan worked out too, and the company raised between $6,000 and $7,000 for Habitat for Humanity of Dane County.
“We didn’t have a goal this year,” Shoemaker said. “We’re hoping to make it annual and eventually pay for an entire Habitat house, which is about $75,000.”
That might mean a lot of people suffering from a variety of aches and pains next year, but Peggy Halloran, Habitat’s development director, said the organization welcomes the effort.
“It takes a lot of time and effort to organize something like this,” she said.
“There are a number of ways to raise money for charity, and this is a way to make a physical commitment. That’s a long, long way to run.”
But, Maly said, it’s not such a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
“There’s the good cause, the team-building opportunity and the challenge,” he said. “I was also disgusted with myself for sitting on the couch for the last two years.”