Shorewood Runner Gears Up for Lakefront Marathon Sunday

J.D. Optekar is among the more than 60 Shorewood residents ready to hit the ground running in the 31st annual Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon set for Sunday.

“It’s going to be a tough race,” he said. "This race has motivated me to get out and train and push myself."

Joining 3050 runners from 38 states, Washington D.C. and five countries, Optekar will start at Grafton High School take a half-mile loop along the lakefront on Concordia University’s campus, then, continue along the lakeshore through North Shore neighborhoods including Shorewood and end along the sea wall by the lagoon in Veterans Park just north of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

An experienced marathoner with five previous trips in the Lakefront and a Boston Marathon under his belt, Optekar says he knows it's going to be a grueling race.

"I haven't been training like I know I should," he said. "I may just want to stop in Shorewood when we come around."

He said one of the inspiring things about the run is the bus ride out to the starting line, where other runners share stories of the obstacles they have had to overcome to compete.

"It's kind of a big slice of humble pie," Optekar said.

At Sunday's race, 65 runners will attempt a Guinness World Record by tethering together by a long rope and karabiners that are attached to race belts and running 13-minute miles throughout the marathon. The team, captained by Runner’s World’s “Mayor of Running” Bart Yasso and Wisconsin’s ultra-running legend Roy Pirrung, is calling themselves the “Jennipede." They hope to raise $75,000 for the rehabilitation care for Jenny Crain, a world-class runner who was severely injured on August 21, 2007 when hit by a car while training for the trials prior to the Beijing Olympics.

The Lakefront Marathon is a Boston Marathon qualifying course. If runners qualify at Lakefront they will be eligible to use that time for the next two running of the Boston Marathon.

The race starts at 7:30 a.m.