MAD Racing Salutes Martin Wiesiolek

You’ve read our tagline hundreds of times: push the edge.

There’s a reason why we fly that flag, and no one knows better than the unusual and amazing Martin Wiesiolek.

Martin (right) giving the kids a run for their money in the 2018 Just Peachy race.

Martin Wiesiolek is a 53-year-old marathoner who throws in triathlons and cyclocross just for fun, aaaaaaand he’s nursing a heel injury. He was running along and thought he stepped on a sharp stick, but it was his tendon screaming from a sudden jolt of over-exertion. He’ll be recovering for the next month, but before you assume he’ll be off his feet binging Call the Midwife on Netflicks and eating leftover rotisseri chicken and spaghetti marinara (like I would), Martin sees his injury as an opportunity to improve his fitness. You read that right. Improve.

“Any time you push a sport to the competitive level, injury is part of it,” he explains to me. But it’s all right. “Injuries are just opportunities to cross train. It’s a reset.” When he’s not injured, he can get set in his 20-mile routine and not have time for biking or swimming. Injured, now he has time for both. Even though he loves running, “[it] only develops part of the muscle. Cross-training helps me develop the full muscle, and I like the feeling of being strong in my body.”

Martin took 2nd in the 2018 Just Peachy race. “I love MAD Racing Colorado. World Classes races. So well organized.”

Martin knows a thing or two about being strong. When he was only 19, he fled communist Poland as a political refugee, landing in the safe haven of Philadelphia. He took on a full-time job while putting himself through college as a computer science student, and now Martin is the owner of a successful business called WebCreate.com.

In 2018, Martin took second place in the 10K Just Peachy Run, organized by MAD Racing Colorado.

He’s proud of it because usually, a runner excels in either speed or endurance–not both–and usually, a runner performs better on either the road or the trail–not both. Martin trains for them all. “I love all lengths of races. Shorter distances [on the road] give me a chance to improve my speed. Trail running is all about distance, and gives me the chance to improve endurance.” Martin is competing against only himself, really. It’s not about being the winner of the race, but of feeling the improvement of different kinds of fitness in his body, that feeling of pushing the edge. Why? “When it’s hard,” he says, “that’s where the feeling of accomplishment comes from.” That’s the whole point of pushing the edge.

When winter comes Martin swaps out his running shoes for a pair of cross-country skiis, and you’ll find him gliding somewhere along the 50 km of groomed trails at the Grand Mesa Nordic Council. Nordic

In the winter, Martin trades in his running shoes for Nordic skis.

skiing, says Martin, is just like running. As a certified ski instructor, Martin finds the most satisfaction in teaching people with disabilities. “The snow is a great equalizer,” Martin says. “There is no social status on the snow, no disabilities. On the trail, everyone is an equal.” On a pair of skiis, anyone can explore deeply into in the wilderness–more so than on foot. Exploring the snowy woods puts Martin in touch with an old pleasure for him, one of his rare good memories from home, when as a child on summer break, he would take off into the wilderness and spend weeks exploring.

Only a few more weeks left, and Martin will be running, ready to compete, and this time, stronger than ever for having pushed that edge.

Your turn! How do you push the edge? How does it make you feel? Share your story here. We want to hear it.