The 2015 Air Force Marathon took place on a clear, cool morning just minutes from Wright State’s main campus.
A number of Wright State students participated in the races. Among them were freshmen Grace Warnecke and Becka Brinkman who both ran the full marathon, a whopping 26.2 miles. Rooting for them were Hailey Scherman, Madyson Haselman, Katie Watson and Alexis Wannemacher.
Also running for Wright State were brother and sister duo TJ and Tabbie Tillman, both juniors. Since summer, the two have been training for the half marathon. Having run the half marathon and the 10K before, they knew how extensive their training was going to be, but fully supported and motivated each other.
“Most of the time Tabbie had to get me out of bed or force me to go,” TJ said.
Although they trained together, the siblings knew that to be able to support each other completely, they had to part ways when it came to the race itself.
“The plan is to run with each other as far as we can without holding the other one back. We want each other to perform our best and we both have goals that we set to achieve. So most likely we won’t finish together, but we will push each other and build off each other until we separate,” Tabbie said before the big race.
Their hard work and encouragement paid off as TJ placed 743rd overall and 51 of 143 in males aged 20-24 with a time of 2:53. Tabbie was not too far behind with an overall place of 1681st and 91 of 400 in females aged 25-29, with a time of 2:17:55.
With hope set on their future races, the Tillman siblings are ready to take a break from their training. “Running is the last thing we want to think about right now. We’re glad this year is over and I’m sure we will decide to run it again next year. We do know we both want to work up to the full marathon, so maybe next year will be the year?”
