Marathon Man, Curtis Huffman

by Kolbe Nelson
April 25, 2011 7:13 PM


Last Monday, over 25-thousand people lined up and ran in the 115th Boston Marathon. That's quite a few more than Curtis Huffman is used to.

"The biggest thing was just there were so many people, everywhere you went, because there's like 27,000 people," Huffman said, "But when you're around here, it's just you and nature and your dog."

Huffman, a special education aid at Wessington Springs, started running marathons after being encouraged by his college cross country coach at Jamestown State.

"So I did four marathons at the college level and that kind of inspired me to keep going after college."Huffman said, "I said I might as well keep running to keep in shape and exercise my dog so I've done a couple marathons out of college."

And last year he qualified for the Boston Marathon, arguably the most prestigous marathon in the world. He faired pretty well too, finishing 116th with a time of 2 hours and 31 minutes, just one minute off his goal. Now he's a bonified small-town hero.

"It's kind of funny because right before I took off that day they gave me a big celebration that morning in the school and then when I came back they had a big celebration," Huffman said, "And a lot of the kids were pretty excited and pumped up and I told them how to track me online so I dont think monday was a very productive day at school, a lot of the kids were online, seeing how i was doing."

That interest in Huffman's performance has also sparked an interest in the sport.

"I asked them how many of you guys are going out for track," Huffman said, "And about three-quarters of them raised their hands so, we'll see if it kind of inspired some of them."

Huffman's not done running either. He says he hopes to eventually run a marathon in all 50 states. For now though, he's just fine with an old country road.

Follow KDLT Weekend Sports Anchor Kolbe Nelson on Twitter at @KolbeNelson