At least 10 locals gearing up for Boston Marathon on Monday

Joe Windeknecht had been finished with his first running of the Boston Marathon for around an hour and was waiting for friends to finish when the first of two bombs detonated.

Now the 51-year-old Cape Girardeau resident is preparing for his seventh running of the famous race and said he does so in an attempt “to pay homage to those that suffered that day” of the 2013 terrorist attack where three were killed and hundreds more injured.

“Naturally, I had to come back the next year, of course. When I originally, you know, qualified for Boston, I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. I’ll do it one time and be done,’” Windeknecht said. “It holds a true place my heart to just keep doing it.”

He said his “ultimate goal” is to be able to run the race 10 years in a row.

Windeknecht is one of several local runners gearing up for Monday’s 26.2-mile trek.

Joe Windeknecht of Cape Girardeau goes for a run Monday at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

While Kim Kelpe, co-owner of Missouri Running Co., said it may not be a complete list, she is aware of 10 locals taking part in this 123rd running of the marathon: Windeknecht; Nichole Clippard, 39, of Jackson; Dr. Kate Barnette, 40, of Cape Girardeau; Dr. Alan Barnette, 42, of Cape Girardeau; Andy Johnson, 43, of Cape Girardeau; Kevin Dorris, 46, of Jackson; Douglas Ambler, 48, of Cape Girardeau; Marcy Ambler, 48, of Cape Girardeau; ; Shannon Aldridge , 55, of Cape Girardeau; and Carol Winter, 57, of Uniontown, Missouri.

Marcy Ambler said this is her second time running the marathon, the first being the 2016 race.

“We just want to enjoy it,” she said of her and her husband, Douglas, who is also running the race for the second time.

“It’s always fun to run a race in a different city, or a different state or a different country,” Marcy Ambler said. “It’s kind of become, I guess, an outlet of sorts to try and do different things and experience new places.”

Now about to run his sixth Boston Marathon, Johnson said he plans to “probably run it as long as I can keep qualifying.”

“So far, things are looking promising,” he said about this year’s event. “You never really know until race day. I mean, anything can happen. Injury wise, sickness, just the weather. But, you know, you can try to set yourself up for success as best as possible and then, you know, try not to stress over it.”

One reason Johnson took up running was to “take some personal responsibility for my health.”

“First, it became a challenge to see what I can accomplish. And now, a lot of it’s really just about goal setting because if I don’t have a race or a goal, it’s too easy to just say, ‘No. I should ... I’ll run tomorrow. I’ll put it off,’” he said. “If I’m healthier, I’m going to be a better benefit to my family and my friends, my job, you know, all that kind of stuff.”

Aldridge, who was profiled in the March 2 Southeast Missourian, received a special invitation to run next week’s race. A runner who is inspired by his daughter Sahara, who died from cancer 11 years ago, Aldridge applied to be a “Hero” runner on the St. Jude team, a 10-person squad that runs the Boston Marathon to raise money for cancer research. Aldridge set a goal to raise $21,000 for cancer research. He recently topped $25,000.

jwiegand@semissourian.com

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