Dominican Republic Peace Corps volunteer Dennis Bauer outran the field of 840 runners in his first-ever marathon



Dominican Republic Peace Corps volunteer Dennis Bauer outran the field of 840 runners in his first-ever marathon

Novice beats weather, field

By STEVE SHELNUTT
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/25/04

Caption: Full marathon men's winner Dennis Bauer grimaces as he crosses the finish line today. Photo: Andy Sharp, AJC

[Excerpt]

The registration form for next year's Atlanta Marathon may need to be headed with the disclaimer "no experience necessary" after novice marathoner Dennis Bauer performance in the 2004 Atlanta Marathon on a chilly Thanksgiving morning.

Bauer, 26, a Wisconsin native and Peace Corps volunteer working in the Dominican Republic, outran the field of 840 runners in his first-ever marathon on a day in which high wind gusts made running the streets of Atlanta a more challenging proposition than usual.

"I was just trying to run with the leaders," Bauer said, "but it got so windy I decided to move on up. I caught up with the leader around the 11-mile mark. I started getting really tight around 15 miles, and the last three miles were really slow."

Bauer also may want to play the lottery while he's in town. He told his father-in-law Wednesday that he was going to try to run the course in two hours, 35 minutes. His time? 2:35:36, almost three minutes ahead of second-place finisher, Jeremy Davis of West Lafayette, Indiana.

More than 8500 runners braved temperatures in the low 40s and gusting winds to run the 42nd running of the Atlanta Marathon and the 21st running of Atlanta's half marathon. Nearly 7700 runners took part in the half marathon, which kicked off at 7 a.m., while 840 runners hit the streets from Turner Field for the full marathon at 7:30.

When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

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