Neenah's John Hollister winner of Community First Fox Cities Marathon Presented by Miron Construction; Breanne Terakedis top female finisher

John Hollister has run the streets of the Fox Cities countless times and always imagined what it would feel like to win his hometown marathon.

That dream is now a reality.

The 41-year-old Hollister, who grew up in Ashwaubenon but has lived in Neenah for a little over 10 years, won the Community First Fox Cities Marathon Presented by Miron Construction on Sunday with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, 41 seconds.

“It’s great to win your hometown race,” Hollister said. “I’ve run these streets so many times. I’ve done the half (marathon) here a lot. This is my first time running the full. I was inspired by some friends to give it a shot. I was kind of the odd one out that hadn’t won it.”

Hollister finished a little over 5 minutes ahead of Erik Hofferber, who was the runner-up in 2:51:46.

“The last 2 miles it was a grind,” Hollister said. “You never know if somebody can catch you from behind when you’re in that state. But I had a good enough lead. You have to imagine everybody behind you is feeling it just as much as you are.”

Hollister was a winner despite acknowledging he still isn’t sure how to approach a marathon since it was only his third 26.2-mile race.

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“I haven’t really figured it out,” he said. “But it was just, you know, start out conservative. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement at the beginning. Going out too hard, it’s a long race and you have to be conservative at the start and just try to make it to the finish. That’s it. It’s a battle of attrition usually, and today I just happened to be the fastest one out there.”

Hollister qualified for the Boston Marathon, which he would be eligible to run in 2025. He also might try to run the New York Marathon.

For now, he’s just thrilled to win close to home.

“I run these routes and try to visualize crossing that finish line, what it’s going to feel like those last few miles,” he said. “But you never can really replicate that. It was good. It was a good day. … It was good to see Neenah, Wisconsin, on top of the rankings.”

Hofferber, a 31-year-old from Oshkosh, was running the Fox Cities Marathon for the first time after previously running the half marathon.

He said he tried to keep pace with Hollister but realized he’d probably be running for second place.

“I knew I was not in his league,” Hofferber said. “I just kind of stuck to my pace as best as I could and let him go. Just tried to get through to 20 miles and push to the finish.”

Terakedis is top female finisher in marathon

Breanne Terakedis of Billings, Montana, was the top female finisher in the marathon with an unofficial time of 3:18:07. It was the first time running the Fox Cities Marathon for the 42-year-old.

Tricia Bardin of Marinette finished second in 3:20:17.

“It was such a fun course, such a fun and beautiful day,” Terakedis said. “My parents live here in Appleton and so they were all over the course cheering me on, at the finish line. My cousin was at the finish line. Just such a wonderful way to come across. It was just a really great course.”

Terakedis took over the lead around the 20-mile mark and steadily pulled away for the win.

“I knew by the last couple miles that I had a little left in me, so I was able to kind of kick it in. It was a fun finish,” she said. “You train so hard for these races and so you just think about all those training runs and all the effort that you put in and you know you just have one morning to make it come together. So you just kind of replay all that hard work and you think I’m going to lay it all out here.”

Bardin, 35, was also competing in the Fox Cities Marathon for the first time.

“She passed me up and I was just like, ‘OK, now I don’t have to try that hard.’ But I wanted to hold on to second place, so I just kept my eye on her,” said Bardin, who plans to run The Fall 50 in Door County in October. “I’m really stubborn and I like to win, so I just tell myself don’t stop and I think about my kids because they think that I’m really strong.”

Van de Kamp wins half marathon

Fritz Van de Kamp of Salt Lake City was the top finisher in the ThedaCare Half Marathon. He finished with an unofficial time of 1:09:54.

The 43-year-old Van de Kamp, whose wife is from Oshkosh, has done about 50 full marathons and 50 half marathons but was racing in Wisconsin for the first time. He approached the race as a training run for an upcoming marathon.

“I think I paced it pretty well so that by the end I was still running at the same pace,” he said. “This was somewhat in preparation for a marathon I have in a few weeks, so I think it was a great workout I guess, but also still hard work.”

Van de Kamp said he wants to race well every time he laces up the running shoes.

“I train quite a bit, so I like to do well,” he said. “I guess I’m more on the competitive end. I’ve run a lot since my 20s. I’m not getting too much slower but hopefully I can keep it up as I get older.”

Scott Downard, 40, of De Pere finished second. It was his first time competing in any of the Fox Cities Marathon events. He finished almost 5 minutes behind Van de Kamp in 1:14:33.

“I had a rough pace in mind, a goal of course. But I’m pretty open-minded,” he said. “I’ve been running for a long time and racing for a long time. I like to kind of leave it a little bit up to the day and kind of see how everything pans out. If you’ve got a group to work with, maybe it’s better to kind of use the synergy of the group for a while rather than just sticking to your goal. You get kind of pumped up when you do finally split up and you get a little adrenaline for a couple miles to kind of push again, so it’s nice.”

Moore top female finisher in half marathon

Cheyenne Moore of Oshkosh was the top female finisher in the half marathon in 1:18:02.

The 27-year-old Moore was running in the Fox Cities half marathon for the second time. She has competed in two full marathons.

“I felt really good through like 7 miles. I didn’t quite make my time goal, but it was a nice day to run and it’s fun to be out here with people cheering,” she said.

Moore, who is hoping to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the full marathon, ran a little faster at the start of the race than she planned.

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“I got dragged out probably a little quicker than I should have let myself today. I paid for it a little bit at the end,” she said.

Still, with her vast running experience, she approaches each race with the goal of doing well.

“An event like this I generally think I should win,” she said. “There’s a couple really fast women around the Fox Cities area, but I think I’m usually one of them. Finishing pretty high is one of my goals usually.”

Marya Haegler of Oshkosh was the second female finisher in the half marathon in 1:18:51.

The 31-year-old ran the full marathon but was doing the Fox Cities half marathon for the first time. She qualified for the Boston Marathon in June and will run that next April.

“I kept with my pace and my goal was to do some sub 6s in the last 5K. I was able to do that,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Hollister, Terakedis top finishers in Fox Cities Marathon