Wilmington man's fight against paralysis goes from helping others to helping himself

Mark Zenobia has been part of the running scene for a long time, far beyond when he and his wife Barbara moved to Wilmington in 2008.

His name, however, doesn’t pop up in local race results. You won’t see him all over Wilmington social media. Instead, his work plays out at some of the biggest running events in the country, and on plenty of smaller finish lines, too.

For the past 17 years, Zenobia has been a coach and leader of the race fundraising team for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, helping provide assistance and research for those affected by paralysis. He's been so good that the organization named a branch of its hall of fame after him earlier this year.

Now he’s in a new role, going from instructor to patient as he fights against ALS, which he was diagnosed with in 2020.

LEARN MORE:How to get involved with Team Reeve and the Reeve Foundation

ALS:What it is, and how it affects the body

“I have no regrets,” he said from his home in Porters Neck. “I'm good. I'll miss the personal contact, but a lot of people won't lose my number.”

Zenobia is a New Jersey native and ran a race production and promotion company there until recently as well. In 2005, running club friend Peter Wilderotter, who was becoming the vice president for development at the Reeve Foundation, approached him with a new mission.

One that he wasn’t completely convinced by at first.

“I said no,” Zenobia said. “I said no 26 times. But Peter’s a guy that never takes no for an answer.”

The idea was Team Reeve: An arm of the foundation that focused specifically on those who wanted to fundraise through participation in races of all shapes and sizes. Today, Team Reeve has raised millions of dollars, thanks to competitors who race despite paralysis, have recovered from it, or had friends and family affected.

Zenobia’s job was two-fold: Get runners to the finish line, and get them to raise money in smart and efficient ways.

“There are many, many better coaches out there, but I knew how to fundraise,” he said. His last group of runners for this year’s New York Marathon, about 70 people, raised $8,000 each. Another 30 ran the Chicago Marathon and created $4,000 each in donations.

One of his many mentees through the years was Kelly Lamb, who’s now succeeded him in his role.

“He’ll tell you I was one of his problem children,” she said with a laugh. Starting in 2013, Zenobia coached Lamb through a half-dozen races before she joined the coaching team with him.

“In September, he was still talking about 2023,” she said. “I’m sure it was hard for him to stop, but he and Barbara acknowledged they were about to enter into a new phase in their life. It’s not something you welcome.”

The story of ALS is well known. It attacks the body and robs it of movement, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. That Zenobia gave much of his effort to the Reeve Foundation – which works with all levels of paralysis, not just those that are paralyzed through injury – was a twist. 

“He came to the foundation and he didn’t have a direct connection … to paralysis,” Lamb said. “It’s really remarkable: He became the mission in his professional life and now he’s dealing with it in his personal life.”

Zenobia said he started thinking about his transition away from his role earlier this year. Now that it’s here, he looks back fondly on what he accomplished, and what Lamb and future runners will be able to do for the Reeve Foundation.

“I took the job because Peter begged me to take it,” he said. “I knew how to be a mentor, but not a coach. It was purely self-taught. … But I took it, and it has been very rewarding.”

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Mark Zenobia honored by Team Reeve Hall of Fame after 17 years as coach