Rich Hoeg will end his Grandma's Marathon not after crossing the finish line in Canal Park, but in a little village in southern China.
That's because Hoeg's marathon will reach its culmination in JiaYou in October, at the new YanLao Primary School for 35 Chinese students.
But his marathon didn't begin that way.
His journey really sprang out of a disastrous Grandma's Marathon last year. He returned sick to the United States from China two days before the marathon.
"Something I ate in Shanghaididn't agree with me," Hoeg said. "I couldn't even take a drink of water."
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Though some of his friends considered him crazy for even trying, a determined Hoeg ran anyway, thinking he'd make it through the race, as long as he didn't try to eat or drink anything, even water.
"I crashed and burned around mile 18," he said.
Having never considered himself a failure, the manager of technical education and engineering information services at Honeywell signed up for the race this year to rectify things.
Then Dongjin Cai, whom Hoeg became friends with at a Wikimania conference last August, heard about Hoeg's plans and pitched a more ambitious idea: Use the run to raise money to rebuild a school in rural China.
Cai gave up a senior engineering position with Microsoft to help run the China Tomorrow Education Foundation, a nonprofit focused on helping bring education to rural China.
"'Let's try to see if you can use muscle to run [and] at the same time use your muscle for the children in China,'" Cai remembered telling Hoeg.
A day or two later, Hoeg signed on, Cai said.
"Rich liked this idea very much," he said.
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The notion fit with his love of learning and bringing education to others, Hoeg said. He hop-scotches across the globe for Honeywell, educating engineers. Much of that love for learning grew out of the emphasis his parents placed on education.
"They're the ones that inspired me to get involved in education," he said. "This effort is dedicated to them."
His dad, Duluth doctor Dwight Hoeg, attended the University of Minnesota and Harvard Medical School, thanks partly to the Navy.
That, in turn, allowed Hoeg to be educated at Dartmouth College, and that blossomed into a career educating others.
So he liked the idea of spreading free education in a country where access to many Web sites, even things like Wikipedia, is completely blocked. His dad was pleased with the news when his son surprised him with it Sunday.
"Both my wife and I are great believers in education," said Hoeg's father.
Hoeg was amazed at how easy it was to get donations, thanks in part to his popular engineering research blog at econtent.typepad.com. Donations to his fund had reached $6,200 by Wednesday; his goal was $6,000.
He also plans to bring a backpack full of children's books when he goes to JiaYou for the school's dedication ceremony this fall.
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Running for a cause has motivated him to train, and he has no doubt it will help him Saturday as well.
"This is for the kids, literally. That will get me through those miles," Hoeg said.
PATRICK GARMOE covers the Duluth community and city government. He can be reached weekdays at (218) 723-5229 or at pgarmoe@duluthnews.com .
