Runners lace up for 40th annual Duke City marathon

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Thousands of runners got up nice and early Sunday to run in the 40th annual Duke City Marathon. 

“We’re the only Boston Marathon qualifier and this year our two beneficiaries are the Ronald McDonald House of New Mexico and the Boys and Girls Club of Central New Mexico,” said Burt Trembly, a Duke City Marathon board member.  

Patrick and his wife traveled all the way from Louisiana for the race. They’ve been runners for more than 20 years and decided it was time to see what the Duke City was all about. 

“UNM actually played LSU in football last year which is where I work. My wife and I like to do races, and we asked ourselves if we’ve been out to New Mexico and we hadn’t. This came up, and we decided to register and train for it,” said Patrick. 

Then there was this group of friends from UNM who are always up for a challenge, and a Red Bull.

“We all heard that less than 1% of people finish a marathon within a lifetime and that was enough to motivate us two weeks ago into running a marathon,” said Jade Gable and Jack Dugan.

Regardless of what they finished, everyone went home with a little something.