Steve Neibergall was looking forward to this weekend for a long time.
The Mason City native ran a marathon in his 50th state on Sunday, something that was six years in the making.
“Right now I feel like I’m on top of the world!” said Neibergall.
He lives in Annapolis, Maryland now, but wanted to save running in his home town for the final leg of his quest.
Neibergall says it was worth the wait.
"When I was growing up, we would take our dog out to run on one of the trails I was running on today. It was a huge flood of memories and emotions, and finishing the 50 states here in my hometown is just awesome."
The 50 State Marathon Club says it has 2,581 members, now they can add one more to that list.
There is no telling how many miles he’s run over the years, but Neibergall got his start running cross country for Mason City High School in 1976.
Thirty-Five years later it took him three hours and forty minutes to complete his marathon.
He didn’t finish first but he knew he was still a winner the moment he crossed the finish line.
"It feels awesome to finally finish, and the coolest thing is finishing right here in Mason City, my hometown, a lot of the sights are very familiar, It was a very scenic course."
It didn’t hurt having 40 family members there cheering him on as well.
“I’d like to thank my wife, she’s my biggest fan. It was great my parents could be here, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary earlier this year, so to have them here was amazing too.”
Neibergall is in the midst of running four marathons in four weeks.
He says he has the recovery process down pretty good.
“You have to drink a lot of chocolate milk, and deep massages help too.”
He’s showing no signs of stopping any time soon, now he has his sights set on joining the seven continent marathon club.
He can already check Australia, North America, and Europe off the list, leaving four more to go.
The Mason City native says a marathon at the Great Wall of China is on his agenda for next year, then maybe South America.
Antarctica most likely will be the last; Neibergall says there’s a four year waiting to make the trip.
In the meantime, he’ll be sticking closer to home, running in the Marine Corps marathon next weekend in Washington D.C.
