Martin Brings LA Marathon Championship Experience Home as Jackson High Coach
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
April 23, 2026
Nathan Martin has the best possible example a coach can give when it comes to the old phrase, “It’s never over, until it’s over.”
Last month, the Jackson cross country head coach and track assistant captured national attention when he miraculously came from behind to win the Los Angeles Marathon.
The winning margin was one hundredth (0.01) of a second.
“I didn’t really know if I won,” said Martin. “I tried not to get too emotional or celebrate too much. Then people around me started confirming it.”
Martin, 36, was running his race when, with about five miles to go, he had a surge and passed the pack he was with to get comfortably into second place.
“There was only one guy to catch at that point; he was so far ahead,” Martin said. “I couldn’t even see him. At that point, it was like, ‘Okay, let’s push, let’s finish, be strong, and all that kind of stuff.”
Slowly, the leader came into focus.
“Within the last mile, I’d say, he came into view,” Martin said. “By 800 meters to go I thought I had a serious shot to try and win.
“I made one final surge. That last 800 was super painful. I was thinking to myself maybe I’ll catch him, maybe I won’t, but I definitely wanted to make sure I crossed that finish line with no regrets, knowing I left everything out there.”
As he and the leader, Michael Kimani Kamau of Kenya, approached the finish, the crowed braced for the finish.
“It was the last 50 to 80 meters where the true opportunity to win presented itself and I took full advantage of it,” Martin said. “When I crossed the line, it was so close. I was trying to hold back the excitement and emotions and all of that kind of stuff. People started confirming it, and it was surreal. I just started absorbing the moment and everything going on.”
He credits his own coach, James McCurdy, with preparing him with everything from the right nutrition to handling the Los Angeles heat to the running strategy.”
“It was painful, but I still had something left in the tank,” he said. “If the race would have been a couple miles longer, I would have been okay (to finish).”
Martin finished with a personal best time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 16.5 seconds. It was the closest finish in LA Marathon history.
“It was pretty special,” Martin said.
Martin was born in Chicago Heights, Ill., and moved with his family to Three Rivers before he started school. He began running in middle school and competed throughout high school. He ran the mile in high school and the 5K in college.
“I had a lot of success in my running journey,” he said. “Eventually, my coach thought I had what it takes to run a marathon.”
It wanted until late in his college career at Spring Arbor University that Martin ran his first marathon. He was 23.
“I won the 10K, then 36 hours later I won the marathon,” he said. “My coach was like, ‘Okay, you need to do this.’”
Martin is now a professional runner and has sponsors. He was at the Boston Marathon on Monday making appearances and connecting with people in the running community.
After college he began substitute teaching while trying to advance his running career. That’s when he launched his coaching career.
“There was a year where I was substitute teaching and going to races to try and place well,” he said. “By year two or three, I was coaching and I’ve continued that on.”
Martin said coaching is rewarding, “Especially seeing a kid overcome some kind of challenge.
“It’s being able to use my experiences to give back,” he added. “I want to help kids along their running journey. Even if they don’t become a big-time runner, I hope the types of lessons they learn, they can apply in life.
“Just see them be able to fight through something makes me feel like I am making a positive impact in the world.”
Martin has run fewer than 20 marathons in his life. “If you are training at an insanely high level, you usually look at doing one, maybe two or three a year,” he said.
He has taken some time away from marathon training recently as he’s made several national appearances.
And an assistant at Jackson this year, he said he’s noticed a buzz around the distance runners.
“There’s way more interest in distance running,” he said. “Normally they give me my two minutes of fame, then they are back to being high school students. This has been different. They’ve made me feel like definitely I’ve done something.”
He will begin ramping up his training and plans on competing in a half marathon soon, then has set his sights on either the New York or Chicago Marathon.
“It’s been pretty cool,” he said of the running community in Jackson. “They’ve been showing me a lot of love, and they are super proud. If I did Chicago, I imagine I would get a chunk of people down to watch. I’ve had so many people supporting me. It’s a really good feeling.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Nathan Martin, middle with clipboard, coaches his Jackson distance runners. (Middle) Martin poses for a photo with a community award he received from the school. (Photos courtesy of Nathan Martin.)
Pieces Adding Up for Addison Title Run
May 11, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
ADDISON – Aaron Wesche didn’t waste any time in setting some goals for the Addison boys track & field team.
“I told them at signups that we were going to compete for the Regional title, and our goal was to compete for the top three at the state meet,” Wesche said. “I wanted to put that out there.”
If the last few weeks of the track season end up anything like the first few, the Panthers are right on target. Wesche began building this year’s team in the middle of last season, preparing for what he and his assistants figured was going to be a strong year. Addison is ranked on top of the recent Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Division 4 team power rankings with individuals up and down the rankings list.
“We’re set up pretty good for MITCA,” he said. “I’m blessed to have a great group of juniors and seniors. We’ve turned into a well-rounded team.”
Addison scored 13 points at the 2017 MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship meet, good for 26th place. This year’s team is eyeing a big jump from that spot.
“We’ve looked at the Regional and, with some luck, we could possibly see ourselves scoring points in every event,” Wesche said. “Now, things would have to go our way, but it’s possible.”
Addison has talent throughout its lineup.
The 400 and 800-meter relay teams of Josh Brown, Dakota Knieper, Caleb Gramm and Dominic Young are steady and fast. Noah Hermansen has emerged in the 110 hurdles, and Gavin McAndrews has been a pleasant surprise in the pole vault.
Freshman Marquis Bills has been a big addition to the lineup in the high jump, where he competes with teammate Matt Sylvester. Brown and Knieper are joined in the 1,600 lineup by Jesse Mullin and Zac Steiner. Zach Morse is a strong distance runner. Knieper was all-state last year in the 400, and Young ranks among the top 10 in the division in the 100, according to the MITCA rankings.
In the field events, standout athlete Donovan Underwood is expected to push for a high finish in both the shot put and discus.
Underwood is trying to earn all-state notice in his third sport in this, his senior campaign. He was honorable mention again in football after compiling 91 tackles and 16 for loss as the Panthers tied for the Cascades Conference championship and made the playoffs. In wrestling he finished in the top eight in his weight class, and now he has a shot to improve on last year’s fourth-place showing at the MHSAA Finals in the shot put.
“Our goals are pretty high,” he said. “We can achieve them if we just stay focused on what is ahead of us.”
Underwood is one of four seniors on the 29-member track team, up six from last year’s 23 athletes. He said the group of seniors have been playing sports together since a young age and has always felt by the time they became seniors, the Panthers would be putting out some good sports teams. They haven’t disappointed.
“Ever since we were young, we played football together and have always wanted to make everything we do, including track, as fun as we can,” Underwood said.
In track, he credits Wesche with teaching him the right technique for the throws. Wesche was a throws coach at Siena Heights University in Adrian from 2008-2012.
“Coach Wesche is an amazing coach,” Underwood said. “He helps us a lot.”
Wesche is in his 18th year teaching at Addison and has coached track for a good chunk of those, other than his years at Siena Heights.
“In high school, I did track, but I wasn’t a star or anything,” he said. “I was more of a technique guy. I worked at having the best technique and how to refine that technique.”
At Addison, he’s also been a master at getting kids out for track and putting them in the right spots in the lineup. He introduces freshmen at Addison to track while they are in his classroom and displays some trophies and other track memorabilia in his room to help get the buzz going about the sport.
“The team we have this year, we started to put in place last year,” he said. “We started moving kids around then, finding hurdlers and working on the relays. Some of it was kind of luck. Things have worked out pretty well.”
At one point, he lined up the entire team to find someone to run the hurdles. Hermansen emerged and is now a threat to score points at the Finals.
“This is the most complete team we’ve ever had,” he said.
The Panthers are scheduled to compete at the Hillsdale Invitational this weekend and have an important Cascades Conference dual meet with Hanover- Horton on Tuesday.
“They have won the last several conference championships,” Wesche said. “As coaches, we still have to sit down and figure out where we are going to score points against them. That’s going to be a dog fight.”
After that, Addison has the Regional and the Cascades Conference championship meet and, hopefully for Panthers fans, the MITCA and MHSAA meets left to go.
“The most important four weeks are coming up right now,” he said. We’ve got to start shining. I want us to be known as a blue-collar team. We aren’t a team with a superstar. We come to work every single day and grind it out.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Addison thrower Donovan Underwood unloads a discus toss during a meet this season. (Middle) Dakota Knieper charges down the straightaway during one of his races. (Photos courtesy of the Addison boys track & field program.)