Two racers, one wheelchair: 77-year-old minister races again in donated wheelchair

Rev. “Uncle Bill” William Marks will be completing this year’s Bluegrass 10,000 race in style, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

Marks, 77, has run the race over 30 times in its 45-year history, according to his nephew Quinton Marks, who grew up running with his uncle in races around the Commonwealth.

“He would drive from Louisville to Lexington on Saturday mornings and pick me up in time to drive us back to Louisville to run in road races. I’d say he has run over 30-50,000 miles in his life,” Quinton Marks said.

William Marks has not run the Bluegrass 10,000 in around a decade. Last year, he underwent hip surgery and contracted COVID-19 while in the hospital. Quinton Marks also said his uncle is legally blind, but that doesn’t stop him from living life to the fullest.

On July 3, uncle and nephew will run the Bluegrass 10,000 together again, Quinton Marks pushing his uncle across the finish line in a racing wheelchair. “This is just to commemorate him,” he said. “This is a moment for him; it’s all about celebrating him.”

William Marks went to seminary in Louisville and served as a minister for many years, according to his nephew. “He is such a gentleman, I mean, a true gentleman and a biblical scholar,” Quinton Marks said. “He’s been ministering for many years, since his teenage years.”

He recalled one Fourth of July when he and his uncle ran three different races in the same day — the Bluegrass 10,000 in Lexington, the Buffalo Run in Stamping Ground and the Firecracker Four in Louisville.

“We were just literally running crazy,” Quinton Marks said. “We ran every race in the state of Kentucky.”

He said he sees this as an opportunity to give back to his “favorite Uncle Bill,” a man who spoke into his life from a young age.

“I love him, he means the world to me. He was like my dad, and I want to do something for him, and there’s nothing better than to put him in a race. He can’t wait,” Quinton Marks said. “It’s not about how long it’s going to take or how fast we can do it; this is about just being there and having fun and reminiscing and laughing about it.”

Alex Hans’ story

Quinton Marks reached out to the Lexington Parks and Recreation Department, and they were able to find a wheelchair for the Marks family to use, donated by Jim Hans of Louisville.

Hans and his son Alex Hans ran together, completing seven mini-marathons and one full marathon. Alex Hans, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, would ride in the wheelchair while his father pushed him.

“He had younger brothers, and he always watched them play sports,” Jim Hans said. “So we wanted to do something that they could watch, that they couldn’t do and he could, to kind of give them that same feeling of, ‘Hey, this is my brother, and I’m watching him run.’”

Around five years ago, Alex Hans passed away at the age of 27. Since then, his father has held onto the wheelchair, hoping to find a way to give it to a good home.

“I had it in my garage and I was like, ‘I need to give this to somebody because I’m not throwing it away, you know, it’s not something that you just toss out and let somebody pick up,’” Jim Hans said. “So I wanted to make sure that, you know, I gave it to somebody that was going to use it for something. To give somebody else a chance to experience something.”

When Jim Hans heard that Lexington Parks and Recreation was looking for a racing wheelchair for the Marks family, he offered to donate his son’s chair.

“It felt good. I was happy that somebody was going to use it,” he said.

This year’s Bluegrass 10,000 will be held July 3 through downtown Lexington. The wheelchair race will begin at 7:55 a.m., with runners beginning at 8 a.m.

This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 11:08 AM.