Marcus Grunewald

Bio

Marcus Grunewald's relationship with running started with an insult and a beer gut. In college, Marcus went on one run with a running group and decided it was "for the birds." He didn't think about running again until after graduation when he moved to Dallas and his fraternity brother (and new roommate) looked at him and said, "You're getting fat." Marcus looked down and realized he'd developed a 10-pound beer gut. His roommate Rick, who had run all through college, got him into running — and it stuck. What started as a way to lose weight became a lifelong passion. Rick took Marcus to his first race — the Run to Reunion 5-miler back in the early 1980s — where Marcus made the rookie mistake of starting on the front line and sprinting like it was the 100-yard dash. He made it maybe 50 yards before he doubled over, unable to breathe. But that was the hook. For the next several months, Marcus ran a race every weekend, constantly improving, and eventually progressed from barely finishing a 5-miler to completing marathons, ultramarathons, and even a 50-mile race (Raccoon Mountain). In his thirties, nagging running injuries led Marcus to explore weightlifting and bodybuilding. During a bike ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI), he met someone who alternated different sports to stay healthy, which inspired Marcus's pivot. He dove into weightlifting with the same intensity he'd brought to running, going from his running weight of 165 pounds to 205 pounds — with actually less body fat. He maintained his bodybuilding focus for a decade until, at age 50, he walked into the YMCA, picked up the barbells once, put them down, and said goodbye to weightlifting. He returned to running and racing, and has been largely injury-free ever since. Today, as Executive Managing Director of the Dallas White Rock Marathon Organization, Marcus leads the team that produces the 54th annual BMW Dallas Marathon and has just announced the launch of the McKinney Historic Half Marathon. When he first took over as race director, he told the board his main job was simple: "maintain and or enhance the reputation of the race." Under his leadership, the organization has grown from a respected regional event to one of the premier marathons in Texas, complete with five full-time employees and a reputation for excellence. Marcus still runs regularly — you might see him on the trails at White Rock Lake or the Katy Trail — and brings his decades of personal running experience to every decision the organization makes. Whether it's understanding what runners need at mile 20 of a marathon or knowing how to design a course that showcases a community while challenging athletes, Marcus has literally run the distance himself. His philosophy is simple: focus on safety first, listen to runner feedback, and put on the kind of race that runners are excited to talk about — whether they see you at the lake or behind a computer. As he puts it, he'd rather "be out in the woods running around like a little boy than behind a computer for eight hours." And that's exactly the kind of person you want organizing your next race.