Mission accomplished: Austin Police officer reaches Boston marathon after years of improvement – Austin Daily Herald

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Dustin Wollenburg, a Lieutenant with the Austin Police Department, recently ran in the Boston Marathon for the first time. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com

Wollenburg shows off his running number. Photo provided

Wollenburg running in the Boston Marathon.
Photo provided

Wollenburg after finishing the Boston Marathon. Photo provided

It’s been about 13 years since Dustin Wollenburg, a lieutenant with the Austin Police Department, discovered a stress relieving activity that eventually turned into a serious mission.

That mission was to run in the Boston Marathon and it was accomplished on April 21, when Wollenburg finished in 6,209th place overall amongst over 30,000 runners with a time of 3:06:52.

Wollenburg had spent the previous six years chasing Boston and the sight of the finish line down the final stretch was enough to bring out all of his emotions.

“On the final turn, the energy was just so incredible. It’s such an iconic street. It’s where the marathon bombing happened, and there’s all those people who worked so hard to get there and it seemed so surreal that I was about to finish the Boston Marathon,” he said. “It was an incredible experience, it really was.”

Wollenburg, a 1999 Austin High School grad and lifetime Austin resident, was never into running when he was younger. He dabbled in track and field in middle school, but he didn’t stick with it. Then in 2012, he decided that he was going to start a new challenge in life.

His initial step was the first of nine marathons when he competed in Grandma’s Marathon in 2012.

“I just decided one day I wanted to run a marathon, and I have no idea why. I was woefully under-trained (for Grandma’s) and I had no idea what I was doing. I remember sitting in the hotel the night before the marathon, Googling what I should eat,” Wollenburg said. “I ran that race and bombed out on about mile 18. I death marched the last eight miles, and when I crossed the finish line, I said I would never do it again and it was the worst experience of my life.”

Wollenburg got over his pain and soon became driven to run faster. After taking over four hours to run his first marathon, he whittled his time down to 3:30 in his next race. Out of curiosity, he looked up the time to qualify for the Boston Marathon and figured he had to cut about 20 more minutes off.

“I went at it,” Wollenburg said. “I really started working hard and I started looking at all aspects of running, from training to equipment to the shoes.”

What followed was a string of near misses for Wollenburg. At the Chicago marathon in 2019, he was a minute short of qualifying. His following race in Duluth, he was two minutes short, and in the 2021 Chicago Marathon he was slowed down by 87 degree temperatures and head winds.

“I was devastated, because I was getting so close,” Wollenburg said.

Wollenburg finally hit his mark when he ran the Indianapolis Marathon in October of 2023. His time of 3:02.00 was good enough by 13 seconds to qualify for the fastest field the Boston Marathon has seen.

“I literally could’ve cried, because I worked so hard to get into that race,” Wollenburg said. “The biggest shoutout goes to my wife, because she’s so supportive. There’s an old joke in the marathon world that if you’re not divorced, you’re not training hard enough. I come home from work at 5 o’clock and then I have to go run. A lot of these runs are not short. You’re talking two to three hours, on top of your work day. She was a trooper and was totally supportive.”

After qualifying for Boston, Wollenburg began an intense training program that began with him running 18-miles in January with temperatures at three below zero and 20 miles per hour.

Wollenburg averaged about 65 miles per week in his training leading up to Boston.

Since taking up running, Wollenburg has made some local connections with runners like his friend Tom Cook, who help him plan and strategize. But he wishes that Austin had a bigger running community.

He said that running is the ultimate stress reliever for him and many others.

“What really got me hooked on running is the mental health benefits of it,” Wollenburg said. “It’s no secret that the job that we do can be incredibly challenging and stressful. You can be exposed to some really awful things and sometimes you come home and you’ve just got to go for a run, then you feel so much better. It’s been a very positive thing in my life for sure.”

Austin native Zeke Peters, who was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, also competed in the Boston Marathon, placing 24,841st place overall with a time of 4:55.28.