Schwinghammer wins 5K race in Wisconsin

by Cori Hilsgen

news@thenewsleaders.com

Former Sartell High School athlete Logan Schwinghammer said he has taken to running the roads and trails of Wisconsin now that he lives there.

He recently won the BMO Harris Bank Madison Mini Marathon 5K race in Wisconsin Aug. 19 with a time of 19:25.

The race with 591 participants took runners through the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and along Lakeshore Path.

Schwinghammer was a sprinter and hurdler as part of Sartell High School’s track-and-field team. Although many of his friends were great runners, he didn’t like running for long periods of time at all when he was growing up. The farthest distance he ran for the track team was 400 meters.

Since many of his close friends were long-distance runners, he eventually ran cross country at Sartell for two years and for one year at St. John’s University.

Schwinghammer soon realized he had a bond with long-distance runners.

“It was from these seasons I began to learn about and enjoy aspects of the long-distance runner life,” he said.

After graduating from SJU with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, he worked for Epic Systems in Verona, Wis. He joined Epic’s running club, running with them twice each week and then began running daily.

Schwinghammer was soon disciplining himself to run more and more miles, both alone and with other runners. He worked through tough workouts and frustrating injuries while competing in more races ranging from 5K to 50K.

He currently works out with the Madison chapter of November Project twice each week. This is a free fitness group focusing on camaraderie, positivity and self-improvement.

There, he is pushed further in his training from consistent hill training, friendly competitions and exercise circuits.

“I give great credit to Jeff Kellerman and Tim Miles, my track-and-field coaches from Sartell and St. John’s University (respectively), for instilling a strong work ethic, an everlasting desire for improvement and a strong sense of community,” Schwinghammer said.

He plans to race the Madison fall half-marathon in early November. Schwinghammer expects about 2,000 participants to run the half-marathon. To train for the race, he is competing in a number of races from August-October.

After working at Epic Systems for four years, he began working as a Structured Query Language server database administrator for the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Military Affairs in Madison. His job includes performing maintenance operations to ensure the databases remain online. The SQL server databases house data surrounding disaster planning and emergency responses.

Schwinghammer also enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee with his friends and walking around downtown Madison and the many surrounding parks. He likes to read science fiction, especially books by Orson Scott Card and Michael Crichton. He also enjoys graphic novels and psychology books.

“Although I live in the capital of Wisconsin, I still cheer and represent the Minnesota Vikings when I can,” he said.

Schwinghammer is the son of Ken Schwinghammer and Carol Tester of Sartell. He graduated from Sartell High School in 2008 and St. John’s University in 2012.

He was a top track-and-field athlete at Sartell his last two years and at SJU his last three years.