A Waukesha Runner Has Died After Going Down on at the Milwaukee Lakefront Half Marathon

John Meise, a 36-year-old from Waukesha, Wis., died on Sunday after going down on the Hoan Bridge in the last mile of the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon’s half-marathon, and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed his identity on Monday. In 44 years, no participant had died at the race before, organizers told WISN.

The Badgerland Striders running club puts on the Lakefront, and its full marathon is a Boston qualifier. Both races set off together at 7 a.m. on Sunday, with a field of about 6,000 according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Pedestrians have no access to the Hoan Bridge the rest of the year, and organizers bill the Lakefront as the only race that crosses it.

Meise was close to the 13-mile mark, with only a tenth of a mile or so left to run, when he went down. He was being loaded into an ambulance a little after 10 a.m., when a WISN weather camera picked up the scene at the bridge’s north end, and he died at Froedtert Hospital. What caused his death is not yet known. The medical examiner’s office, which has said he had no prior health issues, according to the Journal Sentinel, is investigating.

His sister-in-law, Kristin Bennett, set up a GoFundMe for the family and described the scene on the course: “A fellow runner immediately stepped in to help, and EMTs and medical staff did everything they could, but John could not be revived.” By Tuesday afternoon, the page had raised $71,840 from 899 donations against a $120,000 goal, to pay for the funeral and the children’s care.

“He was the best dad in the world and he lived for his kids,” Lauren Meise, his wife and the mother of their four children, told TMJ4. The children range from 11 down to a year old. He started running about six years ago, his family told TMJ4, and Sunday was his first try at 13.1 miles. Stacy Horneck, who has been speaking for the family and organizing meals for them, described him to WISN as someone who “loved doing everything with his family,” adding: “He was so funny, and intelligent and talented.”

Run 4 Wales confirmed on Monday that a participant in Sunday’s Cardiff Half Marathon in Wales had also died, without releasing a name or a cause. Three weeks earlier, two 25-year-old men died after collapsing at England’s Great North Run.

Organizers have not named Meise; on Sunday they said privacy laws kept them from sharing more, the Journal Sentinel reported. “We are deeply saddened by this loss and are grateful to the medical personnel, first responders, volunteers and public safety partners who support the safety and well-being of participants throughout race weekend,” they said in a statement.