Man with Parkinson’s disease preps for half marathon

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – With 1,800 people set to run across Sioux Falls on Sunday you can imagine the many months of training the runners have gone through.

In 2015, Mark Nesheim was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 44. However, Nesheim says it doesn’t stop him from training for this year’s half marathon.

“It’s a big commitment,” Nesheim said. “It takes me about seven months of training because my training involves Parkinson’s, which is fighting my muscles. And I’m fighting back by running and boxing.”

In addition to hitting the trails, Nesheim takes classes at Rock Steady Boxing year-round, a boxing class for people with Parkinson’s disease.

“It’s wonderful to have the specialized training because we’re hitting the spots that need to be hit. But What I really like about that is the people that I’m training with because they’re going to the exact same thing as I’m going through,” Nesheim said.

Rock Steady Boxing’s head coach and program director, Lisa Howard says these movements help with mobility since Parkinson’s disease impacts one’s motor skills.

“When you’re working on the heavy bag and moving around the heavy bag, it’s working on your footwork and your speed and your reaction time. So all those things are fighting the symptoms of Parkinson’s,” Howard said.

Nesheim has been coming to Rock Steady Boxing since it opened in 2017.

“He’s so inspiring to all of the other boxers and he’s had a lot of adversities in his life. He’s fought cancer and he’s had difficulty just in his daily life, but he’s never let that slow him down,” Howard said. “He comes to class all the time and he’s always in a positive mood and he inspires all the other boxers.”

“Parkinson’s disease is not a death sentence, which many people think it is. It’s a pain in the rear-end sentence. But it’s something that we can all live for, for a long time,” Nesheim said.

Nesheim will be running the half marathon along with his daughter.
For more information about Rock Steady Boxing click here.

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