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MILROY - He knows for sure he won't be leading the pack. But judging from the way his training has been going, Greg Debbaut hopes he'll be able to finish the race.

"I won't really be running. It'll be a fast walk," said Debbaut, a rural Milroy resident and the Milroy fire chief. "I don't know if I'll finish, but I'll do the very best I can."

Debbaut has been in training since January to participate in Grandma's Marathon, as part of a pledge drive for Milroy's planned community wellness center. The marathon, which runs from Two Harbors to Duluth, takes place June 20.

Before a case of shin splints set him back a bit in April, Debbaut said he was making good time.

"I timed it once, where it took me about five hours and twelve minutes to go 20 miles," Debbaut said, and he's trying to work back up to that goal. "People always ask how it's going."

It will be good for the community and the fire department to have access to fitness equipment closer to home, Debbaut and local firefighters said.

Right now, the closest fitness centers to Milroy are in Tracy and Marshall.

However, the efforts to bring a wellness center to town have also had a personal meaning for Debbaut from the very beginning.

After he lost his son, Scott, in a car crash, Debbaut said, he wanted to find a use for memorial funds that came in. When Debbaut began physical therapy after a heart attack, the two ideas came together.

"I mentioned it to the lady at rehab, I said, 'I'd like to start a fitness center in Milroy,'" he said. The therapist was skeptical. "She said, 'Don't you think the fire department could use a piece of equipment?'"

Debbaut's training route for the marathon takes him past the spillway where the crash happened. Debbaut said he has mixed feelings about passing the spot. Scott's friends had built a memorial cross there, surrounded by mementoes like a golf club.

"It's about two and a half miles from my house," Debbaut said. "I guess I dealt with it a little sooner than the rest of my family. For a while, we didn't want to go down that road I guess we all came to terms with it."

Funds for construction of the wellness center building have been raised over the past two years, but there's still exercise equipment and a security system to pay for.

"We've gotten a lot of positive input from the community on the wellness center," said fire department member Tim Zwach.

Fundraiser events for the project have been creative, like Milroy's Race and Crash Day and the Miss Tootsie contest, but Zwach said the idea for Debbaut to complete a marathon was a surprise for firefighters.

"We were all excited, to say the least," he said.

"I'm just going to try to stay ahead of the medical bus," Debbaut joked.

Debbaut said his original goal was to raise $10,000 in pledges through the marathon, and he estimated the current total at more than halfway there.

"It's like you can see the end of the tunnel ahead. It's all coming together," Debbaut said.

Zwach said the fire department is also looking for sponsors willing to put their logo on Debbaut's running suit for the marathon.

Debbaut said he's been training daily by walking along CSAH 8 in Redwood County near his farm. If the winter temperatures and winds were too harsh, he'd change his route or work out with a stationary bike.

"Sometimes when the wind was really bad, I'd walk to Wood Lake instead," Debbaut said. "I'd drive out there, walk home, and then get a ride back to pick up the car."

He plans on switching over to trails near Redwood Falls to get a chance to acclimate himself to climbing hills.

"I do a lot of thinking out here," he said of his time on the road. "There's my school board duties, and the farming operation."

Debbaut said he'll be glad to see ground broken on the wellness center, but he's keeping a realistic attitude about finishing the marathon.

"They say it's a really good feeling," he said, but he's pretty sure he won't be back for more.

Zwach and Debbaut said marathon pledges can be made by contacting members of the Milroy Fire Department.