Three generations tackling Wheaton North Falcon 5K

Anthony Addante is a 35-year-old Mount Prospect police sergeant who last week finished his first marathon in Chicago.

Patrick Kemp is an 11-year-old sixth-grader who runs on the cross-country team at Monroe Middle School in Wheaton.

Ask them about running and they sure sound alike.

All grit. All discipline. No quitting.

“During cross country, I never stop,” said Patrick, who already has a black belt in karate. “I keep going. If I have a cramp, which is pretty rare, I just keep pushing through.”

“You just never stop going,” said Addante, who lives in Woodridge. “You realize there’s a finish line, and you’ll get there. You just never stop. You just don’t quit.”

It’s no coincidence.

Addante is fostering lessons of hard work and dedication through running in his nephew, Patrick, nurturing a legacy that started with the sergeant’s dad, Lou Addante.

All three will run together in the Wheaton North Falcon 5K at 8 a.m. Sunday, a fundraiser supporting clubs and other activities at the high school, 701 W. Thomas St.

Three generations. One sport.

Patrick says he woke up at 5 a.m. last Sunday to travel from his Winfield home to support his uncle in the Chicago Marathon. For Patrick, the highlight of the day wasn’t the camera-heavy moment when his uncle crossed the finish line.

It was a messier, pivotal point, when his uncle hit the infamous wall around the 21-mile mark.

“He was almost out of breath and he was still going,” Patrick said. “That had been one of the biggest inspirations.”

Despite all his training, completing three 20-mile runs and boosting protein in his diet before the race, Addante admits he had to battle through a few “bumps” along the grueling route.

“You don’t want to move anymore,” Addante said of the 21-mile mark. “My legs were like dead weights. They didn’t want to go.”

The marathon took him about four hours and 12 minutes.

“It was very easy to just give up,” Addante said. “But I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Now Patrick is pledging to tackle a half-marathon in a few years.

“I think Patrick was just inspired that somebody that he knew completed it and made it kind of more real for him,” said his mom, Carla. “That’s something that he could do, too, if he sets his mind to it.”

Addante credits his dad, Lou, for getting him hooked on running.

The pair logged 5K routes nearly every summer weekend in the early 1990s in fundraisers for cancer research and local foundations.

But it’s the Falcon 5K that will rank high on their lengthy list of races.

“It’s going to be a special one,” Lou Addante, 72, said. “This is the first time the three of us are running together.”

While he was a bit sore at the beginning of the week, Anthony Addante, a Wheaton North graduate, doesn’t regret pursuing the Falcon 5K after the marathon.

He says it’s another opportunity to pass on a family tradition.

“You can just keep working at it,” Addante said. “If you plan accordingly and you have a goal, you can accomplish it.”

An infectious enthusiasm runs in the clan.

“I’m really anxious,” Patrick said ahead of the 5K. “I want to be there right now.”

For details about the 5K, visit wnhsboosters.org/falconrun.html.