An average day for Brooklyn Park resident Mark Wensel involves delivering mail in the community where he was raised and going on a run to train for his next race. After hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania last month, he said returning to his routine highlighted the wild nature of his recent adventure.
“It almost feels like it was all a dream, because as soon as I got back and took care of a couple things, I was back to the same mail route that I’ve had for 15 years,” Mark said. “Then again, a lot of people on my mail route knew where I was going, so they’ve been stopping me and asking how it went.”
Mark summited Africa’s tallest mountain peak alongside his daughter, Jessie Wensel, a Champlin Park graduate and current Disney World employee. While the duo has always been close, their bond grew after Mark suffered a seizure seven years ago.
A lifelong athlete himself, Mark went from coaching his daughter through youth sports to having Jessie coach him through a lengthy recovery process.
“He turned into my running buddy,” Jessie said. “Through all of the running, we learned how to push each other and also see when the other was struggling.”
Despite living halfway across the county from each other, Mark and Jessie still keep tabs on each other’s athletic ambitions. After she experienced a self-described “quarter-life crisis,” Jessie set her sights on climbing one of the world’s most famous peaks — and she had a hunch her dad might like to join her.
I thought that was pretty special to have my kid, my adult kid, ask me to join her on such an adventure,” Mark said. “There was no way I could turn that down.”
Mark and Jessie booked their trip in March, and by mid August, they were on their way overseas.
“Obviously, we were doing research, buying things, training. But it didn’t feel real until we were on the plane ride,” Jessie said. “I remember literally seeing the summit over the clouds and my dad and I were both like, ‘What did we get ourselves into?’”
By law, visitors to Mount Kilimanjaro must book a licensed guide through a registered tour operator before attempting the multi-day climb. A team of 12 aided the Wensels on the hike.
“We had signed up with a company that limits the size of the groups to six climbers, but nobody else had signed up for the same route on the same dates,” Mark said. “So we basically got a private climb for the two of us.”
As the sole recreational climbers among a dozen Mount Kilimanjaro experts, the Wensels had a surplus of help and could go at their own pace.
“The real heroes of this whole entire trip were the porters and the guides. They carried all their stuff, along with everything that we needed, on top of their shoulders,” Mark said. “We just carried what we needed for that specific day.”
After five and a half days, Mark and Jessie reached the highest point on the African continent.
“It was emotional getting up to the top. Until then, I hadn’t realized how much we had gone through, how much I’d gone through with my health, to be able to reach that peak,” Mark said. “It was an amazing experience and an exhausting experience, I’ll tell you that much.”
Jessie said her dad got a “pep in his step” once the sign that marks the peak was in view. They arrived just in time to watch the sunrise, which painted the cold, snowy landscape in warm light.
“Within a blink, the sign turned golden and just lit up, and we started hiking even faster,” Jessie added. “It was just cool, because from up there, I felt like I could literally see the Earth’s curve.”
Mark and Jessie took a picture together at Mount Kilimanjaro’s peak, and before embarking on the one-and-a-half day hike back down, Jessie insisted on getting a photo of her father all on his own — and Mark is glad she did.
“When I look back at that picture, I see myself as the only person at the highest possible altitude on the entire continent of Africa,” he said. “I’ve got that badge to prove it, and it feels pretty dang amazing.”
A return to running
Mark said he has no plans to summit any more peaks anytime soon. He has once again set his sights on running, the hobby that helped restore his health after his 2019 seizure.
Early in his recovery, Mark could barely walk with a cane. Even being pushed in a wheelchair disoriented him. But with the support of his team of doctors and therapists, Mark set the goal of running a 5K to keep him physically active.
“That’s one of the things that I’ve learned. Enjoy life, because you never know what’s going to happen. You never know when you’re going to have a seizure and get a traumatic brain injury,” he said. “You don’t know if you’re going to be able to go on another 5K run, much less run a marathon.”
In recent years, Mark and Jessie have made a tradition of running the “Dopey Challenge” at Disney World — which involves running a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon and a full marathon in a period of four days.
Mark’s wife, Stacy, and their oldest child, Jo, joined him and Jessie for the Disney World 5K earlier this year. For next year’s Dopey Challenge, Jo plans to join them for the Disney World Half Marathon.
For Mark, having the support of his two children is especially rewarding. “They’ve been very encouraging,” he said. “If I have a bad day, or if I feel like I didn’t get as good of a run in as I would like, they always tell me, ‘Dad, remember how far you’ve come.’”