More than 10,000 runners finished the Philadelphia Marathon last weekend, but Rockland’s Nick Wheeler was probably the only one who lifted 2.5 tons of cellulose insulation as part of his race-week training.

Wheeler is a technician at Evergreen Home Performance, a Rockland-based energy efficiency contracting company.  The company specializes in retrofitting homes to be more comfortable and efficient, and does several municipal projects each year.  Wheeler is part of the crew currently insulating the Knox County Courthouse to reduce energy waste and maintain consistent temperatures throughout the building.  The crew uses a machine to blow insulation into attic cavities, but must manually load it with 25-lb. bags of cellulose.  On his last day at work before the Philadelphia Marathon, Wheeler loaded 226 bags, or a total of 5000 pounds of cellulose.

A few days later, Wheeler finished a 26.2-mile course past many of Philadelphia’s historic landmarks in two hours, twenty-four minutes, sixteen seconds.  His five-and-a-half-minute mile pace put him in ninth place overall.  An avid runner, Wheeler placed first in Freeport’s Great Osprey 10K earlier this month.