Maine Distance Project
Our Story
The Beginning
While the Maine Distance Project was officially founded in 2025, its roots go back over a decade.
When founder Kelton Cullenberg wrapped up his college running career at the University of Maine in the spring of 2014, he was still clinging to his childhood dream of running professionally.
Unfortunately, his collegiate career was shortened by early injuries, and he only reached peak training for his final two years. While he made progress, his times weren’t quite fast enough to secure the sponsor support needed to keep training at the highest level.
After a summer out west, Kelton knew he wanted to stay in Maine. He had lived there his entire life and staying close to family was a priority. So he chose to pursue Physical Therapy school in Portland.
But without the support of a team or the structured training environment he’d had at UMaine, it became difficult to continue dedicating his life to running at a high level. He kept training with lower volume, but the fitness he’d built eventually faded.
Building Toward a Team
Since that time, one of Kelton’s life missions has been to give the next generation of Maine runners the local training environment and financial support he wished he’d had post-collegiately.
Through Steady State, Kelton first connected with Luke Marsanskis, Sam Mills, and Alec Troxell in 2021, when they were entering their third years at UMaine. Over the next four years, they stayed in contact as they each hit collegiate breakthroughs.
In 2023, Sam decided to end his college career early after repeated injury setbacks. He sought Kelton’s advice on his injury comeback, and the two worked closely together for the next year - occasionally talking about how amazing it would be to eventually start a distance team.
By 2024, Luke had risen to a true professional level, running sub-29 in the 10k and sub-13:45 in the 5k. He also expressed a desire to stay in southern Maine after finishing grad school.
When Alec and Sam decided to remain in southern Maine as well, it became clear that this group of longtime teammates was the perfect foundation to launch the Maine Distance Project.
Why MDP Exists
With MDP’s focus on the marathon, our training philosophy is built around consistent, injury-free, high-volume easy running and strength training.
Kelton’s background as a running-specific physical therapist makes him confident in coaching high-volume training for the marathon while helping athletes avoid injury - his specialty.
But MDP is more than training. We want to keep Maine’s best athletes in Maine, by providing the support they need to chase big goals without having to move across the country.
Where We’re Headed
Our story is just getting started.
We have big dreams of turning Maine into a professional distance running hub, producing consistent national and world-class runners.
Want to be a part of it?
👉 See how you can support us here
“The Maine running community has always been a part of who I am.
I’ve been racing alongside Sam and Luke since high school, and after living and training with them through college, I’m beyond excited to continue our journey with “Maine” across our chests.”
-Alec Troxell
