A Fish Days champ at age 91

Elaine Nulph took first place in her age division for women ages 80 to 99 in Saturday’s Fish Day Run, Walk and Roll.

Nulph, who is 91 — she turns 92 next month — finished the 5-kilometer course in one hour, 16 minutes, 52.88 seconds, according to sponsor Portal Inc. She was the only walker in her age category, but that takes nothing away from her achievement, especially when you realize the Port resident used a walker to navigate the course after dealing with a number of health challenges head on during the past few years.

  She suffered a stroke in 2024, Nulph said, and last February fell and broke her femur and “smashed” her wrist in a fall.

“It was really tough getting to this position,” Nulph said. “It’s not what I thought I’d have to do.

“It was hard but it was exhilarating to be part of it and to be part of a group. I’m hard of hearing, and I often feel isolated. It’s sometimes hard to be part of a group. But here I did feel more a part of things, and with that you just feel more alive.”

Nulph said this was her first time competing in the Portal run/walk, something she decided to do to challenge herself.

“I don’t know what inspired me,” she said. “I need challenges.”

The Fish Day walk, which benefits Portal, an agency that helps people with developmental disabilities, might seem a natural for Nulph, a former special education teacher, but she said it wasn’t something that had been on her radar.

She saw a piece about the race registration and brought it up to her friend Angie Hoffman of Cedarburg, an Interfaith Caregivers volunteer who visits her weekly.

“I said, ‘Do you think I could do this?’” Nulph recalled. “She said I’ll walk with you.”

For Nulph, the run/walk was less a bucket list item than it was a challenge aimed at keeping her moving after the challenges of the last few years.

After her fall, she said her therapists told her, “If you want to do the things you did before, you have to work for it.”

She’s done the rehab work, Nulph said, adding she’s had “fantastic” therapists helping her along the way.

“The therapists really cracked the whip,” she said. “They really helped me see what I could do.”

Now I am where I can be. Could I be better? Maybe. I do my exercises. I’m taking a Don’t Fall class.”

She’s taking part in an aquatics class, but after recuperating from her issues she discovered she can’t swim or float.

“I’m still trying to learn some of those skills,” Nulph said. “It’s working.”

But meeting challenges is a goal in and of itself. When she turned 90, she rode in a glider in Colorado.

“I got to look down closely at the city of Boulder,” she said. “That was neat. I’d recommend that to anybody.

“But no, I’m not going to jump out of an airplane.”

She doesn’t really have a bucket list, Nulph said, but she does have a few more goals to meet.

Next up is one she’s sure she can achieve, walking from her Port home to the lighthouse.

“I know I can do that,” she said. “I’ve been practicing. It’s a good walk.

“It’s no farther (than the Fish Day 5-kilometer walk), and it’s a much easier walk than the 5K was.”

Nulph said she’s putting into practice the lessons she used to teach her students.

“You had to tell them yes, you can do this. You’re going to have to work hard. You’re going to have to find out what works for you. But yes, you can.”

Whether she will compete in next year’s walk remains to be seen, Nulph said.

“As Jack Benny said, don’t buy green bananas,” she said, laughing. “I hope I can stay here for as long as I can.”