Alabama/Texas Double

The following race report and story has been provided by Jack Brooks of St Albans Striders. Jack recently became an official 'Wannabee', after running his 50th Marathon in Washington State at the excellent Yakima River Canyon Marathon. (see separate story).
*****************************
ALABAMA AND TEXAS: FEBRUARY 2002
I wasn't sure if Cliff Burgess knew what he was letting his family in for when he suggested to Roger Biggs and I that we run 2 marathons in the Southern States and stay with them. However, it soon became apparent that the whole family was well adjusted to the vagaries of the running community and they made us very welcome.

Initially we stayed with Cliff's sister-in-law's family by Birmingham, Alabama [famous for its part in the civil rights movement] and from there we launched ourselves into a very hilly Mercedes Marathon on 10/2/02 with times of 3-22-14 [me], 3-56-28 [Roger] and 4-38 [Cliff]. The worst hill at 10 miles knocked everybody's legs for six. We left Birmingham on Sunday afternoon and drove to Cliff's house in Waco, Texas stopping overnight at Jackson and also visiting the historic town of Vicksburg on the Mississippi where Grant won a major campaign during the civil war. Waco proved an ideal base for relaxation before the next onslaught. Cliff and his wife Cyndie entertained us royally. We visited Dallas one day, met many of Cliff's running club and went for one particularly memorable and scenic training run along the Brazos river.

Cliff discovered a 5k race on the Saturday in Crawford [a small village where President Bush has his ranch]. It would have been churlish to miss this so we duly ran it and recorded times of 21-18 [me] 23-09 [Roger] and 27-27 [Cliff]. From Crawford we drove straight to Austin to register for the Motorola Marathon. This marathon is an established, well organised point to point race with around 6,000 participants. It was very cold at the start, but soon warmed up. Our times were 3-24-19 [me], 3-57-36 [Roger] and 4-31 [Cliff]. Roger and I weren't the only British there. Marion Sutton won the women's race in 2-31. We had nothing but sunshine for all 9 days of our stay and couldn't have been entertained better by Cliff, his family and friends. It might have been an exhausting trip, but it was a highly enjoyable and satisfying one.

Jack Brooks

(left) Roger finishes the inaugural Birmingham, Alabama Marathon in good form a little under 4 hours.

Crawford 5km - 44k JPG

(Right) Roger, Jack & Cliff before the Crawford 5km in glorious Texas!
Roger &smp; Steve Boone at Austin - 40k JPG

(left) Post Austin Marathon with Roger & Steve Boone of the 50 States Marathon Club.

Results

	Name	Actual	Pos	Off	Name	Actual	Pos	Off

Feb.10	Birmingham Marathon (Alabama, USA)				+++ 881 finishers +++

	Jack Brooks	3:32:14	112	3:32:14	Roger Biggs	3:56:28	268	3:56:26
	Cliff Burgess (USA)	4:38:17	565	4:38:17

Feb.16	Presidents Day 5km (Crawford, Texas, USA)				+++ 189 finishers +++

	Jack Brooks	21:18	30	21:19	Roger Biggs	23:09	53	23:11
	Cliff Burgess (USA)	27:27	100	27:24

Feb.17	Austin Marathon (Texas, USA)				+++ 4436 finishers +++

	Jack Brooks	3:24:19	518	3:25:56	Roger Biggs	3:57:36	1732	4:00:32
	Cliff Burgess (USA)	4:31:09	2835	4:33:49

[ Home ] - [ Club Info ] - [ Events ] - [ Links ]
[ News ] - [ Records ] - [ Results ] - [ Site Map ]

Last Updated - 25th May 2002