Jack's back! Jack Brooks brings us up-to-date with his racing in the UK, US and Canada

Jack Brooks is back running and back on the blog after a year in which he has struggled with a knee injury...

JULY 2015 TO MAY 2016

Another medal for the collection after Vancouver

Potteries Marathon, Stoke on Trent: 5^th July 2015: This marathon was brought back from the grave this year after a long absence. I had some misgivings about running it as my left leg had started to cause me problems, but I was committed to sharing a room in Stoke and had arranged to meet quite a few friends up there so I decided to give it a go. 

Unfortunately the injury flared up at about 13 miles and I finally limped across the finish line in a time of 5:23:56.

Overlander Marathon, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada: 16^th August 2015: This race comprised two laps of a figure of eight course with enough hills thrown in to add some variety. I had hoped that my leg injury would have sorted itself out as I’d reduced my mileage considerably since the Potteries marathon. 

Unfortunately this proved not to be the case, but I’d invested a lot of money into this Canada trip and was determined to complete the three races I’d entered if at all possible. I finished in 4:59:13 and came 13^th out of the 14 runners competing in the marathon. I had an interesting encounter with a red fox which I passed on the first lap. I was only about 4 feet away from it as it stood nonchalantly by the side of the road totally ignoring my presence. 

After the race my friend, Rich Holmes, and I flew back to Edmonton, where we picked up a rental car and set off on a sightseeing tour. On the Monday we drove to Dinosaur Provincial Park and then spent the night in the city of Brooks. We spent Tuesday in Calgary, where we spent the best part of a day in the Heritage Park Historical Village, which was well worth the very modest entry fee we were charged. After that we spent two days in the Rockies in Banff and Jasper National Parks, where the views were spectacular and the hiking was excellent. On the Friday we returned to Edmonton to pick up our race packets and meet up with Rich’s wife, Jeanne.

Beware of the bear on the Yellowknife course

Edmonton Marathon, Alberta, Canada: 23^rd August 2015: I found this race really tough. Whilst the route was pleasant and the marshals were extremely supportive, the altitude and hot weather didn’t help and I was suffering with knee pain pretty much from the start. 

My eventual finish time was 5:36:53 and I was extremely relieved to see that finish line. On the Monday Rich, Jeanne and I flew to North Carolina for a few days of R&R before flying back up to Quebec.

I’ve completed marathons in eight of the 13 Canadian Provinces and Territories I’ll soon have to decide whether I want to complete the remaining five and thus become the first person from the UK to run a marathon in every State, Province and Territory in the USA and Canada

Quebec Marathon, Canada: 30^th August 2015: We arrived in Quebec on the Friday, collected our race packets and spent Friday and Saturday exploring the city. I found it to be a thoroughly fascinating place and could happily have spent more than three days there. However, if I return I will need to improve my French as many of the locals barely speak any English. 

The marathon route is a point to point one commencing in the city of Levis and finishing in Quebec City right by the Saint-Lawrence River. On a couple of occasions I found myself running alongside a guy called Benoit Rancourt, who was running his 100^th marathon and had noticed the 100 marathon club vest that I was wearing. Whilst I was still struggling with injury I thoroughly enjoyed the event and my limp earned me some sympathetic and supportive comments from quite a number of runners. Of course, if I spoke better French I’d have understood exactly what most of them were saying. 

As it was I finished in 5:09:58 and had an evening in which to recover before my flight home the following day. I’m glad I completed all three races, even though the process was painful. I can’t really complain about my injury as I’ve had a very long spell without any serious problems and I was fully aware of the risks I was taking by running these races. 

Now that I’ve completed marathons in eight of the 13 Canadian Provinces and Territories I’ll soon have to decide whether I want to complete the remaining five and thus become the first person from the UK to run a marathon in every State, Province and Territory in the USA and Canada.

Huffin’ Puffin Half Marathon, St John’s, Newfoundland: 27^th September 2015: Having flown out to Canada for just five days I decided that, at the very least, I would walk the half marathon. This was probably a silly mistake as my knee pain made its presence known again after only about two miles. I finished in 3:13:34.

Totem poles on the Vancouver Marathon route

Vancouver Marathon, Canada: 1^st May 2016: Little did I know that my acute knee pain would not disappear until 18^th March 2016. Ironically I had been to the doctor the previous day to arrange a knee scan and then the pain disappeared overnight. However, I found it incredibly difficult to start running again and by the time I arrived in Vancouver I was extremely nervous about tackling a marathon on the back of a limited number of training runs, none of which exceeded six miles. 

I had waited over nine months to attempt my 382^nd marathon, which was significant to me because it would take my marathon mileage raced past the 10,000 miles mark. My plan was to adopt the Jeff Galloway method of taking regular walk breaks right from the start of the race. Fortunately I had no knee pain throughout the event, although everything else hurt. 

I managed to overtake Badger from Fairlands Valley Spartans at around 23 miles and finished in 5:29:13. One of the few advantages of taking walk breaks was that I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of the course. 

All in all I found Vancouver to be a spectacular city. On our final day there Jean Champoux, a running friend who lives there picked us up from our hotel and drove us out to Whistler, where he is a ski instructor. After he’d given us a full tour we returned to his flat in Vancouver where his wife Julie had prepared a sumptuous meal for us. On the Thursday we flew to Washington DC to pick up a rental car and commence our long drive up to Delaware.

The Wilmington river front

Delaware Marathon, Wilmington: 8^th May 2016: Unfortunately whenever anyone mentions Delaware my thoughts automatically gravitate towards the song, which starts “What did Delaware?” and then runs through various lines all referring to US States. So Dela “wore her New Jersey” etc. Irritating! 

Wilmington has a pleasant boardwalk area along the Christina river front, which was where the marathon started and finished. The course comprised two laps with the first two miles or so beside the river and the remainder along fairly hilly terrain. There was not much support out on the course, but there were a few people I knew there and I ran with Steve Boone from Texas for a little bit discussing mutual friends and our mutual lack of stamina. 

I finished in 5:12:12 and was happy that this run felt marginally more comfortable than Vancouver had.

Maine Coast Marathon: 15^th May 2016: From Wilmington, Roger Biggs and I drove to Bar Harbor, which is one of the prettiest places I have been in the USA. We spent three days on the Island exploring the town and the Acadia National Park. Everybody told us that we were there at the best time of year because tourists had not yet started arriving in large numbers. 

On the Friday we drove via Portland to the Biddeford area and were able on the Saturday to pick up our race numbers and explore some of the beautiful coastline that this point to point marathon follows. 

On the race morning we parked in Biddeford and were taken by bus to the race start at Kennebunk. There were no big hills, but the route was certainly undulating and my legs were feeling pretty tired at a fairly early stage. Cheri Pompeo from Washington State overtook me, as she usually does, at around 18 miles and her husband, Greg, was way in the distance with the front runners. 

I was generally pleased with my time of 4:58:47 as it showed a significant improvement on what I’d achieved in the previous two races.

Mainly Marathons New England Series Connecticut Marathon, Simsbury: 20^th May 2016: We drove to West Hartford, Connecticut on the Monday to stay with our friends Scott and Anna Falk, who we’d last seen in 2004. Since then they’ve acquired two daughters, Abbie and Zoe, who are 10 years old and identical twins. I was only able to tell the girls apart because they have slightly different hair partings. They certainly kept me on my toes all week playing chess, bombarding me with questions and playing their violins. It was really nice to spend time with the family and they entertained us royally. We went to see the girls playing with a full orchestra on the night before the marathon.

A selfie with Patricia during the Connecticut race

Somehow Roger had found out that the Mainly Marathons organisation was offering runners the opportunity to run one of their New England races free provided that they entered the race at least three months prior to it taking place. Consequently Roger and I received free marathon race entries and Scott received a free entry for the half marathon. 

The Connecticut race was the 6^th race in this seven day series (seven races in seven different States in seven days). The organisation specialises in picking short out and back routes in different States and runners then run a specified number of laps in order to complete their requisite race distance. 

For the marathon we had to do 12 laps of a 2.184 mile out and back route about nine tenths of which was a paved footpath and cycleway and one tenth comprised a mixture of slightly soggy grass and rough ground. The cumulative effect of the previous three races caught up with me at Connecticut and I really struggled, finishing in 5:15:10. 

I was mightily surprised to find that we received a t-shirt and medal even though we’d paid no entry fee and found the event to be as friendly as the Mainly Marathons event I ran in Minnesota last year. 

There were a few familiar faces there all of whom were on their 6^th day of racing. Larry Macon from Texas is someone who completes well over 50 marathons a year and was cheerful as ever. Foxy from Milton Keynes was struggling, but garrulous and Patricia Groombridge-Klein, who was running her 6^th consecutive 50k race looked fresh as a daisy throughout and insisted on taking a selfie with me as I was on my final lap. 

That evening the Scotts threw a party for us, which was a great way to wind up the holiday.