Before I feature my interview with Brian I’ve got to admit I’ve been living in a Fool’s Paradise. I only thought I was a farmer. My Sunday afternoon with the Amherst Flash and his wife on their operation revealed I’m a gardener and nothing more.
Will: Please tell us, in just a few words, how you have been able to
maintain such durability at such a high level for such a long time?
Brian: Lucky I guess. Protect your knees when sorting 250 lb. hogs. And learn from your mistakes, if a 280 lb. hog doesn’t want to leave his pen don’t pick him up and carry him out, you will end up with a disk bulge in your lower back.
Will: How many races have you run in your career? Approximately is OK.
Brian: About 660 races.
Will: How many awards, overall and age group have you won in your career?
Approximate is OK.
Brian: Never keep track, but you got my curiosity up, so I counted , 525 medals , 190 trophies and plaques , 45 mugs and pottery.
Will: What are your lifetime personal bests at 1 Mile, 5K, 10K, 10 Miles,
Half Marathon, and Marathon?
Brian: Mile 4:26 5K 15:36 10K 31:38 15K 48:51 10 mile 51:24 Half 1:07:48 Full 2:30:08
Will: What is your favorite ever race?
Brian: Haven’t found it yet, but have a couple I like.
Will: What is your favorite award ever?
Brian: Probably the trophy from the state games 5 mile (they don’t run it anymore) or the miner pans from one of the races I like in Colorado ( Georgetown to Idaho Springs).
Will: Any goal races after turning 55 this 4th of July? Maybe going after
some state age group records?
Brian: National senior games in Minnesota and Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half. I don’t have the time or energy to train for fast times anymore.
Will: You graduated from Amherst High and still live on the property on
which you were born. Please tell us one little known fact you would like
us to know about Amherst.
Brian: Farming community that has honest hard working people, and a wrestling tradition that dates back to before I was in high school.
Will: Smoked or cured?
Brian: Both.
Brian: Other unimportant facts.
Have run 67,991 miles since 1-1-1980
Always thought a respectable time for a 10K was sub 33 , so my goal when I was younger was to run as many in a row as I could. Had 2 streaks one of 9 in a row and another of 13 in a row.
Have won 201 races. Two were marathons. I was 15 when I ran my first road race, it was from Riverdale to Amherst for the town celebration and was a block short of 7 miles. I finished dead last, but I didn’t quit.
One of my most disappointing races was a 10K race in Kearney in 1994 , I won the race in 32:24 against runners from the collage and others. My mom and dad were there, my dad only saw me run a couple of races. After I had finish a couple of minutes some lady started throwing a fit about how slow of runners we were and no one deserves to win a race that slow. She was standing near my dad, the race director had to tell her to leave.
Brian and Rose have a Real Love story out in the hills of Amherst. Huge hills, now I know why this cat has been a stud his whole life. Rose has mad cutting torch and welding skills, she made the sign gracing their long and hilly (again with the hills!) entry drive.
Brian’s first Lincoln Marathon was 35 years ago at age 19.
He has amassed an incredible amount of hardware. Even more impressive is that he has saved each and every one, from trinket to treasure. This photo only does 20% justice to what this shrine to longevity and excellence contains, but you get the idea. I’ve seen a lot of running related stuff in my life and this ranks right up.
Brian’s hog operation is turn key. Breeding through market. Grows his own feed grain. Thousand plus acres. Between 1500-2000 head at any time. He and Rose alone. Linda and I got a complete tour. If I’ve always admired Brian as a runner I realize now that it is only his second or third best gig. This is our second time to buy a hog from Brian and as a former meat cutter, I’ve never had better.
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