Jess H. Brewer's Track & Field Page

It's hard to beat the thrill of Track & Field competition, which is why I still do it today. Since 1993 I have given up long distance running and returned to my event, the 400 m Intermediate Hurdles (400mH for short).

1960-1963: awakening. With the help of great Cranbrook School coaches like W.R. Usellis ("the WRU") and the legendary Ben M. Snyder, I grew from a gawky Rebel kid into a proud hurdler and discovered the meaning of Sportsmanship. (Sadly lacking in today's world.)

1964-1967: had a wonderful time at Trinity College (in Hartford, CT) under the tutelage of (among others) Karl Kurth, who got me an NCAA Scholar-Athlete fellowship to graduate school at Berkeley. (The money went to a more sordid use, but that's another story. The medal is still one of my most prized possessions.) In my last 3 years of College I was beaten only twice in the 440yH: once by an Amherst hurdler whom I later vanquished, and once by Dave Hemery, then a Boston College star but in 1968 the Olympic Champion and World Record holder in that event. So I didn't feel too bad losing to him. My best time was 53.1.

1968-1969: the peak of my youthful T&F career. In the 1968 Pacific AAU Championships I ran my best 400mH ever (52.7) unless you count age-graded conversions (see below). I was edged out for second place by the Canadian champion. Then in 1969 I developed Achilles tendonitis at the same time as I reached my highest peak. In a meet in San Jose I ran the high hurdles "right" for the one and only time in my life; all the hundreds of other HH races were flawed in one way or another, but that one race will be etched in my memory for as long as I live. I can't begin to describe the feeling of "doing it right" at that level; you'll just have to experience it for yourself. I didn't win, there were real HH champions in that race, but who cares? Later that day I got to run the 400mH against "43 Lee" Evans, who ran up to the first hurdle, stopped, hopped over it, took off again and did the same thing over the other 9 hurdles, to run sub-51. Awesome. Anyway, the Achilles then got so bad it squeaked audibly when I moved my foot; my doctor advised me that if I continued to run on it I might be crippled permanently. So I gave up that season, and my "peak" was irretrievably lost.

1970-1974: I made a modest comeback in 1970-71 but it was clear that the edge was gone; after that I acted on occasional impulses to run the 400mH again, but wasn't fit enough to turn in respectable times, and in 1973 I moved to Vancouver to start a postdoctoral job at TRIUMF, so I was short on time and energy, so I quit serious sprinting.

1975-1992: accepting the popular wisdom that, "Old men shouldn't try to run fast," I became an unenthusiastic distance runner. I had always run Cross Country in school, so the pain of knees and muscles was familiar, but I never really got very good. My skeleton just isn't constructed right for distance running. In September 1992 I had what I now recognize as a pulmonary embolism; it turned into pneumonia and I lost 10 pounds, which ironically helped me improve my times, once I had recovered. (That, and the scare of perceiving my mortality.) My marathon-running buddies urged me to train for the Vancouver Marathon; I replied, "I'm not a distance runner. I'm a hurdler." To which they replies (in chorus), "Then why aren't you running the hurdles?" So we made a bargain: in the following year, I would either run the 400mH in an actual competition, or start training for the Marathon. The stage was set.

1993-4: what followed would have been impossible without the generous help of Bill Morrish and his "Rogue Squadron" of sprinters and middle distance runners on the UBC track team. Starting from scratch as I did, every race was a little faster, just like when I was 16! It was wonderful when I braved my first 400mH race in nearly 20 years in a Masters heat at the Trevor Craven meet in Coquitlam, BC. There I met Grant Lamothe, who remains a good friend to this day, and Rich Reinhart, a fine hurdler and a wonderful sportsman, who later rode a heart attack out of this life at 41, doing what he loved best. A good way to go, but far too early for such a nice guy! That day in Coquitlam we all sat around talking about HS T&F in Michigan and I discovered the cameraderie of Masters T&F. I was hooked. Later that summer I went to the USATF Masters Championships in Provo, UT, where I placed 6th but was hooked even deeper.

1995: in July I ran the 400mH in the US Masters Championships back at Central Michigan University (see the Willy Betts picture above!) and again in the WAVA (World Association of Veteran Athletes) World T&F Championships in Buffalo, NY. At the latter I placed 6th for M45 with a 62.45 (62.40 in the prelims, but I had a bad cold and lost steam in the last 100m of the finals). Besides (whine, snivel) the other guys were all 47 or under....

1996: just like Michael Johnson, double gold at the 1996 Canadian Masters T&F Championships in Victoria, BC! In my case, both hurdles: 15.98 in M50 100mH and 62.90 in M50 400mH. Two weeks later (Aug 22-23) at the North American/Central American/Caribbean WAVA Championships in Eugene, OR, I took silver in the M50 100mH with 15.84 and gold in the M50 400mH with a PB of 60.72! OK, so maybe MJ has a bit more to be proud of; but I'm not getting a $500K appearance fee! (My 60.72 was good for B.C. Athletics' Male Master T&F Athlete of the Year - it was a real thrill to get my name engraved on the trophy that truly belongs forever to the great Harold Morioka!)

1997: a bad year spent recovering very slowly from an aggravated left Achilles (and/or the bursa between it and the calcaneous - the doctors never were able to make a firm diagnosis) acquired when my foot slipped running up wet steps in October 1996. One useful observation: recovering from an injury is a process with a second-order phase transition - if running hard enough and frequently enough to maintain conditioning causes the injury to be aggravated more during workouts than it can recover between workouts, either the injury gets steadily worse or you get out of shape; but when it can recover enough between workouts to do it again, you start getting steadily better. The difference is mathematically smooth but psychologically discontinuous! I made that transition around the end of 1997 after over a year of frustration and "pool running" (ugh!).

1998: things are looking up again, thanks to the privilege of running with New York's Central Park Track Club during my sabbatical leave at Columbia Univ. (1997-98) Not only did I get whipped into shape chasing such greats as Sid Howard, but I got to run relays with them. I love relays. The high point was winning the M50+ 4x100 (and breaking the old American record in the M50+ 4x400, although it was only good for 3rd place) at the Penn Relays in April (23-25). Actually I didn't win; William Overby, Ron Johnson and Ken Brinker did - I just ran a leadoff leg that was not too slow for them to make up, at least in the 4x100.

1999: a very bad year. With grand plans for the World Championships in Gateshead, England (I had already paid my entry fees, booked accomodations and bought my airline tickets), I developed a DVT (deep venous thrombosis - big bloot clot in the main vein of my right calf) and had to go on blood thinners from February to May. This slowed me down enough that I was unable to run over the hurdles at speed without popping my hamstring repeatedly, so I bowed out. I ran a few flat 400's toward the end of the season but never got under 60.1, a big letdown from the year before, when I ran in the low 57's indoors.

2000: worse. In winter and early spring I kept getting fast, trying the hurdles and popping the hamstring again; finally I resolved to stick with the flat races and only bring in the hurdles very slowly and gently. Early season 400's were pathetic - I never broke 62 - and what felt like a nice fast 200 was 27.1; but two days later I got what probably explains the lousy performances: a pulmonary embolism (PE) that wiped out my season but thankfully not my life. So now I am eating rat poison (warfarin in the form of Coumadin) for the rest of my life and trying to figure out why my blood has this compulsion to clot for no reason. Whether a return to competition is possible remains to be seen, but it seems certain that my hurdling career is over. Dang.

Well, that was a little pessimistic. I managed to rally enough to run a 200 fast enough to pick up a bronze in the 2000 North American/Central American/Caribbean WAVA Championships in Kamloops, BC, which restored my confidence a little.

2001: still not dead yet. I have paid my fees for the 2001 WAVA World Championships in Brisbane, Australia in July; now if I can get fit, avoid pulling that hamstring again, and find the money for air fare... anyone want to sponsor me?

Well, between the ill-advised long flights and the cost, I chickened out of Brisbane. But I did manage to get in a few licks this season anyway: a best 400m time of 58.6, 200m 26.3 and 400mH 65.3, good enough to win BC M55 only because Harold Morioka tripped over the last hurdle; fortunately he wasn't hurt. That time would have put me neck-and-neck with Klaus-Eggert Bahr for the bronze in Brisbane, all other things being equal, and only 1.8 s behind the champ, Seppo Juhani Putkinen. Of course, all things are rarely equal. Not a bad comeback year, I suppose. My stride seems to be shortening, though; I'll have to learn to alternate (L/R) legs in the 100mH.

2002: a slow year. Best 400mH time was 73.70 (ouch!) and best 400m was 62.00 on Leg 2 of 4x400m relay in 4:04 (BC M55 record). Sorry, guys! You would've done better without me.

2003: things can always get worse. In February I had a prostate biopsy (due to increasing PSA) that revealed cancer. For those who know what it means, it was "Gleason 7". Not good. So I opted for aggressive treatment (and also lots of "alternative" stuff - ask me about it if you want to know the details) and endured a summer of chemo and androgen ablation (read, "no testosterone" - a chance to get in touch with my feminine side and discover why feminists refel to "testosterone poisoning" - again, ask me about it if you want to know more). Moved from Vancouver to Richmond in April. Trying to stay competitive in the sprints earned my knee a torn meniscus. Chemo sucks, but it beats the alternative. I joined a study to see if a thrice-weekly weight workout at the gym helps prevent loss of muscle mass and bone density on hormone therapy (apparently Yes) so didn't entirely lose fitness. Had the prostate out on 9 Oct 2003 (that was the worst part!) and regained control of my bladder within a few months.

2004: no running with the bum knee until I got it fixed (orthoscopically - it was neat to watch the video!) at the end of July and got back on the track. Expanded to over 190 lb during gym-only period. Joined Kajaks and started the long climb back up to competition.

2005: I wonder if chemo has done permanent damage. It didn't seem to bother Lance Armstrong that much, but cycling is not sprinting. Never got under 28.72 in the 200m or 63.90 in the 400m; ran 72.80 in 400mH for a silver medal (M55) in the World Masters Games at Edmonton in July, but I had run 72.38 in June in the Pacific Invitational at Langley. Still, better than nothing.

2006: in Jan 2006 I turned 60, and in April (at the SFU Open in Coquitlam) I set a new Canadian M60 record of 18.12 in the 100mH (the old record was 18.8). However, the meet organizers were singularly unhelpful in getting the record recognized, and I was still trying (on my own) to get signatures from the starter and the timers in June when my record was smashed by Warren Hamill at the BC Championships in Langley. He ran 17.24 to my 18.42; all that sprint training actually made me slower. Go figure. I ran 53.00 in my first 300mH race the next day, not very impressive. The rest of the 2006 season was downhill.

2007: Over the winter I managed to put on 5-10 lb and get totally out of shape. Starting around February I gradually eased back into a regular schedule and worked my way back toward competition. The previous year was such a disappointment that I resolved to return to my quarter-miler training regimen (gradually) and forget that "power sprinter" stuff. It ain't me, babe. Speed is a means to an end, not an end in itself. By the end of May I still hadn't dropped that extra spare tire, engendering some sympathy for guys my age with huge "beer bellies" - maybe it's not so easy to get rid of one once it takes root. But I did manage a 53.04 for 1st in M60 300mH at the BC Championships on June 17 in Langley.

2008: An even slower year: 53.53 for 1st in M60 300mH at the BC Championships on June 21 in South Surrey, followed by 54.78 (still good enough to win) at the Trevor Craven (Swangard stadium) on July 6. On Sep 14 I tried my hand (or, on this case, feet) at 5 km in the Garry Point Terry Fox run - managed 24:09.00 and concluded that 5K was a lot harder than I remembered. I resolved to do it more often, to build that base back up.

2009: My first year of half-time teaching, so that I got to spend Jan-May in Bokeelia, Pine Island, Florida, where it was warm enough to work out regularly. No track, unfortunately, so it was all road running and weight workouts (Cape Coral had a great gym, fairly cheap). There was a more or less deserted straight stretch of road behind our house, so I did lots of spring work on asphalt; it didn't wreck my shins or knees as badly as I expected. I ran a 5K in 24:37.38s on Jan 24 in the Colusa BUG Chase at Colusa Nature Center, Ft. Myers, FL, which was good enough for 3rd in M60. And so I came back to BC in May fairly fit, and went on the do a little better than in recent years: at the Trevor Craven on July 4 & 5 I ran the M60 100mH and 300mH in 19.37 and 52.46, respectively, coming in last for gold - a depressingly common occurance lately. Then at the Canadian Master Championships in Kamloops (Jul 18 & 19) I actually got to run against other people and scored double gold again (see 1996!) with 19.36 and 51.62 in the M60 100mH and 300mH, respectively. Meanwhile for some reason I decided to try the 800m for the first time in my life, and at Hershey Harriers meets I ran 2:53.33 and later 2:45.57 which was actually less painful than my 67.43s 400m on Aug 4 (in which I pulled Andy Aadmi along for his M70 BC record of 67.47). The last Hershey Harriers meet was held at Swangard stadium on Aug 19; there I tried the triple jump for the first time since college, and managed 8.42m, which encouraged me to go again in the BC Seniors Games on Sep 17 & 18 at Minoru. There I TJ'ed 8.57m for silver (behind John Hawkins), won the M60 400m in 68.88, took silver in the 200m in 30.17s (behind John Winfield) and bronze in the 100m in 14.66, my best of the year. I had run a faster (30.11s) 200m at a Hershey Harriers meet on Jul 28, but never did break 30 in the 200m; otherwise a pretty good year!

2010: This year I spent Jan-Apr in the Yucatan (on the beach between Progreso and Chicxulub Puerto) and again did a lot of road running and gym workouts, but this sleepy Mexican port town had a track (clay and rocks, but flat and 400m) which is more than I can say for most places these days, so I got in a bit more sprint work and came home "almost fit". Unfortunately this meant I missed the World Indoor Championships in Kamloops in early March. :-( The BC Masters Championships in June were no great boost to my ego: 30.77s in the 200m was only good for 4th; 20.89s in the 100mH was a personal worst, another gold medal for last place; my other gold-for-last was 51.82s in the 300mH, not quite as humiliating, but... yuk!

2011: Got off to a good start this year thanks to the Richmond Oval letting me practice hurdles on their indoor straightaway in Jan-Mar, so I pulled off a win (for a new BC indoor M65 record of 11.02s) in the 60mH, another gold (and BC indoor record, I guess) with an embarrassing TJ of 8.32m, and one last gold in the 400m, where I ran a tactical race against the great Tony Badowski, not realizing he was just getting over the flu, so my time was a mediocre 68.35s. What the heck, I'll take it. Then I went off to Florida for 2 months to acclimate to heat, in anticipation of baking at the WMA Championships in Sacramento in July; unfortunately I had only roads to run on, so barely managed to maintain conditioning & strength. When will I learn? I did get a nice trophy for 1st Overall Senior Grand Master in the Lovers Key Turtle Trot 5K with a 24:15.50s on a course with quite a bit of soft sand. Back home, I still managed to set new (though embarrassing) BC outdoor M65 records in the 100mH (20.18s) and the 300mH (51.77s) and ran a slightly worse 200m (30.94s) than last year [hey, it was cold & rainy; everyone ran slow!]. So I was almost justified in expecting better performances in Sacramento. Here's how that turned out: [Stay tuned, my events start tomorrow!]

Masters T&F enthusiasts will certainly want to visit Ken Stone's blog on the magnificent masterstrack.com site. Fans of antiquities and oddities are welcome to wander around here in my little MTF site to check out my Masters T&F People Database where you can put your name into the database (if you so desire). I have also set up public and private MTF Performances databases where you can type in your age, event and time [and optionally your name, the date, the meet, the conditions and some comments if you want a record kept of your performances - this has interesting possibilities as a statistics-gathering tool...].