1991 - "After the rain chased my family from the finish line, I finished alone, but elated!"

Gerald Holbrook

I only began running at age 51. I ran my first Marathon after 21 months as a runner. It was the Memphis Express Marathon, and I ran in 3:58:07 at age 53. Over the next eleven years, I ran a total of 17 Marathons, until after knee surgery, I followed the doctor’s advice and cut back to no more than 20 miles per week.

Like most runners who love running Marathons, I began to wonder if I could qualify to run Boston. By 1988 I had been elected President of Memphis Runners Track Club, and I was leader and director of a local program to prepare runners for running a Marathon.

At the end of that preparation was the Memphis Marathon, the first Sunday in December. I conducted the same Marathon training group in 1989 with my personal goal to qualify for Boston at the Memphis Marathon. I was now 58 years old and needed 3:35 to qualify