Out of State or the U.P.
- By Doug Kurtis
Free Press Columnist

The 2004 Detroit Free Press Flagstar Bank Marathon has a record 10,000 entrants for the entire event.   Over 1,000 come from out of state or the U.P. Here's a few of their stories.

Doug & Sheryl Stewart   (47,50) of Ogden, Utah ran here last year. They loved Detroit's beautiful course and enthusiastic community spirit. After running several St George Marathons, the Stewarts decided to run Detroit again when their daughter, Kellie Davies, who lives in Walled Lake, decided to run.  After 20 years of running, one of their most exciting experiences was coming to Michigan to run the Martian Half Marathon in Northville.

Randy Verkerke, 52, Menominee MI, 500 miles from Detroit. This will be his 19th marathon.   All of his four siblings are running the marathon as a tribute to their father who died at age 54 of heart disease.   Through their father's inspiration, two brothers have run the Grandmas Marathon several times and now his two sisters have started running. Just a few weeks ago all of their spouses ran with them at a ten miler in the Twin Cities.

Andy Burnett, 41, Oakley, United Kingdom. He thought running a marathon seemed such a good idea at the time, a bit like saving time by ironing your t-shirt while wearing it.   A friend who lives nearby suggested that they run Detroit together. However, after signing up Burnett discovered " that my buddy had a bad knee, bad hip, bad attitude and basically was a Big Gurl! "

Burnett claims his best running experience is when he stops. His goal is to be able to complete Detroit before the prison authorities realize he has escaped. To prepare for the marathon his original training schedule involved many hours of lying on the couch and gargling chocolate drink but he found it a bit messy and disappointingly ineffective. He originally intended for a small team of friend to carry him around the course in a sedan chair.  Instead they show their support by laughing and telling him that he only has himself to blame.

Cindy Southgate, 45, Kanata, Ontario near Ottawa is a dressmaker running her tenth marathon. She ran five marathons in her late twenties then was inspired to start again in her forties after watching her hometown marathon. She picked Detroit because its not hugely crowded like some of the mega marathons, is fairly flat and has the potential for a fast run. She is a member of Hal Higdon's virtual training team and plans to meet several members of the team for the first time and share the experience together.

After 18 years of running: "I find it exciting to watch my improvement, discover that I am capable of more than I thought possible. My ultimate goal is to qualify for Boston, and set a PR." Her husband, Mike is running Detroit too, and has done much of the training with her.

Heather Douglas , 27, Boston, Mass. enjoys the great stress relief running brings. "You can run anywhere, anytime, no gym, no fees and the roads are not closed on holidays."   This is her first marathon and she wants to qualify for the Boston Marathon someday.

"To come full circle and to be able to run a marathon, you have already achieved so many small miracles along the way that it is truly exciting to go out there that day with others who have also trained just as long and just as hard."

Lisa Austin, 45, Chicago, IL. grew up in Taylor and is running her seventh marathon. Spent years watching the Chicago Marathon then in her thirties decided to run while in graduate school at Michigan State. He brother-in-law from Brownstown is running is first marathon in Detroit. Austin claims, "the little S*** is going to beat me."

Kelly Webber, 27, Philadelphia, PA. finds marathons to be the most rewarding races. She has been preparing for Detroit by doing her long runs in Rocky's hometown down Kelly Drive. As an opera singer, she finds that running helps her breathing immensely. With a masters degree in music she would like to return to Michigan to teach if someone would hire her.

Contact Doug Kurtis at Detroit Free Press, 600 W. Fort St. Detroit, 48226