Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and our focus is on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And wow, wow. You want to talk about interesting, my guest today has so many stories, it would fill a dozen, two dozen podcasts.
So we're going to have to figure out how to narrow down the scope of today's podcast guest’s experience and stories, because there's so many things that Brent Weigner can teach all of us.
But first, I'm going to first tell you about a podcast that, if you're a business person in Wyoming, that you need to know about. It's the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast, if you're a business person, this is a place for resources, for connections, for networking.
If you want to know about how to become a better business person, the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast is the place to go find it, wherever you located this podcast or or your other favorite podcasts.
But don't go there first. First. You're going to stay here because you want to hear this conversation with one of the most interesting people, not just in the Cowboy State, but in the world of marathon running, in the world of education, Brent Weigner is one of the most interesting people because he has been running since he was a small child, and he has taken that running and he's made that into a lifelong - can I say obsession, Brent? Is that right? Are you obsessed with running?
Brent Weigner:
Passion?
Wendy Corr:
That sounds much better than obsession, it really does. But Brent, you have been running since you were a small child, but since you began running, you have not quit. In fact, you have run more than 200 marathons in more than 200 countries. You have run more than I think, are you closing in on 400 marathons?
Brent Weigner:
403 at this point.
Wendy Corr:
ou've run 403 marathons in your life, plus 35 years of teaching middle school geography, middle school social studies to kids and inspiring them to become runners and travelers. And I just think, Brent, that that is fantastic. Brent, you're a Cheyenne guy. You've been a teacher in Cheyenne forever. Tell us firstabout your teaching career, because I think that that sets us off into a great direction.
Brent Weigner:
Okay. Well, thank you, Wendy for having me on. I love to talk about running, teaching, just life in general, talk about my faith as well. So I never thought I would end up being a teacher. Only reason I went to college was to run, because I scored like a 17 on my ACT. My counselor told me that I wasn't college material, that I should go to trade school or join the military.
And then I ended up getting the scholarship to Greeley, and went there and changed my major three or four times. Then I went to law school, and I decided that wasn't for me. And then I dropped out of law school and decided, well, I think I like teaching, because I was working at the YMCA and teaching swimming at the Warren Air Force base for the youth there.
And so it kind of morphed into that. And before I got hired full time, I actually did substitute teaching, K through 12. I would teach any subject and any grade level.
Wendy Corr:
Wow, no kidding. So, that's how that's what piqued your interest in teaching. Why did you decide on history and geography?
Brent Weigner:
Well, I taught World Geography primarily, and I actually ended up teaching at the community college for a while. I taught at the University of Wyoming. Taught a lot of different places and different things, but I focused on world geography, because when I was in high school between my junior and senior year, my German teacher took us on a trip to Germany, and I couldn't afford that, and so I asked my mom and dad, and they said, Well, if you raise half the money, we'll pay for The other half.
And so we were ranchers. We raised Black Angus cattle and quarter horses. And so I sold three of my Black Angus cows, $200 a head. This is 1967. Wow. That was enough. And so I spent a month in Dusseldorf, Germany, and then a month in Seyfel, Austria, and that experience just ruined me for life.
Wendy Corr:
I like that it ruined you. I'm not sure, it either ruined you or set you up. Which one?
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, just piqued my interest in traveling. And after that, you know, I was 100% in to do that. And then between my junior and senior year in college. I lived at University of Munich, and because I'd taken German in high school and I'd taken it in college, and I maxed out all the hours I could take in Greeley. And so my counselor said, Well, you know, if you do a study abroad, you can get 15 hours, and that'll be enough to get your minor in German.
Wendy Corr:
So you started, though, with this passion for travel, translated that into a career as a teacher, but running was always throughout this - and how did you get started running and marrying these two passions?
Brent Weigner:
Oh, boy, you know, I think when we were growing up, we grew up north of town, on Riding Club road. And as kids, you know, we play games like the ditch them and hide and go seek and all kinds of running games. We would actually have contests to see who could chase down a horse and halter it.
And so we let them hide them out. We let them out in a huge fenced area, you know, many, many acres. And then we'd have everybody have a halter, and someone would say, Go and be the judge. And whoever got the horse first and put a halter on it was the winner.
Wendy Corr:
Well, that seems right.
Brent Weigner:
I was kind of a horse whisperer back in the day, and we probably had, over the years, close to two dozen quarter horses, and I was a rodeo kid. Most of my friends were cowboys. Helped Chris Ledoux build his first bucking barrel.
Wendy Corr:
No way, wow!
Brent Weigner:
Yeah. And we got paid $100 for pictures and articles in Western Horseman. So this is 1967, so that was good money there. It was right across the street from where we lived, on riding club road, because Yellowstone used to be called Meriden route, and right across the road was the frontier roping and riding club.
So in the summer, there would always be at least six rodeos that we participated in. You know, we'd ride yearling Brahma bulls, bucking ponies. So, you know, that kind of worked into the cowboy lifestyle, and then I worked at Frontier park in the summer taking care of the committee's horses and the visiting Queens horses. So I get about three hours of sleep a night during Frontier Days.
Wendy Corr:
So my goodness, you’ve got a long history there as well.
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, you know, it everything kind of blended and worked out in terms of my obsession with running, because when I started teaching, all that stuff stayed, and so I think I was unique in a way, because I always thought that education, a lot of it took place outside the four walls of the classroom, you know.
And so I would take kids overseas in the summer. We took kids to New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and DC. My favorite trip was, we took them to the former Soviet Union when they still had bread lines. And so, you know, kids remember that. Kids remember that kind of trip.
I remember we flew a 45 minute flight from Helsinki, Finland to Leningrad, well, St Petersburg now, but it was Leningrad at the time. And then we took the train to Moscow. I remember the guys, the guards, with the long mirrors, looking under the train cars and making sure no one was hitching a ride.
So that was really a unique experience. And then on top of that, with my coaching, I coached year round. So after the season was over, I took kids to Junior Olympic meets, to take them to track meets, take them to road races, cross country meets.
My bragging point, my favorite thing about the coaching, well, I have lots of them, but one I think will never be broken, was I founded the girls cross country teams at Cheyenne Central High School and at McCormick. And because back in the day, they thought, you know, if girls or women ran, it would harm their reproductive system.
So the first year at Central, I had two girls out for cross country, and then I was there for three years, and then I was at McCormick for the rest of my career. And so when I retired my girls, my McCormick girls, had won the city and the conference championship for 32 years straight.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, my word Brent, what an accomplishment.
Brent Weigner:
And then, after the season, we continued running. So I took my 17, 18 Junior Olympic girls to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the summer before we hosted the national championship. Of Little America. And this is back when you could take kids, and you didn't need chaperones, just me and the girls, you know, staying on the campus at the Olympic Training Center and convince them, you know, they were the real deal.
And so when nationals came around, we weren't even on the radar, you know, we just out of the clear blue, we won. And so Olympic gold medalist John Neighbor was at the award ceremony. He gave the medals.
So I was always, always looking for opportunities, you know, to blend my running with my teaching, with my coaching, and, of course, with my running too. Because if I would, if it was a meet where I could run, I would do that.
For example, we took a couple of kids, Kevin Carl Fefferley, I think, and my friend Larry Heideck. We ran the first US Mexico International Marathon in El Paso and Juarez. And so we got, we drove down there, and we were one short of having a team. We had to have five runners. And so I do what I think great coaches do - you know, you recruit or you lie?
So I just go around talking, I saw these two kids, they looked like they were runners. They had just graduated from Tucson High School. And so I said, Well, you know, what kind of times you guys running? And when they told me, I says, Hey, you want to be on our team?
And so, we won the first US-Mexico marathon. And the Mexican national team had two Olympians on their team, but their third year, their guys kind of sucked. And so, all five of us ran sub-three hour marathons. And so we got a nice article in the paper, and 13 miles, was in El Paso, go over the International Bridge into Juarez, and then the last 13 warriors. And then we finished at Shamazal National Monument.
Wendy Corr:
What year was that? Because I imagine that it was as scary then as it is now.
Brent Weigner:
No, no, it wasn't bad back then, at least from my perspective, I remember it as kind of a nuisance. Once we got into Mexico, the kids are running along beside us, trying to sell us cigarettes or gum, and then the busses, you know, on the roads, and then the busses just going by, pulling out, you know, spewing diesel fumes and and you're trying not to suck those in.
And the club that sponsored the marathon had an interesting name. They were called the Half-Fast Running Club.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, okay, okay.
Brent Weigner:
My jokes, yeah, I know. I hate to be the one to have to explain them to you.
Wendy Corr:
Okay, just had to say it fast enough. That's all.
Brent Weigner:
Here's another, here's another fun running coaching story. So I had two junior high kids, seventh graders, that qualified for nationals out in Gresham, Oregon, and so I had a piece of crap Volkswagen, the starter was broken, and so we'd have to push the Volkswagen to get it started.
And we didn't have any money. So one of the kids, Jeff Holloman's dad, Israel Holloman, loaned us his tent trailer. And so Jeff was going to run the 400 800 nationals, and David Weaver was going to run the two mile. So we took us a couple days to get out there, and the boys got kind of aggravated with me because they said, Coach, can you park in the back of the you know, wherever we were? Because it's embarrassing, a little embarrassing.
Yeah, so we get out there, they did really well, and they're wanting to stay and play tourist. I said, Well, you need to call your parents and see if they're cool with that, because it was just me and the two boys sleeping in the tent trailer. And so you call your parents see what they think. And both the parents said, Okay, you can do that. And I thought, terrific.
I said, Okay, guys, you know we could, but we have no money. Oh, coach, we can get a job. I said, Really, how are we going to get a job? Well, hey, I saw one of the kids says, I saw a sign. Let's see what it is - pickers wanted. So we became migrant workers picking raspberries in Gresham, Oregon.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, my word. Yeah, that is, how long did you stay?
Brent Weigner:
Just a couple days, two or three days, I don't know, but they pay you right on the spot. You had to have gloves because of the prickly on the Raspberry. And so they give you, like a pint, or maybe, maybe it was a quart, I don't know, but you pick them, fill it up, give it to them. They give you the money. And you work until you think you've got enough money for the day, and then you go do touristy stuff.
Wendy Corr:
That is just fantastic. But what fantastic life experience for those boys!
Brent Weigner:
You know, and I always look for opportunities. Here's another interesting story. I tried to get a visa to run a marathon in Algeria, and I couldn't get a visa. But there was a Spanish group, a charity group out of Spain, that was supporting the Sawari people, which are refugees after Morocco invaded Western Sahara, the Sawari people were discriminated against.
So a couple hundred thousand of them went in to Morocco and lived in refugee camps. And so we had to pay some money for the entry fee, and then we went and actually lived with some of the refugee families.
So we stayed, there was a two room mud hut, nothing in there, but like a bed on the floor. And then the refugees gave up their mud hut and went and slept in tents. And so our situation is just these two rooms in a mud hut, three women in one, three guys in the other, no toilet. You have to go outside, kind of round back and just a hole in the ground to use the toilet facilities. And then our breakfast typically consisted of a piece of bread and tea.
And then once in a while, we might get an orange, you know, piece of food of some sort. And then we ran through - there were four refugee camps, as I recall. And we just ran through the refugee camps. Of course, being the grandfather that I am, I'm kind of slow now, and so I think I was close to last place, I might have been last place.
And so I looked ahead, and there are a couple of kids waiting for me, and they're talking to me and trying to distract me, and a little kid tried to snatch the water bottle out of the back of my pack. So I turned around. Man, he took off running like crazy, and the the two other boys kind of left, but the organizers were worried about me getting mugged, so I had a truck escorting me the rest of the way.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, my goodness. So how, how long ago was this? Because this sounds fairly recent.
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, maybe, maybe four or five years ago. I was 70. I think I was 70 or 71 at the time. I'll be 76 next month. But you know, just, there's different opportunities, you know, and I'm not, I don't threaten anybody. And what's an interesting story, in Africa, old people don't run. Your life expectancy
many times is 40.
I remember running in, when I ran, you know, earlier this year, actually, in June, I ran two marathons in the Republic of the Congo and Gabon.
Wendy Corr:
They sound like frightening places. Some are,
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, some places are dangerous. But the deal is just certain parts of the country. If it's dangerous there, then the whole country gets a black eye. The State Department says, Do not travel. On their list of 13 or 14 countries, they say, Do not travel. I run marathons in nine of them.
I was running in - I don't remember which African country, and when I finished, I was literally mugged by young adults and kids. I had a dozen plus hands all over my body, my head, my arms, my legs, and I remember this one, black kid’s going right my face, ‘White man. This is not possible. My father's 40 years old. He's an old man and dying. What is your Juju? What's your Juju? Juju?’
Yeah, my magic. What's my magic? You know? And what I do, I point it up. And then I cross myself, and I said, if you want to know more about my magic, talk to me. So I share, I share my faith whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Wendy Corr:
Well, that's amazing.
Brent Weigner:
You know, I had several experiences with the power and the fire, the Holy Spirit, where I actually communicate with a higher power. And I can't really, some ways, I can't explain it. It's, I kind of get chills, and it just stops me in my tracks, and I try to listen.
So, for example, and if I get too off here, just redirect me. But in 2020 my wife thought I had dementia, Alzheimer's. I didn't have any symptoms other than memory loss. I asked her, where is that place I keep my money? I couldn't remember where my bank was. So when, you know, jumped through the hoops and the MRI and there was a tumor the size of my fist right here.
And so Dr. Bier here in Cheyenne did the surgery. Is benign. It's called a meningioma. It's a slow growing tumor, takes 15 to 20 years to get that big.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, my goodness. So you've been living with this tumor in your head for all this time, you had no idea.
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, yeah. And so Dr. Bier, I asked him, before the surgery, I said, when will I be able to run a marathon again. He says, Well, if everything goes okay, in two months. So they did the surgery. I was in and out in the hospital in 48 hours.
Wendy Corr:
That's incredible.
Brent Weigner:
Last pain pill I took in 2020 was a Tylenol when I left the hospital. Haven't taken a pain pill since, and so for the first month, I was on a treadmill downstairs, and they only let me walk two minutes at a time, and then gradually up to and then the next month, I could go outside and walk.
And so went for my follow up with Doctor Bier, and he gave me the green light. Three days later, I left for Yemen, and after we ran a 10k in Yemen, we ran a marathon and we were supposed to do an apathon, but you probably remember we were there March 17. What happened March 17, 2020?
Wendy Corr:
The pandemic. Yeah, lockdown.
Brent Weigner:
So they woke us up, three o'clock in the morning and said, We have to leave. They're locking down the country. So we flew from, it's kind of a World Heritage Site, the island of Socotra. They have unique, endemic species found nowhere else in the world, but we flew to the mainland, and we're stuck at the airport for nine hours.
And we thought, oh, man, this is, this is not good. And we were literally the last flight out of Yemen. Got to Cairo three days early, tried to change my ticket on United, and they wanted $5,000 and I said, well, so I just stayed. I just stayed at the hotel. I really am right hooked up to the airport. So just stayed there for three days.
Wendy Corr:
Yeah, chilled out.
Brent Weigner: 21:34
On the concierge level. And, you know, free breakfast, free booze in the evening, and hors d'oeuvres. And so it was fun.
Wendy Corr:
Yeah, yeah. Little getaway. A forced getaway before the rest of the world went crazy, right?
Brent Weigner:
So I Yeah, and I literally have hundreds and hundreds of stories I could tell you about things like that.
Wendy Corr:
That's amazing. So let's talk the numbers here. Let's talk numbers. How many marathons have you participated in?
Brent Weigner:
403 marathons as of this date, and 60 ultra marathons. Well, some of those are actually multi day stage races where you have to carry everything you need to survive for a week. They provide medical, a tent and water, everything else you're on your own. So you start out, your backpack weighs about 30 pounds, and then it gets lighter as the race goes on. So typically they'll have six stages, sometimes five, six stages, where you run anywhere from maybe 30 kilometers to 50 miles. And typically what happens they'll have two ultra marathon stages. You run a 50 mile one day and a marathon the next day.
Wendy Corr:
My goodness!
Brent Weigner:
I just did one a couple years ago in Mozambique and southern Mozambique, and that's when I first started realizing I shouldn't do these extreme events anymore, because the last stage was 30k and just walking and with my trekking poles, I fell down, break two ribs.
Wendy Corr:
So you're winding down your career a little bit then.
Brent Weigner:
Yeah, I’m trying to stick to road road races, you know, some trail races, if they're like, on gravel or dirt. But I definitely am trying to avoid steep down hills with rocks and roots, because you're trying to prolong my running career, and I've given up maybe a dozen activities.
I used to do high altitude mountaineering, as a rock climber, ice climbing. You know, I sold my mountain bike, sold my motorcycle.
Wendy Corr:
So, now you're just running. You're just running right now.
Brent Weigner:
So last two years ago, I was doing this 50k trail race in Brunei.
Wendy Corr:
Where is Brunei? I don't even know where that is.
Brent Weigner:
It's a small oil rich country. The Sultan of Brunei, at one time, was the richest man in the world. Okay, it's on the northern part of the island of, I'll say Malaysia. So, I show up, and the race director, people are kind of looking at me like, No, I didn't know how tough the race was, and only for me, only about 10% of it was runnable. We had cables. We had to climb up rock faces. We're running on knife ridges, where, if you fall off, you're down into the jungle and the crocodiles and the snakes and everything.
So the first loop, it took me over an hour, like an hour 50, and there was one guy that already dropped out. And I thought, Okay, this, this is not going to work. So I dropped out, and there were about 60 people that started and only 20 finished.
Wendy Corr:
My goodness, so you were not the only one dropping out of that one.
Brent Weigner:
So I'm at the airport, and the race director calls me. He says, Oh, you forgot to get your medal. I said, well, I didn't finish. He said, Well, it doesn't matter. You're the oldest guy to ever attempt our event, so I got a chuckle out of that.
So my friend that lives in New York City, he organized a marathon the next year because he was one of the ones that dropped out, JC Santa Teresa, and he organized one the following year along the promenade of the waterfront. So it just did multiple out and backs along the waterfront. So that was very doable. Just the heat and the humidity, primarily,
Wendy Corr:
You have been so many places that, again, we don't even know exist, like, Who's heard of these countries? How, even before you retired - you retired from teaching in 2010 - before you retired from teaching, how many of these countries, and how were you able to to bring your students and bring your world experience in to your students?
Because what you're doing now, and the experiences that you're having, you're sharing them with us. But wow, it just seems like your students benefited so much from your experiences.
Brent Weigner:
Well, things really started steamrolling after my friend Michael Pearson taught science at McCormick. He was one of the 10 finalists for teacher in space, and he coached me. And he says, Weigner, you're missing so many opportunities. You know, you're bilingual, you have a PhD. There are so many fellowships and grants. You can have one every summer, and that's what I started doing.
I got the Christa McCauliff fellowship. I got People to People International. I got Korea Foundation. I lived in Seoul for a while. It's the Blue House. Was actually stepped - there's the international border between North Korea and South Korea goes to the middle of the Blue House, and that's kind of like the DMZ, and there's a North Korean guard on one side, South Korean guard on this and so you can go across the line.
I did that, and I'm talking to the soldier, and I said, Am I in North Korea? Says, Yes, sir, you are. But if you touch that door, I will have to shoot you.
Wendy Corr:
Oh, no.
Brent Weigner:
I said I'm not going to, but that was a real fun experience. They discovered with ground penetrating radar, there is a huge tunnel under the DMZ in South Korea, that if North Korea wants to invade, tanks can actually fit through that tunnel.
And so what South Korea has done, they've wired all the overpasses with explosives. So if there's ever invasion, they just blow all the bridges, all the overpasses, and so the tanks will be in the swamps and the forests, and that'll slow them down enough for some kind of reaction.
Wendy Corr:
All that you've learned!
Brent Weigner:
So what I would do with my kids, then, every summer, I try to take them some place, and we use the group out of Salt Lake City, called EF tours. And so that's, when we took them to New Zealand, Australia, our two boys went on some of the trips, you know, to Mexico, Washington, DC.
And like I said earlier, when we were visiting the Soviet Union, right? When the Soviet Union broke up in all the 15 republics, I've actually run marathons in all 15 former Soviet republics.
Wendy Corr:
My Word that. Again, the accomplishments here. Now I want to let people know that we're recording this early, because in just a couple of days, Brent is going to be taking off to go to a new location where he's never run before. And Brent tell us about where you'll be when this podcast airs.
Brent Weigner:
I will be in Oceana, aka the South Pacific, and many countries don't have marathons, so I organized the marathons there. So I've organized one in Vanuatu, and then I have friends that have organized marathons that Tonga Animal Welfare Society, going to have one in Tonga, and we'll run that one, and then about a week later, we're running one in the Solomon Islands, that's sponsored by the Solomon airlines.
Wendy Corr:
My word. So this takes us to a different direction and a different nuance, because you have organized runs. You organized, I think it was the only ever race, marathon, in the Vatican. Is that right?
Brent Weigner:
Correct. Yeah, and I had no permits. I shouldn't say this now. I had no permits, no insurance, trying to do it under the radar. We didn't have big numbers, and we're there and we're standing in St Peter’s square next to the obelisk, and some of my German friends, knuckleheads, had made a banner and unfurled it.
So Vatican marathon and the guards are on the gate, and they're looking at us, and I'm just waiting to get arrested, right? And so they just waved - the week before the pope declared the Vatican athletics team “Nuns on the Run.” And so we ran around the square, then ran around the entire country of Vatican City, like three kilometers down to the Tiber River in Rome, back and forth on the Tiber River.
And so then I found out about a 10k fundraiser the next day. It started and finished in the Rome stadium where the Olympics were in 1960. So I went to register for that and the guy had heard about the marathon. He said, ‘Oh, you are VIP. We comp your entry.’
They assigned me a handler. Made me start in the first corral with 28 and 29 minute 10k runners. I'm trying to move back because I don't want to get trampled to death, right, if I fall on a trip. So that was fun.
Wendy Corr:
That question, oh my gosh. And didn't know, did you do something in Antarctica too? Am I remembering that right?
Brent Weigner:
Thanks for asking! Yeah, yeah. I was actually sponsored by the state of Wyoming. I organized the one and only marathon to the Geographic South Pole. And I had hooked up with a company called Adventure Network International, and they said, well, we'll consider it.
We're going to fly you down and want you to check it out and write us a report, because I'm a consultant, running consultant. And so they ignored everything I said. I said, the first year, let's just run it around the camp called Patriot Hills, that camp is no longer in Patriot Hills, at a place called union glacier.
And so I said, Well, just run around. No, no, we need to go to the South Pole. And I said, everybody should bring snow shoes in case the terrain requires that. And they didn't want to do that. And then they wanted to give $25,000 prize money, because they wanted to get an Olympic runner, you know, a world classroom. And I said, No, No, nobody's, nobody's going to lift.
And so we had the race. You know, I had a satellite phone. Every day, I'd report to my kids, they were tracking us. And I'd ask them questions, you know, about things like penguins and snow ice, science that's going on at the South Pole, like they were researching neutrinos. Because, you know, the neutrinos can go through the ice much easier than through the ground and stuff and so anything like pictures.
For example, they have to move the South Pole every year. Did you know that?
Wendy Corr:
I did not know that - this is new!
Brent Weigner:
Because the ice is creeping towards the coast, it's a glacier, the two mile thick, two mile thick ice cap,
Wendy Corr:
And so they have to pick up what they consider, you know, the marker, and move it, because the glacier that the marker’s on is moving.
Brent Weigner:
And when you're there, you can actually look down at some of the previous years. You can see the posts sticking out of the ice.
Wendy Corr:
Wow. How interesting. And again, what a benefit to your students to have this globe trotting teacher that's not just showing you a spot on the map, but bringing you either to there or or standing there while you can talk to him. What a gift.
Brent Weigner:
And we did, and they really got their money's worth out of me, because later we had the, it's called WEN, it’s the Wyoming Equality Network, and so it was broadcast to all the classrooms around the state. Because the governor loaned me a satellite phone that I took to Antarctica, that was kind of the payback, yeah, you know.
And had one of my students qualify for the National geography bee, so we got to go to the governor's office and visit with him for that. And who was the Governor? I think Mike Sullivan was governor at the time. I met a lot of the governors. You know, I'm not, it's interesting. My major was in political science. That's what I had most of my hours in. Or maybe it was Jim Geringer.
Wendy Corr: 34:48
You got to meet them all. So there's so many more stories. I just wanted to say, Brent, if we were to wrap up, because you've got stories that could fill hours and be entertaining for hours, when you look back at at your entire career, when you look forward to the races that you're going to continue to run, what is it, I guess, out of all of these things, can you sum up your experiences?
There's no way to sum it up in one phrase or one sentence. But is there a highlight to all of this, a purpose, a mission, that you feel like you've been on all of these years?
Brent Weigner:
Well, I think guys in general need a challenge. They need something to keep them busy. And so I like the challenge. You know, there's kind of magic in the misery of running a marathon.
Wendy Corr:
You should need to put that on a t shirt. There's magic in the misery.
Brent Weigner:
You know, you push through the pain. When I was coaching, I tried to convince my cross country kids that you need - to be successful, really be successful, you have to become comfortable being uncomfortable, and that the pain is just, it's a nuisance. It's like a fly. Just swat away, don't dwell on it. Don't think about it.
And I had all kinds of cutesy sayings, like, when it's too hot for everybody else, remember, guys, it's just right for the McCormick cross country team. And then I’d do the same when it was really cold out, you know? And so - fun, fun story, how much time do I have?
Wendy Corr:
Well, I think we got time for another give me one more story. One more story.
Brent Weigner:
This is a hilarious story, so - we'd always have state Junior Olympics, and we'd have regional Junior Olympics, then we'd have nationals. So I took kids all over the country for nationals. So one time, regional Junior Olympics up in Rapid City, South Dakota, always had lights out at nine o'clock, no exception.
And so the coaches and I are sitting around the swimming pool. I think it's a Holiday Inn. And here comes three of my knucklehead girls in their nighties, and say, they go, coach, is it lights out yet? And I said, you know, it is. You get your butts back in bed. I said, Tomorrow, after the race, you're going to run the course again for discipline. Don't, don't be pulling this stunt again.
Wendy Corr:
Oh my gosh. And did they?
Brent Weigner: 37:27
Of course, they did - and so, what's interesting is, before my brain surgery, one of the ladies in the surgical center was one of those girls.
Wendy Corr:
No way.
Brent Weigner:
And so she said, Coach, what are you doing here? She says, you remember when you took us to Saint Louis to Nationals? Oh, yeah, I have lots of stories about you guys. And so that's kind of fun. You know, she's married and has a couple kids and we're friends on Facebook. You know, as many of my former students are, I've stayed in touch with them.
When I retired, one of my little knucklehead kids sat in the back of the class. He goes, Dr Weigner, I Googled you last night. You Googled me? I said. Well, you can stay after class and tell me all about that. He said, No, no, no, sir, you're famous. He was afraid to be tardy, so write your pass. So he came up to my desktop, showed me how to google myself. That's when I found out I am the only person in cyberspace with my name.
Wendy Corr:
Really, there's nobody else in the world with your name?
Brent Weigner:
Nope. 3000 hits at that time, when Google used to tell you how many hits. The last time I googled myself, over 200,000 hits. And now they don't tell you how many hits. So if any of the listeners want to know more about me, knock yourself out.
Just go to Facebook or to Google and Google my name, and you can start as a long, long list of articles and books and talks, speeches, races, marathons, so you'll probably get bored after 15 minutes. But unless you're a marathoner or you're a teacher looking for trips, then you might take something away from it.
And you asked me, how I define myself, kind of, I think the only thing you really take with you when you die is what you've given away while you're alive.
Wendy Corr:
Absolutely - and you've given so much away, to your students, to your fellow marathon runners, to the state of Wyoming. We have just been entertained and educated here in the last however much time we've been on this. Brent, thank you for your time, your experiences, and thank you for sharing all of this, and we are all better for what you have experienced, and we've been able to glean from that.
Brent Weigner:
Well, thank you, Wendy, thanks again for having me on, and God bless you. Have a fantastic day, and good luck to all the listeners, if they tune in and you know, if they want to contact me and have questions about anything, I'm happy to share. I'm happy to share.
Wendy Corr:
Brent is on Facebook, W, E, I, G, N, E, R, Brent, and find him on Facebook. I love your posts. I love your memory posts. I love your posts about you and your wife, Sue's, adventures, and that's just been really, really exciting and fun to be able to keep up with.
Folks, these are the kinds of people that we have in the Cowboy State, people like Brent who are out there doing amazing things and sharing them with us, and we are so proud to claim you as a Wyomingite, Brent. Thank you so much.
And folks, thank you for tuning in. Remember, we've got so many great interviews that we've amassed over the last year and a half, close to two years now, so go back and find some of these great interviews. Also make sure that you look Brent up, Google him. He's the only one out there, and find out more about his adventures.
Brent, good luck in your next set of marathons that you're going to run and races that you're going to run. Folks, don't go away. Tune in next week for another great, great Wyoming character on The Roundup. Have a great week.
