After surgery on his Achilles, Briney is climbing his way back into marathon shape and plans to chase a top three spot at the trails. Will his body hold out?
The last time I heard someone say Trent Briney's name was almost four years ago. It was the evening after the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Birmingham AL, and, I decided to hit the wildest, craziest party in town: I joined the Hansons' victory celebration.
At that point, the
Hansons were a fairly obscure training group near Detroit, but they had just had a big day.
Brian Sell ran his balls off, leading much of the race before finishing 13th in 2:17:20.
Clint Verran, a muscleman among anorectics, ran his usual strong 2:14:something (:37 in this case) to finish 5th. And a more or less total unknown named Trent Briney improved his best marathon time by a staggering 8 minutes, 35 seconds to finish 4th in 2:12:35. Or was it Briney Trent? Who could be sure? No one had ever searched deep enough in a road race result to find him.
Someone in Birmingham recommended a good ole Southern eating establishment to the Hansons that 2004 evening, and off we went, along with a bus load of supporters who had driven down from Detroit. We devoured buckets of fried chicken, mountains of nuclear-yellow mac and cheese, and tubs of thick chocolate pudding. The only green thing in sight was okra.
