The Adventures Of Brent Continue

Brent in Brunei. One slip in this ultra trail race and you are tumbling into the jungle. 

By Ray Glier

I'll get the imperative out of the way. Then the fun stuff.

Brent Weigner, 75, is still able to do marathons because he cut back to 20-30 training miles he runs per week when he turned 60 years old. These days when he runs, it is just to race, maybe one, or two a week, which include 5ks and 10ks and marathons. Brent also gets in a day of plyometrics at the gym, walks his dogs twice a day, and works out in the pool with a weighted belt.

Brent never trained ferociously when he was in college and ultra competitive. Rivals might log 100-120 miles per week while Weigner (Wee-ner) logged a mere 50-60.

“I’m still running at 75,” he said. “The guys I ran with are not.”

Now that we have the Geezer Jock Imperative Of The Week out of the way (if you’re a runner entering your 60s, it’s time to taper off) we can get on to the fun stuff.

The Adventures of Brent.

He leaves June 17 for Africa where he will run marathons in the Republic of the Congo and Gabon. Those will be 210th and 211th countries, respectively, where Weigner has run a marathon.

Gabon had a relative peaceful election this year with the general who led a coup in 2023 winning the presidency. However, when an election tilts 93 percent in favor of one man, it gives you pause and makes you wonder what you are getting into.

The only thing that gives Brent pause is the Gaboon Viper. 

This scary thing, with among the longest fangs of any snake on the planet, is tolerant of being disturbed, except of course when a guy running a marathon steps on its 6-foot long tail. Brent doesn’t want to be that guy.

“When a snake bites,” Weigner said, “it keeps pumping venom into you until you knock it loose. When I'm in the wild, I really go slow and pay attention to my surroundings. Hopefully they hear you coming, and you scare them away. I’m going to be very, very careful where I step.”

As for the Republic of the Congo, there are gorillas in Africa and then there are guerillas. Good for Brent that the guerrillas are in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (200 different militias). He is flying into Brazzaville in the ROC, which is across the Congo River from gunfire.

Still, a 75-year old man doing 26.2 miles, twice, while 18 hours by plane from home, is a feat on feet, guerrillas or not.

“It makes no sense that I'm still able to do this because of all my medical history,” Brent said. “I just had a bunch of skin cancer here recently, two tumors removed, one off my cheek, and off my left hand.”

Weigner also had a serious prostate issue (TURP) and ran the Disney World Marathon with a catheter.

“I run marathons,” Brent said. “That’s what I do.”

Weigner, who lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was a geography teacher. Geezer Jock has written about him before because he is immensely inspirational. I mean, docs told his parents Brent wouldn’t live past 15 because of lymphoma.

The man is 60 years past his expiration date and still can get on a plane and fly to Brunei in Southeast Asia and attempt to do a hellacious 50k trail ultra.

It wasn’t an ordinary 50k. Runners had to climb a rock wall. There were trails on a knife’s edge, meaning a slip on a wet leaf and you are tumbling into the jungle and become prey for Lord knows what. The race was 10 loops on this 5k course.

A few years ago, Brent gave up this crazy stuff to run flat ground races. Weigner used to mountain bike, ride his motorcycle, go high altitude mountaineering, downhill skiing, rock climbing, and ice climbing and snowshoe racing. He also quit extreme trail racing where rocks, roots, and fall hazards were a danger.

Here he was again in Brunei being a daredevil. 

“It took me an hour and 50 minutes to do that 5k and I thought, I'm not going to make the cut offs, so I said, ‘Screw it. I'm done’.” Brent said. “I mean the heat index at night was still in the high 90s.”

That’s not the end of the story.

“I'm at the (Brunei) airport and I get a call from the race director. He says, ‘Oh, you didn't get your medal’. I said, ‘Well, I didn't finish’,” Brent said. 

Weigner didn’t understand. The race director was trying to present a medal to Brent for being the oldest person ever to attempt that treacherous ultra.

Yep, that is Cowboy Brent Weigner, a Geezer Jock hero. He saved up for moments like this.