Surrounded by walking awards including his recently won Golden Boot award, Berwick man Fred Brooks puts his feet up for a bit before he embarks on another race.By Cam Scott
PROVING the theory that running shoes are better for longdistance races than gumboots, 71yearold Fred Brooks of Berwick has smashed iconic distance athlete Cliff Young’s world record for the 100mile runningwalking endurance race.
In an amazing test of physical and mental durability at Queensland’s Runaway Bay, Mr Brooks recently walked 100 miles (160.93km) in 25 hours and 37 minutes, surpassing Young’s longheld record of 30 hours and 47 minutes.
Mr Brooks and the other competitors faced unusually trying conditions during the event, as it was only six degrees overnight and rained for 17 hours straight during the race. During the event Mr Brooks lost six kilograms.
He was still going strong after 30 hours in the 48hour endurance event and says he could have gone further and taken more records, had he not fallen and injured himself in a random toilet break incident.
“The point was I had 18 hours left in the race and only 52 kilometres to get the 48hour world record for my age group and 24 kilometres to break the 200kilometre record, so that was the only part I was a little bit disappointed in,” he said.
Regardless of this, Mr Brooks says he was thrilled to have broken Cliff Young’s record and hopes to return to add more records to his already distinguished list of competitive walking credentials.
“That’s whetted my appetite, knowing I can get to that distance in that time and still have 18 hours left. The records are not beyond me,” he said. “I actually went up to try and set some walking records and thought if I do well I might get around to Cliffy’s record.
“To beat his record to me was more personally satisfying than all the others. That was the one that meant the most because he was an icon of the sport.”
Mr Brooks holds 20 Australian records for endurance walkingrunning and two world records.
“It’s a hard sport, it’s an extreme sport really.”
