UK teacher wins US ultra-marathon

Bob Brown arrived in Central Park after running 50 miles a day for two months.

After winning the 3,100-mile race the primary school teacher said he was looking forward to having a pint in his local pub and not going for a run.

Lone Briton Brown, 35, used five pairs of trainers and his weight dropped to below nine stone during the race.

The BBC's New York correspondent Jeremy Cooke said many of the competitors looked "exhausted and emaciated" as they crossed the finish line.

He said: "Bob Brown crossed the finish line wearing his fifth pair of training shoes of the event, his toes clearly visible through the holes."

Pasty power

The schoolteacher said his mental attitude was at least as important as physical fitness in securing the victory.

Mr Brown said he was "thrilled and happy" to have won the race, but agreed that competitors were all "a bit mad".

"The last few days have been very hard," said Brown in his latest internet diary earlier in the race.

"Barring disaster, I have won the race. I am so chuffed and excited to be finishing.

"Body-wise, my legs are still very sore. Weight-wise I am down to 8st 10lb - I haven't been that weight since I was 14."

Brown, from Stoke Climsland, Cornwall, said he had been powered across the US by Cornish pasties, shipped over from his native county.

Over the past two-and-a-half months he has endured the beating dry heat of the desert and the energy-sapping humidity of the east coast.

Brown has become something of a living legend in the endurance sports world, accomplishing a series of astonishing athletic feats in recent years.

Charity run

In 1997, at the World Decatriathlon Championships - one of the toughest races known to man - he swam 24 miles, cycled 1,120 miles cycle and ran 262 miles in eight days and six hours.

Born in Bushey, Herts, the former Shaftesbury Harrier ran his first marathon in 1989, but found that too short.

The same year he entered his first ultra race - running 80 miles - and has never looked back.

The City of London University graduate has also cycled in record time from Land's End to John O' Groats.

This time he is running to raise cash for the charity Chicks (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids).

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Bob Brown
Run Across America 2004
Country Holidays for Inner City Kids
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