Trini to the bone: Running on empty

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Curtis Brereton and I am the double bronze medallist in the 800m and 1500m in the Masters Championship in Canada in 2018.

I’m really from Diego Martin.

My mother used to run. My father used to run. So I really had no choice but to run.

I came from a big family because they really from English, Bajan and Grenadian roots. I’s the only one really born in Trinidad. I got three boys, Curtis, aged 30, Cleron, 29, and Clevon, 25. Them fellas don’t run, though.

Plus I married over, but my wife, Meredith Lydia Brereton, we got no children.

Natasha Long was my first woman sponsor in running for 25 years. My manager, Hayden Boyce, with me for the last 20 years, finance me and all kind of thing. We used to run together. He beat me in a race already but I never remind him about that!

My USA coach is Hansel Levon and Albert “Bertie” King is my coach down here. My technical adviser is Susan Garcia and Joan Hospedales.

I went to Diego Martin Boys’ RC but I liked sports more than school so I never went secondary school. I have regrets about that but I try to put it behind my back because, if I think about it, it would frustrate me. So I don’t think about it.

I always say QRC is the best team in the world, anyway.

They call me “Half-a-Soldier” because I passed the Defence Force medical but I get two work the same time and I end up going to the next work in the radio station.

But I remained training with the Defence Force track team.

They don’t have another Half-a-Soldier after me.

I did general assistance in the station for 29 years.

I worked under (Newsday executive editorial consultant) Jones P Madeira in Maraval Rd. I think he was the news director or something but I know he was a good bossman to me.

In the coup in 1990, I see when the Muslimeen drive down in the back by the 105FM building and raise up the trunk. When I see gun, I start to run. When (broadcaster) Emmett (Hennessy) get shoot, I was going up the same wall where he get hit.

But my mind tell me to come back down and that’s how me and a couple of other fellas jump over a next low wall. If I had go up that high wall, I woulda get shoot, too.

Relaxation for me is to watch football on TV. I originally backed Liverpool but, more than 20 years now I bypass them, because of how they treat John Barnes.

I went England to run in Wimbledon and my uncle was a Chelsea man and he give me an original Chelsea shirt. So I went to Chelsea.

I train every day of the week, average for an hour and a half. I might do four Savannah. Hill work might be five Lady Chancellor, five up, five down.

I’m running a 15K and a 7K in New York.

My rest (day) is competition, races on Saturday and Sunday.

I could be wrong but I think that what killing West Indies cricket is the Twenty/20. When they win one game, we say the team turn around – but then they turn back!

I support England in cricket because my father got select to play for England. Since England lost the Test series, I still can’t catch myself!

If Barbados playing Trinidad, I back Barbados, because some of my grandparents from there. If Trinidad playing Grenada, I back Grenada, because my wife from there.

I don’t mean I like them, but I always like to be in opposition.

But I’s an England (cricket) fan right through.

I see miracles work in my life already. First, I always going away with no money and come back! And everything I ask God for, I get. When I was buying my house, me and my wife, we didn’t have no money, but we pray and we listen to some preacher and we end up having the house, and we almost finish pay off for it.

Since 2002, I’ve run in Spain, Mexico, Finland, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, England, Canada, all about.

The best thing about running is the competition. You win, you lost, in the masters category, everybody still cheer you. Sometimes you down and a man clap – he don’t know you because, remember, you running all in Spain – and you feel good.

The bad part about running is the funding. But I try not to take it on because, if I’m going to run and I don’t have money, I don’t perform good. Because my mind does be under strain. If I have money, I don’t be under strain.

I never became a top-class runner in Trinidad before because I never used to eat good. I never used to eat before a race because I never had anything to eat. I used to eat sugarcake and bread and go and run.

I get a sponsor named Pancho, down by the Guardian side, who support me in food, two meals a day, for 20 years. He used to give me US$100 for duty free in the airport when I was going away to run.

In 2000, I was running with one of the top runners in the world and I finish fifth in the race and my wife I was with then vexed, because she say I was better than them.

So I make a design and say no one is to come and watch me run again. My next wife, now, don’t come; and I feel more happy.

Sometime, everything could throw off your mind when you go to compete. My wife like me to go up early and settle down and relax, but I like the excitement: I like to go today and run tomorrow. I’s be nervous so is better, if I come out the plane, I go and run one time.

I like how the Minister of National Security and the new Commissioner of Police moving. Before, I used to be scared to train on mornings.

The crime. It might change, though. Is only God and Gary could know.

Don’t mind I never pass through the service, I’s still “Half-a-Soldier.” He’s a full soldier, I’s a half! So we under the same banner.

For me, a Trini is somebody who like fete. I used to like fete, 50-cent party and thing, but how the place get, I don’t go again. So that might make me “Half-a-Trini,”, like “Half-a-Soldier.”

TT means a lot to me because that is my birthplace. And all my sponsors are from TT. And I run for TT.

Read the full version of this feature on Wednesday at wwwBCPires.com