Bill Barrett ( photo by Ross Forman ) has run four of his 12 marathons on foreign soil—in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and Dresden. He has also run in the Chicago Marathon five times, highlighted by his personal record ( 3:15 ) in 2001.
Next up for Barrett is Copenhagen on July 26, on the first official day of the 2009 World Outgames, an eight-day LGBT extravaganza of everything sporty.
Barrett, 50, is a lawyer who lives in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. He has a partner and will be spending five days in Denmark.
"Running a marathon is a unique way to see a city. Sure, it's not the easiest way to see a city, but it is a way to see an old, important city" such as Copenhagen, Barrett said. "I'm really looking forward to seeing Copenhagen. Running through Copenhagen will be quite exciting."
Barrett has other tourist activities scheduled in Denmark, which will likely include other non-sports-related events associated with the Outgames.
The 2009 Outgames is the follow-up to the inaugural 2006 edition, held in Montreal about a week after Gay Games VII was held in Chicago. The next Gay Games will be held in Cologne, Germany, in 2010.
The 2009 World Outgames will feature about 5,000 sporting participants from around the world—mostly European—for such events as basketball, volleyball, bowling, field hockey, golf, handball, rowing, softball, squash, table tennis and water polo, among others.
The Opening Ceremony will be held Saturday, July 25, in the evening. The marathon is the following morning.
"It's actually a coincidence that I wanted to run a marathon when I was in Europe," Barrett said. "I'm happy to participate [ in the Outgames ] and I know it'll be fun, but I really was just looking forward to running a marathon in a new city.
"I don't anticipate a large [ number of participants ] for the marathon, but Copenhagen is flat and it's an exciting course, so that will be interesting."
Barrett is shooting for a sub-four hour race, but limited training to date might affect his finishing time, he admitted.
"Given the amount of training I have [ done ] , I will be happy if I finish in under four hours. Hopefully my past marathon experience will help," he said. "From what I've read, I think it's unfortunate that there are two [ major, international LGBT sporting events ] so close to each other, thus each is drawing from the other. I think it would be better if there was just one event every four years rather than two events."
Barrett said he has not yet considered attending the next Gay Games.
"In every marathon, you know people who you train with, though the actual race is generally run by yourself. So, [ the Outgames ] won't be any different, given that there are so few from Chicago attending. When I finish, I won't know anyone," to celebrate with, he said. "But that's not really a big deal; I've run other races and not known anyone [ at the finish line ] ."
Still, Barrett added, "It will be nice to be one of the few Americans in the race. I'll be glad to be one of the few representatives of the United States at a major international event."