WHILE LAST WEEK Tuesday's fire on Hannah Street, National Heroes' Circle, devoured everything for one man including more than 30 trophies and medals that spoke volumes about an active athletic life, 63-year-old Rudolph "Feather Dread" Davis told THE STAR that the fire could not destroy his memories as a marathon runner.

"All of them bun up in the fire, mi never save a thing," he said, leaning against a corner shop at the top of his lane.

Davis was among 13 people, including children, who lost their possessions to a fire that blazed through six wooden structures shortly after 10 a.m. Davis was left with only his trademark cap with the several rooster feathers attached to it that gave him his name, Feather Dread.

The rooster feathers, a gift from an old friend, do not give him luck, he says, but set him apart from the other runners.

Davis was left literally with the shirt on his back. The shirt, bearing the emblem of 'Reggae Marathon' was the only tangible reminder of his life as an athlete.

Davis, a 'veteran champion' runner, a local hero in half marathon races in both the corporate and rural areas, laments the loss of trophies he racked up since he was in his 30s as his prized possessions.

Davis said his long journey as an athlete started when he as a primary school student in Belfront District, St. James, who would often run to school before the first bell.

"I was in third or fourth grade and every morning me and some other boys would have to run one and a half mile to school," a smile creasing his black, weathered skin.

Little did he know that this would spark more than three decades of long distance running.

While in the 1960s at the Catadupa Government School in St. James he would run for various clubs and organisations in the area, he started professional track and field competitions in the early 1980s, running in Courts and Guinness road races. He would later return to his alma mater to train several youngsters to sprint in the 100 metre races, endure in the 400 metre races and long distance races.

However, it would be several years before he himself would taste the victory of earning a gold medal after running in a 13-mile half marathon.

First gold

"The first gold medal mi get was in Carib Cement Marathon in 1993," he said. For Davis when it rained, it poured, as he had a winning streak for three consecutive years.

"I did feel really good because I became a veteran champion in 1995," he added.

Yet, this was not enough to assuage his yearning to run for Jamaica in national and international games.

"I believe that in the 60s I could have a chance to go to the Olympics if I knew about the selection procedure and so but when I knew about it I was already over the hill," he said.

He told THE STAR that he knew he could have represented Jamaica well running the 800 metres but he was just never given the chance.

As an athlete he felt that he ought to run for the country of his birth rather than to the highest bidder. "Some of those veteran runners who run in the road races with me went abroad to run," he said, "I am glad though because when they come to run against me I would beat them. I always said to myself that I would run for Jamaica because I am Jamaican."

While his graying locks dangle from an aged and weathered face, Davis insists that he is not through running yet.

"I don't totally retire," he said with a smile, "When I enter two more half marathons I might stop."

In the meantime, he does carvings and makes cultural trinkets. Many of these may have vanished in the flames but he still hangs on to his dreams.