By Steve Nearman

John Piggott is no stranger to the roads and trails of Washington, although you may not have heard of the distance runner from Williamsburg.
    The veteran marathoner is the heavy favorite in this morning's inaugural Potomac River Marathon and Half Marathon out of Belle Haven Park in Alexandria.
    Piggott's trip twice down the Potomac along the Mount Vernon bicycle path and back will surely be easier than the trip race founder and director Jay Wind took to make his dream marathon a reality.
    After trying to revive the now-defunct Washington, D.C., Marathon, then being denied a permit in midstream by Arlington County officials who were caught in a territorial crossfire between area race organizer Robert Platt and Wind, Wind finally landed the National Park Service and the Mount Vernon Trail.
    "When we got turned down by one jurisdiction, we went to another," said Wind, 54. "This is the marathon that would not die. Looks like Platt was unsuccessful in getting us canceled."
    Spoken like a true marathoner.
    But this is not a typical marathon. With strict park service limitations, Wind was held to just 200 runners set off in waves.
    "We have 130 going off at 6 a.m., 40 at 6:30 a.m., and 30 at 7 a.m.," said Wind, who has directed a half dozen 10Ks, a dozen 5Ks and countless miles, track meets and 3Ks but never a marathon. "The faster runners (qualifying time of 3:30 or better) chose the 7 a.m. time."
    The Park Service also wanted to open the trail to the public as soon as possible.
    "We have to have the bulk of our finishers done by 10 a.m.," Wind said. "Our half marathoners are the bulk [70 of the 200 entrants] so that solves our problem right there."
    Wind enjoys the geographic diversity of his field.
    "It does surprise me that for a small race like ours, people are coming from 14 states plus D.C, plus three foreign countries — British Virgin Islands, Switzerland and England," he said.
    Wind has found support for his race from many unlikely places. He said an entire nursing class from Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania was planning to come to Washington for a class trip when they discovered there was a marathon and decided to help, giving the race 16 medically trained students.
    Wind also said U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona has committed to start the 7 a.m. wave although Carmona's office could not confirm his schedule by yesterday afternoon.
    And typical of a Wind event, he said approximately 50 sponsors have signed on and there will be "roughly 100 age-group prizes, $25 gift certificates from restaurants and running shoe stores."
    Piggott will be running for the $250 first-place prize. The marathon is his first in the D.C. area since he placed sixth at the 2002 Marathon in the Parks in Montgomery County. He also was 18th at the Marine Corps Marathon in 2000.
    He has been a fixture at the Richmond and Shamrock (Virginia Beach) marathons and comes off a busy year in 2003 with a win at Atlantic City, a third-place effort at Bay Bridge, a fifth-place performance at Shamrock and a 12th-place showing at Rocket City in December in a time of 2 hours, 32 minutes, 56 seconds.
    Back home, he leads by example as assistant cross country coach for Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, where he graduated in 1983.
    The women's race is wide open, although Wind did say two runners from Colorado Springs — including 24-year-old sub-three-hour marathoner Tracy Stewart — will be in town and could take that division.
    Asked if he would run the entire course after the last runner finishes, as Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray does each year after his race, Wind laughed.
    "I'm going to go home and take a nap," he said. "I just ran a marathon two weeks ago [at Boston]. I need another six months to recover from the marathon. I have run 99 marathons. You tempt me, though. Ha!"