i'd like you to meet...

Ben is my brother.  He's almost exactly (like, nearly to the day) 18mos older than me.  He lives in Louisville, KY.  We get along well now that we're adults...but it wasn't always like that.  I mean, whose older brother didn't beat them up, tease them, and aggravate them on a daily basis?

Ben likes to cycle.  He's got two or three really nice road bikes.  He's never been much of a runner.  He once told me (I believe it was before my first marathon in '09) that he would NEVER be a runner.  He would rather shoot himself in the foot than run 13.1mi.  Fast forward to the spring of 2010 (see pic at right...).

He ran his first half marathon (I did it as well, obviously!).  He has done the Triple Crown of Running held in Louisville every year since then.  5K, 10K, and 10mi races held two weeks apart.  Three weeks later is always the Derby Festival Marathon and Mini Marathon. 

This past December I was with my family in Louisville after running the Memphis Marathon.  My brother casually says to me that marathon training has begun.  Wait...WHAT?  My brother who swore he would never run is training for a MARATHON? 

So we've been training together but separately for the past four months, getting ready for his first, my fifth, 26.2mi.  It hit me on Saturday that my brother is *actually* running a marathon when I received this text from him:  "No wonder the first person to run a marathon died at the end.  20mi was brutal."

In fact it is.  But it's all part of the training.  Race day won't be as brutal...it never is as bad as the long, lonely training runs.  And we'll have each other!  I'm super proud of him to be tackling this distance.  And I'm excited to be running alongside him.  April 27th will be a great day!