Another Marathon Complete

  The Austin Marathon required quite a bit of patience, taking the hills at a nice easy pace to avoid burning out my calves and quads before mile 7 like I did in San Diego :-).  My brother and I paced eachother very well, and for most of the marathon we were both all smiles.  In general, we get along very well for siblings.  I think we have a mutual respect and a healthy level of competition.  For example, it would have been completely unacceptable to lose badly to the other, but we don't have to humiliate eachother either.  I believe we encouraged one another as we ran.  It was new to me, running an entire marathon with someone.  I enjoyed it.  I did feel a little guilty when we hit mile 14, and I could see the pain starting to show in my brother's face.  He braved the pain, he braved the distance, and he completed his first full marathon without any walking.  We had a pretty decent time 4:23.  I give us a little grace because Austin is full of those rolling hills that can do a number on legs trained on the flat roads where we live. 

  It was a beautiful day.  The rain decided to go away for the day.  We started early that morning, with my traditional breakfast.  We arrived at the start, and had to find our gear drop off.  When we got back to the start, we heard encouraging words from President Obama and from Lance Armstrong.  Well, can't say I've had that kind of interest from anyone so famous in any race I've participated in previously :-).  We jumped into the line of runners, and took about 7 minutes after the gun to get to the start.  The race started with the 1/2 marathoners included.  As we ran, I couldn't help but be impressed with the number of athletes we were crowded next to.  For the first time in my marathon history, I had a cheering team.  My brother's wife and my father were there to encourage us along the way.  At the 8 mile point, we spotted them.  They were a little distracted by camera issues, and my brother ran right up to his wife and kissed her without her realizing who he was.  It was a great moment in the day, and we laughed about it for the next mile!  In the crowded group, we would weave around people as they slowed, and bumped into eachother for a good 11-12 miles before the full marathon folks broke away for their long journey around the city of Austin.   A little after this point, there was a little pain my brother needed to push through.  We stopped for a moment to stretch and take a breath, giving him a chance to evaluate and truly experience the pain.  Ultimately, it was decided we should have just kept on going.  Though, the fun and games were pretty much over at this point.  The marathon started to become work.  I could tell my brother no longer cared for conversation.  I imagined he could use some distraction from the pain, but he seemed to just need his iPod and some focus.  We found mile 20 just in time.  We were both ready to start the decent to the finish line.  It was a steady (mostly) downhill 6 miles, and I remember a few times where I checked my heart rate and it was below 160!  Yeah! 

My brother, a fan of the 5k distance, enjoyed counting the number of 5ks we had completed as we passed markers indicating we'd done 10, 15, 20,25, 30 kilometers.  At some point, I thought, "He's going to have to eventually say, 'only a 5k to go!'"  As the miles got closer to the 23 mile mark, I made sure I was next to him, so I could hear the phrase I now associate with my running with him.  He did not disappoint me.  Despite the pain, the slow progress, and probably some resentment toward me for encouraging him to do this crazy distance, he smiled and told me that there was only a 5k to go.  And, as we neared the finish line, he even had some extra energy to push to the finish.  The official placement on the website shows that he placed ahead of me :-) (of course, we both had the same time, but I am willing to conceed that he may have won by a nose)