Marathon Man

Just a quick shout-out to one of my heroes.  My little brother, Phil, decided that he wanted to train for and run a marathon this year--but, he also decided he didn't want to pay the entry fee that such a race entails.  So, that meant that he trained by himself for a race that he could've backed out of at any moment without any consequence except that of a personal guilt trip.  The amount of self-discipline a move like that takes is absolutely phenomenal.  Phil, after some training set-backs, finally completed that marathon in early December.  We were lucky enough to be a part of it as he started from our house and ran along a frontage road to a neighboring town.  (And by "neighboring", I mean 26.2 miles away.)  We are so proud of him!  Here are a few pics we took along the way.    

The pre-race pump-up

Some of his biggest fans cheering him on from the start.  Another shout-out goes to my SIL, Christina.  She personally manned each of his water/aid stations every 2-3 miles and was fantastic race support.

 And here he is sprinting towards the ready-made, toilet-paper finish line!  It's a good thing I decided to let him run that last mile by himself because he ran it really fast!  (I got to run with him for miles 23-25, and while I'm sure I slowed him down, he didn't complain a bit.)

 VICTORY!!!

 

Such an incredible accomplishment and words just don't do it justice.  I simply cannot imagine having the willpower to train for and then run a marathon all by myself.  For me, so much of the energy to keep going comes from the perfect strangers running along side you as if you were long, lost buddies.  Not to mention the crowd that's there to cheer you on.  So, props to Phil for doing it and for proving to himself (and to the rest of us) that he can do hard things!