Why did I do an Ironman? 13 months ago, after my brother Dru did his first Sprint triathalon said he wanted to do an Ironman.  “Ok” I responded.  “You don’t have to do this,” he said.  He was right. I didn’t have to do it, I wanted to.  Maybe there was a little competitiveness with my older brother, but I told him, “I won’t finish before you, but I will finish on the same day.”  We are close in age, but were not so close for a number of years.

In 2008, I quit smoking and started wogging (just enough jogging to avoid calling it a walk).  One year later, my cousins convinced me to sign up for the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon. I had never run a mile.  One year of training later, I cried at the finish line of a half marathon.  My cousin Dorothy and I decided to try a marathon.  Seven months later, we completed the Outer Banks Marathon together.  My mom and dad were there at the finish.  I cried again.  One or two marathons per year satisfied my fitness needs.  Not too fast, not too slow.

Dru did athletic things when we were younger and had the natural ability.  In his teens and twenties he rode.  This past year, in training, we saw that he is a damn good cyclist.  However, his thirties were no kinder to his middle than mine.  I’d like to think my journey inspired him to start running.  And just as he was getting up to a couple of miles, I called one morning with a free entry to a 10K the next day.  “ok,” he responded.  “You don’t have to do this, ” I told him.  “I know.  Pick me up at 6AM?”  The photo of us running that 10K together will still be up in my house when I am very old.  That day, we decided to run a marathon together.  Disney marathon sounded like a good idea.

In November 2012, we ran Rock and Roll Savannah full.  Ed, Dru and I went down together in Ed’s 40′ RV.  All three brothers together was amazing, we have to do it more.  The day before the marathon Dru reminded me that he had done 100 mile bike rides, the marathon would not be so bad.  We ran side by side until mile 18.  He was hurting, but we were ahead of the 5 hour pacer.  When the pacer passed us, I got antsy.  “Go.  I’ll be right behind you”  Dru admonished.  I went.  Dru finished nearly an hour behind me.  I did not like that feeling.  Dru did not want to marathon again.  I left him behind to serve my own goals.

2 months later, Disney was worse and, in every way, better.   I had run the half marathon the prior day for my “personal” race.   We were running 26.2 together.  For the fun. For the pictures.  All of it.  Our families, including Mom, Dad and Ed were all down for this trip.   Dru tweaked his ankle at Mile 10 of Disney.   In pain, the last thing Dru needed was his little brother bouncing like  a chihuahua panting, “How you feeling? Need anything? Wanna run? Wanna walk? Wanna put a foot in your brother’s teeth?” for the next few hours.  Instead of staying by his side, I talked to everyone within half a mile of Dru.  I asked them why they were running.  I was inspired by their stories.  I coached spectators.  They were happy when I moved on.  I serenaded fellow runners. We stopped for every photo together.  I ran the bases in Wide World of Sports.  I rode Everest with my brother in the middle of a marathon.  We hugged our family in the street.  We had the time of our lives.  Dru swore off marathons.  He lied.  We did Savannah in 2013 and 20  14.

So in Summer 2014, Dru’s friend Dave gets Dru out for a Tri.  A little sprint Tri in July.  Dru decided to do an Ironman.  I mean, why not?  How hard can it be?  Queue the prior conversation…  Apparently, if we volunteer for IMChatt in 2014, then we get dibs for entering 2015.  At 6 AM after a day of helping runners at mile 13 of the run that looked like they wanted to die, we stood in line for 364 days of anticipation.  A couple of questions I asked during tis line included, “So, how far will we race?” and “it costs how much?”.

12 months later, I became an Ironman. 144.6 miles sounds like a lot of steps, but for me , it was just one of many