Lucky Trail Half Marathon

I visited my brother and his family this past weekend. My brother and myself ran a half marathon, the Seabrook Lucky Trail Half Marathon. What's cool (to me) about this half marathon was this is where I got my inspiration 3 years ago to start running half marathons. They actually have a marathon race too. I watched my brother finish the marathon 3 years ago and thought to myself, "well I could do at least half of that." And I did, three times now, four if you count this lucky trail half.

Now some people hear me say, "my brother and I ran a half marathon together" and have a certain image in their head (unless they've read my blog), but let me re-assure you, it wasn't like that.

See, my brother's kinda a big deal in the running world (no, not really, but kinda). But he is a MUCH BETTER runner than I am. And there has never been a thought in my mind that we would ever be able to run together. Not even for 100 yards. I think my sprint pace is his marathon pace. SERIOUSLY.

Since this race is close to his home, he knew LOTS of people there. And all of them, when they saw him, were like, "Oh your running, your probably going to win this thing!" To which he reassured them, no, that was not what he was trying to do. He is running the Boston Marathon next month (another testament of his ability) and he has a bit of an injury in his Achilles heal.

Anyways, we ran this trail and it was just that, a trail. You actually have to run the same loop TWICE (marathoners have to do it four times, pour things). And many parts of it you are passing by other runners at various parts of their race. I guess if you are running with a person you have no hopes of running next to, it's best to do this race if you ever want to see them. I saw him three times: the first rather early on, once on the other side of a pond and the last as he was coming in to the finish. The finish line is at the far end of a rather large field, so I was leaving it as he was entering it.

This picture (provided by the picture takers at the race because we all forgot to take our own so pardon the tags on it) was when I was feeling really good. And if you are a stalker, you can probably find the rest of my race pictures where you will see my gradual decline into what looks like I am actually just running while sleeping. But I am going to make you do the work to get those pictures.

But yes, that is right. I had just barely finished my first lap as he finished the whole half marathon.


DANG. But I knew I was going to cut it close with that and my goal was to get my first lap done before he finished. And as the clock said, I did that by five minutes! (kinda proud of myself, for meeting that goal)

In the end, he came in third overall! So proud of him! And if timing wasn't already crazy between us in this race, they gave him his award just seconds before I entered the final field before my finish. My sister-in-law actually gave up watching her husband get his award to run me in wearing flip flops and jeans (and man, I was hurting and needing it, so that meant so much to me).

After the race we walked from their house to Freebirds (about a mile away, cause we hadn't quite gotten enough exercise in for the day). Afterwards we took, what I can only describe as, a glorious nap. Then we grilled out and got in their hot tub. It was a great way to finish out the day after an excellent run!!!