If you made it to this blog post, then yes, you read correctly: I'm attempting to run the 2011 Boston Marathon. Playworks (http://www.playworks.org/) accepted me to run on behalf of their official charity nearly 2 months ago, and surprisingly I haven't regretted that acceptance just yet.
I was planning on launching into all these noble reasons why I finally decided to run a marathon. I would have mentioned how as a 28-year-old, I'm starting to feel the physical effects of getting older--how I've pulled muscles by yawning too hard, or how I wake up more often than not with a sore back from sleeping in the wrong position. And how this has caused me to realize I need to take better care of myself, and running seems to be a good way to do that. I was going to mention my ACL injury in March 2008, and how that opened my eyes to how lucky we are to have fully functioning limbs, and because of that realization, I might as well use them. And I was even thinking of using the Playworks charity as a reason I wanted to run the Boston Marathon--to do some good for people who need help.
But all of that would have been a crock of shit. There's only 1 legitimate reason why I'm running this marathon...because I need to be better than my brothers at something.
That's not a joke.
Being in Neil's shadow is pretty well documented at this point: Neil goes to BU, Ross goes to BU. Neil moves to San Francisco, Ross moves to San Francisco. Neil works for a software company, Ross works for a software company. Neil dyes his hair blonde and gets cornrows...well, the similarities stop there actually. But you get the point.
And with Aaron, it's not even worth talking about--no matter how good you think you are at something, give him 10 minutes to learn what it is, and he'll be better than you. I'm not talking about just myself here, this goes for everyone. You think you're a good skier? Spend 5 minutes watching Aaron cut up a double black diamond while you feel your self-worth plummet. Got a new bumper pool table and want to test it out with someone? Don't ask Aaron to help, or you're likely to quit your new hobby before you even begin. Pretty handy around the house & skilled in the kitchen? Don't ever be one of Aaron's roommates if you want to maintain that false image of yourself.
So there you go. It ain't easy being the youngest brother in this family (unless you count getting my way all the time, never getting in trouble alone, and taking advantage of my parents in high school because they were so beaten down by my brothers' exploits as "having it easy.")
You might ask, "Why running?" The answer is simple: I chose something so boring & pointless that neither brother would ever even think of trying to outdo me. At least that's what I thought until recently...
Fuckin' Neil.
Since I've been running in San Francisco over the last 4 years, Neil had never once taken an interest in joining me (or his wife, Colleen, who is my favorite running partner) on a run. Over those 4 years, I've done a handful of 1/2 Marathons, a few 10K runs, and many short training runs. All of the sudden, just 2 months ago, who starts coming out of the woodwork to join us on these runs? Of course, the asshole oldest brother.
Here's the exact exchange we had the 1st time Neil surprised me by showing up for one of these runs:
Me: "What the hell are you doing here?"
Neil: "Just going for a jog with you guys."
Me: "What's your angle?"
Neil: "What?"
Me: "Seriously, what's your endgame here?"
Sorry, but I'm suspicious. And now, as we're mid-training for the Kaiser 1/2 Marathon on February 6th, and Neil continues to run longer & longer distances with us, I had to up the stakes...hence, my entry into the Boston Marathon.
Just yesterday (January 2nd), Colleen, Neil and I did a 9-mile training run, and of course, Neil had his brand new GPS watch to track our distance, time, calories, etc. This is getting worrisome for me. If Neil shows up next to me at the starting line on April 18 (and I would never rule this out), I'll have two choices: beat him by a significant margin so he never tries to compete with me in a marathon again, or find a new hobby that he has no perceived interest in (ballroom dancing?).
On one serious note: I really do appreciate any & all support you can give me via donations to the Playworks cause during my training. Once again, visit this website to make a donation: http://www.razoo.com/story/Ross-Gariepy-s-2011-Boston-Marathon-Raising-Funds-For-Playworks
