All is fair in brotherly triathlon competitions...

Being an older sibling has a lot of benefits. We are often thought of as the responsible ones. We usually have the luxury of doing things first. One down side of being the older sibling though (at least in my case) is that all those years you used your size, strentgh and age to your advantage abusing your little brother in basketball, football, video games and just about every thing else in can come back to bite you in the rear. See, while they were getting beat day in and day out, they were also playing against competition above their skill level, thus making themself better. I have always though of myself as a decent athlete that worked hard to become a good athlete. I played basketball and baseball in high school. My brother did too. The difference is he played college basketball. I would like to think that all those whippings a put on him back in the day, contributed to his skills later in life. Often we still wrestle around at family get together (yes we are 30+ and still wrestle) and as much as I hate to admit it, I can't always take him down like I used to.

The point of all this, is that in 3 weeks, we are both competing in the New Orleans 70.3 race and there is a bit of friendly competition going on. He is a faster runner...I am a faster swimmer. Usually I am faster on the bike, but he is quickly closing the gap. I have a year of triathlon experience on him and have the luxury of completing an 140.6 distance event as opposed to his longest distance being an Olympic distance triathlon. I also have to confess that I have been sandbagging a bit about my workouts when we discuss the race. I hope I can beat him next month, but have constantly told him that he is going to win, while secretly wanting to crush his hopes and dreams:) I have new wheels, new Saucony shoes(www.saucony.com), and First Endurance Optygen HP and First Endurance Multi-V (www.firstendurance.com). Will all this lead to a victory for the older siblings? I don't know...but I do know that I will be giving it my best shot. In three weeks we shall see if the older sibling prevails or if youth and vigor conquer all. Just your classic story of good vs. evil...David vs. Goliath...oh you get the picture. Stay tuned and keep training hard!