NAIA Nationals

My little brother Abe is in Indiana this week for NAIA nationals. 

He's competing in the marathon.

He's the #2 seed in the nation in this event. 

I still have trouble wrapping my head around this. Abe? Little Abe, my charge for many years (we divided the kids up to make babysitting easier when we were growing up; Abe was "my" little boy)? Abe, the overweight teen? Abe, the freshman, who was never coached until this fall yet holds five school records?
That kid really amazes me!
Since the marathon favors older runners, not only is Abe the youngest runner, the entire field is pretty small. There just aren't that many college students running marathons competitively. Hopefully he'll place and be all-American! I wish I could have taken off work to be there.

Who wears short shorts?

He's racing Saturday, so I will keep you posted!

Moving Day

If you haven't already, you can read my 20 mile recap here at Higher Miles. And we eagerly await Abbi's 20 mile recap coming up soon!

Yesterday my little brother Abe moved in to his college dorm down the street. He's literally in walking distance and I'm excited to have him close by. I know I shouldn't play favorites, and I don't really, but Abe is one of my closer brothers. When we were younger and there were a million* little kiddies running around, each of the older kids had a younger sibling "assigned" as a permanent babysitting charge. We'd make sure they were fed, bathed, behaved. Abe was my charge, so we used to hang out a lot. It's funny how core personality traits simply don't change with time. Abe as a 19 year old still has the same mannerisms as Abe the 2 year old.
We welcomed him to New Orleans yesterday with a quick tour of the Uptown area, followed by a forced grocery trip. Abe is in the dorm early because he's on the cross country team, so the cafeterias aren't really open yet. I made him get some canned beans and tortillas to make my personal favorite college meal, bean burritos. Fast, easy, cheap, filling.
This morning I met Abe for a run in Audubon park in which he handed me my butt on a platter. His normal pace FOR LONG RUNS is 5 minutes. He was trying to stay at my pace, but it was too hard for him to hold back, and we ended up running 7 min miles for about 3.5 miles. The child never opened his lips. I mean, this did not elicit any heavy breathing whatsoever. I, meanwhile, was ready to keel over. Then when we were finished he said I could improve my speed if I did "one or two runs like that a day". Whatever, I can barely finish my speed work once a week. I guess that's why he's fast and I'm slow.
I realized I missed the boat in school by not being very athletic. Abe and I were talking and apparently the cross country team supplies their shoes. This is good for Abe because he runs over 100 miles a week and replaces his shoes every 5 weeks (That stat floored me and gave me nightmares about spending over $1000 a year on shoes). You know what being on the debate team got you? Nerd status, that's all. They didn't even supply us with legal pads.
So now a little discussion on homeschooling and athletics. All of us grubby kids were homeschooled, mostly because we moved a lot and changing schools all the time can't be fun. But my dad was concerned that we wouldn't have proper athletic opportunities. Abe is an example of why that would not be true; he's not only really fast and winning lots of local races, but he's on an athletic scholarship and will be running college track and cross country. However, I can certainly see my dad's point if one of us excelled at, say, basketball. You can show an athletic director race times, but it's pretty hard to get a recruiter to come watch a backyard pickup ball game.
What's your take? Can homeschoolers get equal athletic opportunities? Or should we just stick to what we do best, like spelling bees and math problems that involve symbols I've never seen before?
*Nine, actually.

Another Brother

For the past 4 years David and I have been babysitting my brother Nate while he earned his bachelor's (actually, bachelors - he double majored!) at Loyola University - one of the universities right near our house. He graduated this Spring and will be moving on to graduate school in Pennsylvania.
With Nate gone, David and I were worried about empty nest syndrome. Who would call us at 8 am when his car broke down and he needed a ride to class? Who would call at 6 pm when his car broke down and he needed a ride to work? Who would call at 10 pm when his car broke down and he needed someone to show him how to change the oil? Who would call at 6 am when his car broke down and he needed help duct-taping the bumper back on? (Are you noticing a pattern here?).
Luckily, the nest won't be empty long. I just found out that Abe, the running brother, got a combination of academic and athletic (duh) scholarships at Loyola that he couldn't pass up. So he'll be out neighbor!
I'm looking forward to having Abe around. I love Nate, but he was TROUBLE. He called me to question the expiration of foodstuffs on a regular basis ("This sour cream says it expired last week, but it smells ok, but there's pink goop around the edge. Is it ok to eat?). His car broke a lot because...he's kind of a disorganized slob and honestly he doesn't take care of his belongings. He's brilliant, but he's a double English Lit and Philosophy guy, so he talks a lot and you can never win an argument. He came over to watch the Superbowl and brought Plato along to read during commercials. And he had the convenient habit of appearing at dinnertime or at our restaurant of choice just as we sat down. We'll miss you, Nate, all the same!
Abe, quite unlike Nate, is a neat-freak but impeccably polite and reliable. He is king of on-time, emperor of the thank you note, president of easy conversation. He is clean, organized, and quiet. He's like a grown-up (oh, wait, he's going to college. He is grown-up!).
So now Abe is filling Nate's shoes. My first order of business? Get that kid to teach me how to run fast! And speed my marathon up!