Minnesota Running

So, today, Friday, July 3rd, I ran with my 21yo brother, who is in much better shape than I am. I'm visiting him over the July 4th weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while he interns for a summer job for an unnamed American corporation.

It was a great morning for a run. Blue skies and balmy weather. Too bad, it was a wee bit hard for me to keep up. Nonetheless, it was a good run around the mighty Mississippi River from the East bank to the West bank campus of University of Minnesota. Afterwards, I stopped at Brueggers Bagels for the necessary bagel (everything bagel, asiago parmesan bagel and a cinnamon raisin bagel) to be shared among the three brothers.

It was my first run since last week's epic Sunday of running and drumming, and I didn't feel too sore. However, there was this one hill that kicked my butt. It was long with a steady incline that never seem to crest. I attacked it like the other hills in my life, but started to sputter midway. Of course, my brother caught up to me and ran ahead. Sheesh. I used to be 21 too, you know.

Anyway, toward the last part of the run, my brother took off, but before he did, he said something like, "We're almost there, now finish strong!" My gut reaction was to kick him in the shins, because I was breathing pretty heavily, but I decided against it. (Never mind that I would never be able to catch up to him to kick him in the shins anyway). But, my brother's heart is in the right place, but can't I get a little more encouraging words, like, "You're doing great!" or "You can do it! Almost there!"

Ah, whatever. I'm just glad I got to run with my littlest bro in 'Sota! You betcha!