Happy Birthday To The Guy On The Left

Know how I know I'm old? Because the little kid on the left in the "GT Bicycles" jersey is now thirty-six years old. I couldn't ask for a better little brother, really. When he was four years old and I was ten, he fell down the stairs in our house in Arlington. There was slate on the floor at the bottom of those stairs and he was tumbling along pretty well. I jumped between him and the floor and managed to catch him. At the time it was kind of painful for both of us and I wasn't so certain I didn't prefer being an only child anyway but it turned out to be the right choice. In the years that followed, Mark was, in no particular order: an outstanding track and field competitor, a state champion wide receiver, a nationally and internationally recognized musician in three different genres, the brains behind one of the largest Verizon franchises in the Midwest, a Yamaha endorsed saxophonist, a Gus Macker tournament winner, a better-than-competent SCCA National Solo autocrosser, a music educator, and a highly-regarded sales trainer for multiple Fortune 500 corporations. He has two brilliant children and has served in leadership roles with his church. Although I haven't had the kind of personal and professional success that my brother's had, he has always encouraged and supported me as I've followed my own crooked path. Whenever I've needed advice or assistance he's made himself available. We've been the only white kids in the front rows of The Chronic Tour and we've dug Swiss tourists out of the salt flats. We packed boxes together for my mail-order bike shop in 1992 and we shared a car at the Topeka Solo Nationals in 2007. We raced BMX together in Pataskala, Ohio twenty-nine years ago and we ran the 24 Hours of LeMons in Houston, Texas earlier this month.

This past year, Mark's set new milestones in his professional development and his music career even as he took time to coach a soccer team full of five-year-olds. I am certain that the future holds nothing but success for him. So happy birthday, bro. Here's to many more.