INSEPARABLE BROTHERS: Noah gets both himself and his brother, Lucas, through all three triathlon events.

WENN.COM/NEWSCOM (SWIMMING); COURTESY OF ALDRICH FAMILY (BIKING); WENN.COM/NEWSCOM (RUNNING)

Push to the Finish

A teen athlete goes the extra mile for his brother

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How can people modify traditions or activities to be more inclusive?

Noah Aldrich takes his place at the starting line at the edge of a pool. The 13-year-old from Boise, Idaho, is about to begin a triathlon—a grueling endurance race involving swimming, biking, and running. But unlike the other athletes participating, Noah is wearing a harness attached to an inflatable raft. Lying in the raft is his 11-year-old brother, Lucas.

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GOOFING AROUND: The Aldrich family makes sure Lucas (bottom) has as normal a life as possible.

Lucas was born with a rare neurological condition that affects his brain. It leaves him unable to walk or talk. Despite Lucas’s illness, Noah is determined that his brother won’t be left out. “Even though kids like Lucas have disabilities, it doesn’t mean that they’re limited,” Noah says. “You can find a way to include them in everything.”

When the start signal sounds, Noah jumps into the water and begins swimming. He can’t keep up with his competitors because of the raft he’s towing. He knows he’ll fall farther behind during the remaining legs of the race. For those portions, he’ll pull Lucas in a cart attached to his bicycle and then push him in a jogging stroller while running. But Noah refuses to leave his brother behind—even if that means he has to work harder than everyone else to get them both across the finish line.

Triathlon Bros
Watch a video about a teen athlete who helps his disabled brother compete in triathlons.

DEVASTATING DIAGNOSIS

When Lucas was born in 2007, everyone expected that he and Noah would someday run and play together. But their parents noticed troubling signs when Lucas was a few months old. He couldn’t roll over like other babies his age. He arched his back and cried for hours. Doctors scanned Lucas’s brain using an MRI machine, which images internal body parts. They saw that something was seriously wrong.

Ordinarily, the surface of the human brain is covered with ridges and grooves, giving it a bumpy appearance. But the surface of Lucas’s brain was unusually smooth. The diagnosis: a rare disease known as lissencephaly, which means “smooth brain” in Greek (see What Is Lissencephaly?). The condition is usually caused by a flaw in a gene—a unit of hereditary material that contains instructions for the body. “Unfortunately, that gene is involved in brain development,” says Dr. Gary Clark, chief of neurology at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The faulty gene causes problems as a baby develops in the womb. Brain cells, called neurons, fail to migrate from the spot deep in the brain where they form to their destination at its surface. “That results in changes to the way the brain looks and functions,” says Clark.

The Aldrich family learned that most kids with lissencephaly can’t walk or talk, and many never mentally develop past the level of a 3- to 5-month-old child. Most devastating of all, doctors told the family that Lucas had only a 50-50 chance of reaching his 10th birthday.

BROTHERLY BOND

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TEAM EFFORT: The Aldriches make sure Lucas gets to experience all of the family’s adventures.

Lucas can’t sit up on his own or keep his airway clear. That makes him more likely to develop lung infections like pneumonia, which could kill him. So Noah and Lucas’s parents had to make a decision. His family could either limit his exposure to germs by keeping him sheltered at home, or they could try to give him as normal a life as possible.

The Aldriches decided they didn’t want Lucas to miss out on anything. They included him in family adventures, like snowmobiling and four-wheeling. At home, Noah and Lucas were inseparable. They watched TV together and played with LEGO® figures. Noah manipulated the toys in Lucas’s hand, while Lucas expressed his feelings with a smile, frown, or small noises.

STEPHEN BRASHEAR/GETTY IMAGES

DYNAMIC DUO: Noah and Lucas threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game in 2017.

Then, when Noah was 8 years old, he saw a video of two brothers, one of whom was disabled, competing in a triathlon together. “I just wanted to give that experience to Lucas,” he says. But participating in such a grueling race wouldn’t be Noah’s only challenge. “First, I had to learn how to swim,” says Noah. “I really had to get with it if I wanted to make it to the race deadline.” He trained hard at the local YMCA, with Lucas accompanying him.

RACE ON

On race day, Noah wasn’t sure he was ready, but he was determined to try. After swimming 183 meters (200 yards), he pulled himself dripping from the water and climbed onto his bike. He pedaled for 8 kilometers (5 miles) in the summer heat, pulling Lucas behind in a cart. When his tired muscles burned, he glanced back, and Lucas’s smile urged him on. Finally, Noah jumped off the bike and ran 1.6 km (1 mi), pushing his brother’s stroller. When they crossed the finish line, Lucas’s face said it all. “He was just the happiest I’ve ever seen him,” says Noah.

To date, Noah and Lucas have finished 23 triathlons together. The family celebrates any progress Lucas makes on his own. For example, he has learned to use an eye-tracking device. He can select simple ideas, such as “yes,” “no,” or a request to watch TV, by gazing at boxes on a computer screen. Because of the complications that can arise from lissencephaly, the brothers don’t take their time together for granted. But they won’t let the uncertainty of the future hold them back either. Their goal is to someday complete an Ironman Triathlon (see Going the Distance).

Many people have been inspired by Noah’s commitment and bond with his brother. But he doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything extraordinary. “I’m just a normal kid doing something for his brother,” says Noah. To him, Lucas is the hero. “He shows me that even if you have challenges, you can overcome them,” says Noah. “Anything is possible.”

CORE QUESTION: Explain in your own words what causes lissencephaly.

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