Many times, promises made in the
practice pen over a few beers are regretted the next day. However, when Sean
Lehane, an avid marathon runner, told his roping partner Todd Overstreet that
he was thinking about running the 2023 London Marathon, Todd enthusiastically
agreed to run with him.
"If you're in, I'm in," Todd told
Sean, and sure enough, Todd held to that promise.
Todd's one condition was to be able
to run the marathon in his straw cowboy hat.
"I don't think he believed me,
until we started to train together, and I was wearing my old Resistol hat.
After that, Sean had cowboy hat envy and decided to run in one too," Todd said.
Dustin Noblitt, the CEO of the Pro
Equine Group, a friend of Todd's, was thrilled they would run wearing
Resistol's and offered the logo to add on their running shirts.
"I didn't know there was such thing
as a running shirt," Todd said, "but Sean thought it was a great idea and
reached out to you all for the WSTR logo and, what do you know, we had our
official cowboy running shirts to wear in the marathon."
Sean and Todd became somewhat of a
spectacle in London in their shirts and cowboy hats, as not many British people
had been around or seen cowboys.
"We had like a whole different fan base all the way thru the
race, and we especially enjoyed the kids. There would be a group of school kids
watching and saying in their British accents, 'look mum, look at the cowboys!'
Honestly, that made it. We would have been just another couple of knuckle heads
running the marathon if not for that distinction," Todd said.
"To finish, we had to run by
Buckingham Palace as it was preparing for the coronation of the King, so there
were tons of people around, and you could hear on the loudspeaker, 'here come
the cowboys!' It was like we were two unicorns in the crowd, when in our world,
it's so normal."
Todd, a defense attorney based out
of Houston, is no stranger to running, despite this being his first marathon.
Todd was a Division One college track star, running all four years at the
University of Southern California.
"Coming from Amarillo, Texas, it
was quite an interesting immersion into a culture I knew nothing about," Todd
explained. "It was such a disaster my first year there. When I got to downtown
Los Angeles and pulled up in my pickup truck and my gun rack, even the football
coach said, 'what is this guy doing here? Who brought this guy into this
place?'"
Todd was humble about his athletic
prowess, but Sean knows the story a little different.
"That guy set all sorts of records
at USC, he was a big deal," Sean describes.
To mess with Todd's serious
competitive side, Sean had a prank lined up for the marathon that was sure to
get under the track star's skin.
"We get to the start line, and the race is set to begin and
all of a sudden Sean acts like he ties his shoe. Well, I had already crossed
the line, which is when your time starts, and he wanted to run together so I
waited on him. When we got to the finish line at the same time, he was exactly
one second faster than I was. He's been telling everyone he beat me," Todd
laughed.
Sean describes it as part of the
initiation process.
"My brother did that to me for my
first marathon. It will be in the history books for the rest of our lives, that
I beat the track star by one second, our great grandkids will see this," Sean
joked.
He added, "This was supposed to be
his only marathon, but he's so competitive, he will probably run another one
just to beat me."
Sean, although not a track star, is
an athlete in his own right, as he has been a marathon runner for 11 years.
After realizing that work and kids had taken over his life, he said that
running became a necessity.
"I was very out of shape and was
starting to have back problems. I lost all the feeling in my right leg, and as
the sole provider of my family, I knew I needed to get my act together."
Sean sells spine implants for a
living and did not want to be a patient of his own products.
"I just couldn't seem to find the
time to work out. My hours are different at work, sometimes I'm off early
afternoon, and sometimes I'm working all night, so my problem was I couldn't
commit to everyday," Sean explained.
"I met a guy that I hired as a fitness trainer, and he asked
what I was doing at 4:30. I said, '4:30 am? I'm asleep!' And he told me, 'not
anymore you're not!' So, I worked out six days a week from 4:30 am to 5:30am
for about a year and a half."
Believing he was in the best shape
of his life, Sean wanted to test it, so he signed up for the Iron Man Distance
Triathlon, which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and concludes with
a marathon. However, six weeks before the event, tragedy struck.
"I got hit by a schoolteacher
texting in a minivan. It put me in the ICU, and one of the most remarkable
things about that kind of training, is you heal very quickly. I had shattered
my pelvis, broke nine ribs, punctured a lung, but I was still able to enter and
finish the race. I couldn't run so I limped the 26.2 miles," said Sean.
Because of the experience he had in
the Iron Man, marathons are a walk in the park for him.
"When I look at marathons now, they
are nothing compared to the Iron Man. But after the accident I didn't quite
train as hard, but I still ran. I
grew up roping in high school, and so I replaced some of my prior training time
by picking up a rope. I love to
rope." Sean said.
"I always tell people I could go play 18 holes of golf and go
back to work and never think about the golf game, but when I go to a World
Series qualifier, I come home and lay in bed and think about selling
everything, because this is all I want to do, I am just addicted to it," Sean
explained.
Even while focusing more on team
roping, he still runs to keep in shape.
"I enjoy both, and I know running
helps my roping. A friend of mine suggested I take on the Big 6. They are
marathons in New York, London, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin, and Boston. I've done
New York and obviously the London with Todd. I'm going to try to hit them all,
but it's a big commitment, along with everything else I have going on," he
said.
Sean and Todd met one another
through the trail riding organization called the Tejas Vaqueros. They both had
moved their horses to a roping club in Houston, and because their horses are
together, a group of them rope at least three times a week, and Todd and Sean
became fast friends.
"I took Todd to his very first
World Series team roping in San Antonio and it blew his mind. He's an elite
athlete, and even though he wasn't a very accomplished competitive team roper,
he grew up ranching and working cattle, a working cowboy." Sean continued,
"Todd couldn't believe that there would be that many amazing horses, and when I
started to describe the handicap system, he was hooked."
"I have been to the
Finale, but Todd has never been, it's literally the most fun I've ever had, I
can't wait. I've never had a steady, reliable partner to practice with in the
past, but I finally have one with Todd. We are entered in the #9.5 and #8.5
divisions at the Finale this year," said Sean.
Todd said he is ready
to compete, but said, "I definitely don't want to be a one trick pony. I told Sean, you better get your act
together, because I don't want to be the cowboys that they only know for
running, I want to be the cowboys they know for roping and winning the Finale."
