Thoughts from a Marathon Runner

Note: We typically write our blog posts as a “we”, but as Suzanne prepares to run her 18th and 19th marathons in the next two weeks she wanted to put together her thoughts around what happened at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart on January 28, 1986, just 73 seconds into flight, I was in the third grade. It is the first national tragedy I remember experiencing. As we processed the tragedy around the dinner table that night as a family my dad said, “You will always remember where you were when this happened. That’s how it is with tragic events like this. You will always remember where you were when it happened. ”

It’s true. I’ve lived long enough now to know that this is true and my dad was right.

Similarly, I was at a conference in Minneapolis last week where Event 360 CEO Jeff Shuck was making a point about outliers when he said that if someone asked you to remember a day from last year you wouldn’t remember an average day. No, you would remember an outlier. You would remember a day that stands out from all other days. Monday was definitely one of those outliers for me, as it was for many others across the country and around the world.

This Monday will stand out from last Monday. It will stand out from next Monday and the Monday after that. In fact, it will stand out from all other Mondays that I can remember. It will be a day remembered in history and it will be a day that changed the running community forever.

Having been a runner for most of my life, I can say that the running community is one of the most supportive communities I have ever known. There is something about enduring shared challenges that brings people closer together. I have had conversations with strangers during marathons that I never would have had if we had been sitting next to each other on an airplane or a subway. I have shared intimate moments during marathons with people I will never see again. I have seen through running the kindness of which people are capable and it is that kindness that gives me hope for the future.

My immediate reaction to Monday’s tragic events was – what is wrong with people and what is wrong with the world? After thinking through it some more, however, I have come to realize that Monday’s tragic events showed more of what’s right with people and with the world than what’s wrong with them.

Yes, someone intentionally set out to hurt other people. It’s horrible and unconscionable. But when that happened, other people immediately jumped in to help. People were kind. People were selfless. People were brave. People who had been strangers just moments before came together as a community and helped one other. So although a lot of bad happened on Monday, a lot of good happened too.

My Event 360 colleagues and I make a living by making the world a better place. And, because we work so hard to take away peoples’ pain, I cannot fathom doing something that would cause people more pain instead of less, and yet it happens. Try as we might we will never control all of the bad in the world. What we can control, however, is the good. We can be kind. We can be selfless. We can be brave. We can show the world that there is still a lot of good in it, just like the runners, spectators, staff and volunteers of the Boston Marathon did on Monday. They reacted to the bad by creating more good. They were kind, they were selfless, they were brave. My heart goes out to them and I will always remember where I was when this happened.

We’re Alive!

We realized the other day that those of you we don’t speak to on a regular basis might think we’re still wandering around the country with Wylie and Gonzo, towing a trailer with our 4Runner and staying at La Quinta Inns (they’re very pet-friendly!) The last time we posted – which was more than 2 months ago – we were still en route to Savannah, Georgia. Has it really been that long? Well, we’d finally like to let you know that we arrived. And here is what’s been keeping us busy…

10 Things That Have Happened Since Our Last Blog Post

1. We adopted another dog. Meet Penny. She’s a 9-year old yellow lab who found herself at the Humane Society of Greater Savannah. She’s one of the most normal dogs we’ve ever had. Other than a little separation anxiety she is healthy and happy and we love her a lot.

2. We’re in the process of selling our city house (aka Kevin’s house) in Seattle. We do still have our country house (aka Suzanne’s house) and that’s still rented out. The couple who rented the city house while we were on the RV trip decided that they wanted to stay there in the long term. So they are buying it from us and we couldn’t be happier to see it going to such nice people.

3. Speaking of things for sale, the RV is also on the market. We are sad to see it go but we are on to our next round of adventures and don’t have room for it. Right now it’s parked at the Jim and Ginny Connell RV Park in Lake Stevens, WA (okay, it’s not really an RV park, it’s their driveway, but they’ve been kind enough to let us store it there).  Send us a note if you have any questions or want more details – you can also check out pictures of it here.

4. We participated in a mud run. More specifically, we participated in the National MS Society’s Muckfest MS in Jacksonville, FL. Wow, what an incredible event! It’s an 18-event series and Jacksonville was the first. Check out the calendar to see if there’s one near you. We highly recommend it! We’re already talking about participating again when it comes to Atlanta in the fall. Who wouldn’t want to spend a Saturday morning playing in the mud with their friends – and – experiencing awesome obstacles like the “Oh Crap!”? No, really, that’s the name of it.

5. We have learned to appreciate the simple things in life. Like running water, for example. And a real bathroom. And multiple rooms where we can each have our own space. Not that we didn’t LOVE our time in the RV, but somewhere along the way the adaptations we  had to make to live life on the road became the norm to us. Now that we live in an actual house that doesn’t need to be moved or have tanks that need to be dumped, life just seems so simple. And, let’s be honest, now that we have running water we’re showering a lot more frequently these days too.

6. Suzanne became a cyclist. Yes, in addition to playing in the mud she’s also playing on two wheels. And not only that, but she has started making cycling infomercials as well. Here’s the first one in the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iHOxsEh1Wc. (Kevin gets credit for being the videographer and Penny gets credit for being the extra). We’ve participated in a few local cycling events here in Georgia but Suzanne is really training for the La Bella Preme’s Women’s Cycling Challenge. It takes place on June 1 in Malibu, CA and is a fundraising event for Girls on the Run of Los Angeles County. If you’d like to donate to Suzanne’s fundraising efforts please click here.

7. Gonzo became an indoor cat. While we were on the RV trip he was staying with our friends, Rebecca and Alan, and he was an indoor cat for those 7 months. Prior to that, however, he had been an indoor/outdoor cat. When we arrived in Savannah a decision had to be made. After about a week of going back and forth (and listening to him meow loudly while staring at the door) we decided to let him go back to being an indoor/outdoor cat. That didn’t last long. One very painful encounter with some other neighborhood animal and one very expensive vet bill later, Gonzo is now an indoor cat. For good.

8. We celebrated our first St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah. St. Patrick is actually the Patron Saint of Savannah, so they go all out. (There’s even an event a month ahead of time to kick off “the St. Patrick’s Day season“). We’re both Irish and we’re both used to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in a big way, but it is a big, big, deal here. And, we made an even bigger deal out of it by wearing matching t-shirts. Well, at least Suzanne and Penny did. Kevin was representing for Molly Malone by wearing the green Molly Malone t-shirt Suzanne got him in Kentucky during the RV trip. We miss our Irish girl.

9. Wylie celebrated his 13th birthday! We really couldn’t love this old guy any more than we do and we appreciate every day we have with him. It’s been 2 1/2 years since his wonderful family entrusted him to our care and we feel so lucky to have him in our lives. We recently skyped with his birth mom in Australia (Hi Tina!) and hope to do so again soon. We not only got a great dog out of the deal but we got some really special friends too.

10. And… drum roll please…Kevin’s business loan was recently approved by the bank! Tierra Verde Farms will soon become a reality. This is the main reason we moved to Savannah. Kevin will be growing high-quality hydroponic vegetables for the local market (and for his wife, of course). More information on that venture very soon!

So as you can see, we are alive and we have been very busy. We hope you’re all doing well and we hope you’ll visit us in Savannah at some point. Now that we’re settled in we’ll try to write more frequently. See y’all on down the road.

On the Road Again

After spending five weeks at the Jim and Ginny Connell RV Park in Lake Stevens, WA, we are back on the road. When Kevin’s sister Katy came home for Christmas and discovered that even though we were “home” we were actually still living in the RV in their parents’ driveway (instead of moving into the house) she diagnosed us with Stockholm Syndrome. We laughed it off but maybe there was some truth to that. In total we lived in the RV for 8 months and after all that time it was difficult to say goodbye. (No, actually it wasn’t difficult at all. We are thrilled to be moving into a house that doesn’t need to be driven to the dump station once a week to have its tanks emptied).

So here we are, back on the road. We’re heading towards Savannah and our next life adventure. This is a get-across-the-country-quickly roadtrip, not a sightseeing roadtrip. We’ve had long days and short nights and just one quick stop to see friends. We gave Tricia and Dean about 5 hours notice yesterday that we would be coming through Kansas City and they pulled together a delicious BBQ dinner for us in record time. It seemed like they’d been preparing for our visit for weeks instead of hours. Spending an evening with friends was a nice break from the pedal to the metal pace we’ve been keeping as we watch the country fly by.

It feels really strange not to have Molly with us on this trip but we’re traveling with a picture of her on the dash and she’s definitely here with us in spirit. Wylie is still the same wonderful, loveable, dependable Wylie that he’s always been. He’s snoring in the back of the 4Runner as we write this post and he’s been having fun testing out hotel pillows across the country. The new addition to the team for this trip is our cat, Gonzo. We didn’t know how he’d do in the car because, if you remember, he stayed behind with our friends Rebecca and Alan during the RV trip. But it turns out that he’s a really great traveler. He spends most of his time sleeping in the lap of whoever isn’t driving. We think he’ll be glad to get out of the car and settle back down into a normal routine, but for now he’s going with the flow.

We don’t have a ton of pictures to share because we’ve been moving so quickly, but we did stop to take some pictures of the snow the other day. The section of road between Billings, MT and Cheyenne, WY was especially treacherous. For miles at a time we never saw asphalt, just snow and ice. Kevin’s ninja driving skills saw us through safely though. And we’re happy to be heading south now towards warmer weather!

We should be arriving in Savannah tomorrow just in time to find somewhere to watch the Super Bowl. We’ve rented a house and we’ll be able to move right in when we get to town. We’re not sure how long we’ll keep the blog going now that the RV trip is officially over, but we do plan to keep you updated for awhile as our adventures unfold in Savannah.

We’ll see you on down the road (And hopefully, we’ll see you in Savannah. We have a guest room, come visit!)

Sweet Molly Malone

Today is a sad day for Team Vaya Con Perros. We had to say good-bye to Molly Malone. It was sudden and unexpected and we miss her terribly. When we responded to this ad in August 2010 we had no idea how quickly “old lady chocolate lab” would work her way into our hearts and our lives:

We feel fortunate to have had 2 1/2 years with Molly and she will always be with us in spirit. Her last months were spent traveling the country, meeting new people and snuggling with her best friend Wylie. We couldn’t have asked for a more gentle or loyal companion. We’ll see you on down the road, sweet Molly Malone.

A Southern Gentleman and a Georgia Peach

We’re Pacific Northwesterners at heart. Kevin was born and raised here. Suzanne is a transplant who finally found a place that feels like home when she moved here five years ago. So it would make sense that after spending more than 6 months traveling around the country we would return to the Pacific Northwest and settle down, right? Wrong.

In just a few weeks we’ll be moving to Savannah. Yes, as in Georgia.

We’re not quite sure yet where in Savannah we’ll be living, but we’ll be sure to find a place with a guest room or two. You’re all welcome to visit. Oops, let’s try that again: All y’all are welcome to visit. There, that’s better. All y’all are welcome to visit, just maybe not all y’all at the same time. See y’all on down the road.

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Vaya Con Perros (y Gato)

The band is back together. We picked Gonzo up this morning from where he’s been staying for the last 7 months with our friends Rebecca and Alan. You can see a few pictures of our reunion on his blog: Adventures with Gonzo. We’ll provide an update as Gonzo settles back in with us and we’ll talk more later about our wonderful friends who welcomed him into their home while we were away. For now, we’ll leave you with this picture of Gonzo and Rebecca:

Photo credit: Rebecca Seago-Coyle

Eats and Treats and Our Oregon Peeps

We were going to call this blog post ”Tri-Tipping and Cider Sipping” in honor of the delicious tri-tip we ate at Eats & Treats Cafe in Corvallis, which we then washed down with cider from 2 Towns Ciderhouse, but we decided it encompassed much more than that. And when we say that it encompassed much more than that, we’re really talking about our stomachs. Our stomachs encompassed much more than that. Sure, we ate delicious tri-tip at Eats & Treats, but we ate a lot of other delicious things as well. And when we say that it encompassed much more than that, we’re also talking about the people. It turns out that we know a lot of great people in Oregon.

Sandy and Lynda McHenry have been part of the Mooney family for as long as Suzanne can remember. When Lynda opened Via Verde Travel in 1981, Suzanne’s dad was her very first corporate client. Ken Mooney was traveling a lot in those days, so the Mooneys saw a lot of Lynda and it wasn’t too long before this business connection became a friend connection.

We had been looking forward to a visit with Sandy and Lynda for many months now, so we were excited to finally arrive at their home in Corvallis. They opened their own restaurant earlier this year and we were looking forward to seeing Eats & Treats in person. Suzanne has been eating McHenry BBQ for 30 years now and Sandy is famous for curing Suzanne of her vegetarianism in college. They also catered our wedding last year so we had no doubt that the food at Eats & Treats would be delicious. What we weren’t expecting, but also weren’t necessarily surprised by, was the fact that in addition to serving up delicious food, the cafe also serves up the same warm family feel that dinners at the McHenry house are famous for. They’ve somehow managed to take that family feel and replicate it at their restaurant. Repeat customers are greeted like family. New customers are greeted like family. And customers are often introduced to other customers during their meal and find themselves with new friends at the end of the evening. It’s the McHenry way.

We made a list for our friend Blanche the other day of everything we had eaten off of the Eats & Treats menu and when we looked at our list we realized that we had eaten a lot. No, really, A LOT. We won’t go into detail with you here, but trust us, we had five meals there in three days. If you have questions about anything on the Eats & Treats menu or if you need recommendations about what to order, just ask us. We consider ourselves to be somewhat – okay, very - knowledgeable on the topic. (Bottom line: it’s all delicious and you can’t go wrong.)

Pretty soon we were saying goodbye to the McHenrys (and to our girlish figures) and then we were off to Portland. For our first few days in Portland we parked the RV at the home of our friends Josh and Jill. While the RV technically fit in their driveway, we found that we weren’t able to actually open the door to get out. So we moved it into the street because we figured there was no point in staying at their house if we couldn’t ever leave the RV to spend time with them. Josh and Jill were wonderful hosts and, in addition to serving us a homecooked dinner and breakfast AND letting us use their shower, they also provided us with our very first piece of Christmas flair: a wreath! The RV is looking quite festive now. We had a fun night out on the town with Josh and Jill and our friends Scott and Caroline, and then we got to see Scott and Caroline again on our last night in town. It had been way too long since we’d seen this crew and we were happy to be back together.

Being in Portland also meant a visit with Kevin’s niece, Lucy, and sister, Katy. We feel pretty lucky that we will get to see these two again very soon when we all rendezvous at Kevin’s parents’ house for Christmas. Lucy is a much earlier riser than we are in the morning (and by “we”, we mean Suzanne) so in order to let Lucy know when everyone (aka Suzanne) was awake and it was okay to come out to the RV to visit us, we made her a special sign that we hung in the window to let her know that the coast was clear. We may need to repurpose this sign when we see her this week for Christmas.

While we were in Portland we also saw some friends who have already made an appearance in our blog. We saw Carrie and Emily, friends of ours who used to work with Suzanne at Event 360. This is Emily’s first time in the blog but we saw Carrie in Michigan over the summer so this is her second appearance in the blog (or maybe it’s her third if you count our visit to her parents’ donut shop in Kansas City this summer, but she wasn’t actually there for that experience so we’re not sure if that counts). Carrie and Emily both moved to Portland a few months ago and are having fun getting to know their new city together. We met up with them for happy hour one night and then they had Suzanne and the dogs over for dinner another night when Kevin was out of town. Molly and Wylie got to meet Emily’s dog, Daisy, who seemed intrigued by the geriatrics but was kind enough to put up with them. Everybody got along well and Daisy was a wonderful hostess (especially when Molly commandeered her bed under the Christmas tree).

We also saw our friends Tom and Marina, who made an appeareance in our blog at the beginning of our trip when we saw them in Montana. They live in Portland but when we saw them in June they were on their way to Yellowstone for a camping trip while we were passing through Bozeman and the four of us were able to meet up for dinner. It was fun to see them again now that the trip is drawing to a close. If you’ve been following us since the beginning then you know that we met Tom and Marina on a snorkling trip in Belize two years ago and became fast friends.

We’d also like to give a quick shout out to Dr. Penny Jacobs and Berry Hill Veterinary Center in Oregon City, OR. Wylie was having a little issue while we were in Portland and needed to see a veterinarian. Even though we were a new client for them, Dr. Penny got us in for a same day appointment and she and her staff took great care of Wylie. They obviously love what they do (and they obviously love sweet old yellow labs). If you live near Portland and need a good vet, we highly recommend Dr. Penny.

If you know anything about geography then you know that Oregon and Washington are neighboring states. So the fact that we were just in Portland must mean that we’re almost home, right?! We’re not home yet but if you’re out and about doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in Washington today, keep your eyes open because you may just see us heading north on I-5. See you on down the road.