Seeds of adventure

The seed for this most recent running adventure was planted back in April when Mird and I visited Arkansas to watch the solar eclipse. Somehow it grew into another beautiful running experience!  Oh how I do love when seeds germinate, grow and thrive especially when those seeds involve running cool races and not keeping a plant alive because I've killed countless plants!  Anyhow, back in April during a brief conversation about running, Tera, our second cousin, and her boyfriend, Kobe, mentioned the St. Jude's Marathon Weekend and how awesome it was.  We all promised to meet in Memphis and run it together someday.  Well oftentimes "someday" ends up being never, but in this particular instance "someday" became December 7, 2024. Yes last Saturday, Mird and I ran the St Jude's Half Marathon in Memphis and it was as Tera promised one of the best races I've ever run...Ridiculously Awesomesauce!!!

Here's how this seed came grow.  Tera texted us a few months after the eclipse letting us know she was turning 25 on race day, she had created a team for the occasion, and she invited us to join her team. We knew we had to figure out a way to make it work and somehow we did!  When we signed up, I knew precious little about Memphis, like basically nothing.  And honestly I didn't feel like my life was any worse off because of this fact.  As the race grew closer, I figured I should probably learn something about the city so I began asking people about Memphis. Anybody.  Family. Friends. Strangers on the street. Nobody was safe from my inquiries and I covered all the bases... What do you think of when you think of Memphis?  Have you ever been to Memphis?  Would you ever go to Memphis?  What should we do in Memphis?  You know those kind of deeply probing questions.  Just call me Katie Couric!  What I learned is people mostly think of blues music and Beale street, barbecue, and Elvis when they think of Memphis and not necessarily in that order.  

The three Michiganders

Well what I've since learned is that Memphis is so much more.  Like, did you know that Memphis is the only city in the United States to win the cleanest City in the country a whopping 5 times? I know get out of town!  Or that a person from Memphis is called a Memphian?  Also, while Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee, it is not the capital, Nashville is.  Also, Memphis is in the Central Standard Time Zone this is important to know if you travel there particularly by car!   

Speaking of time zones I learned this time zone fact as we were leaving on our trip. We therefore were an hour ahead of schedule for a majority of this trip!  Yep for this race we were actually ahead of schedule and under budget which basically never happens so it was obviously an unforgettable adventure!  Merrily we drove on down to Memphis to run 13.1 miles in the name of kids who are fighting cancer and to see if we could find Elvis or some authentic Memphian barbecue!  It was quite a harrowing experience and spoiler alert.  While we were waiting for the race, we not only found Elvis, but also cousin Eddie! 

The King and I

Shitter was full!

The car ride was as are most of our car rides surprisingly enjoyable.  I think road trips are actually one of my favorite things.  I know a lot of people would disagree with me and I probably sound like a dog talking, but hear me out.  On a good old fashioned road trip you get quality time with those you love, you get to snack on special road trip snacks and you save a boatload of money that you can spend on other cool races, groceries, or college educations for your offspring.  During this particular road trip, we randomly had a brief lesson in parasites as we discussed lice, bed bugs, swimmers itch and other types of unfortunate parasitic infections. And... We also got a contact high from the car in front of us during a long stretch through one horrible construction zone that lasted basically the full length of Illinois! You certainly wouldn't experience those things on a quick flight to Memphis!  

                Road trips rock! Yes I'm driving again!

We made good time and since we were already ahead of schedule we got there with plenty of time to hit the best race expo I've ever visited to pick up our packets. Then we headed back to the hotel to figure out dinner since we'd been living off road trip food all day long. Realizing we had to run a race in the morning, we figured a little real food was probably a good idea.  However, we had no plan. None. Other than we thought it would be nice to eat dinner together with all of our cousins who were in town (Tera's team had grown to 15ish people including many family members).  A nice idea yes, but nobody made a reservation nor did any research so it seemed impossible.  Yet miraculously we found ourselves at The Brass Door a short time later enjoying delicious food with all 15ish of us together!  I will spare you the details and simply state this was most certainly an act of God. Seriously.  All praise to Him.  Also, special thanks to the owner of The Brass Door because I know he worked some magic to make that happen for us when I explained our situation to him.

Cousin's group dinner photo!

The race itself was, as promised, incredible. Making it all the more awesome for me was the fact that Tera and I cooked up a plan late Friday night for me to pace her to try to break 2 hours (a 20 minute PR for her if we pulled it off!).  It was a lofty goal, but one I felt was attainable.  

Tera and Kobe were not wrong when they said it is a well done race and that you feel emotionally overwhelmed (in a good way) to be a part of it!  Over 22,000 racers participated in the event and raised several million dollars to help kids at the hospital.  Since its inception, the race has raised over 138 million dollars for St Jude's Children's Hospital!  There were kids along the course who are patients at the hospital cheering us on and banners with pictures of past patients.  The most emotional moment for me came about mid race when a couple in front of us wearing shirts with a picture of their son and his birth and death dates on it and they were joyful and said they run it every year in his memory. I just told them I was sorry for their loss and they thanked me for running to help those still fighting.  I still tear up thinking about that moment.  Goosebumps moment for sure!  It gave me so much perspective at a time when I needed it.  

During the race Tera and I pushed our pace.   We chatted for about the first 8 miles of the run. The funniest part of our chatter time was when I said, "Geeze they sure have a lot of timing mats here"...and a few moments later Tera said, "umm I think they're speed bumps and they were!)!!!"  We laughed over that for a good half a mile. Then we got quiet and got down to business. I stayed just in front of her the rest of the way pulling her along dancing and yelling out encouraging words whenever I felt compelled to do so.  Tera had studied the map of the course and kept me informed of upcoming hills and turns and together we cranked it out!  Now I must admit I did a lousy job of keeping a steady pace, but when we approached that finish line I knew we had made it with about a minute to spare and I did a huge fist pump to celebrate! Happy Birthday to Tera--she just PRd BIG TIME!!! 

We did it! 

The car ride home was awesome except for the hotel hot tub bait and switch to which we were victims. I am still a tad bitter about that one.  We stopped in the village of Manteno, Illinois and it was a lovely village with impressive Christmas decorations and many thousands of twinkling lights. We even found authentic Mexican food complete with margaritas to celebrate our race!

  

                                                            1,2,3 say Margaritas!

This was the first real food we had eaten all day long.  It sure tasted amazing and the service was exceptional!  In fact a local couple who had just dined there actually cleared the table and seated us saying, "It takes a village" as we sat down!   We filled our stomachs walked around the village briefly and headed to bed.  We had planned to sit in the hot tub that was on their website, but alas there was no hot tub just a warm swimming pool and I am skeptical as to why. We are really racking up a lot of failed hot tub experiences, but someday it is going to work out for us! We woke early and headed for home. Once again ahead of schedule and under budget! Thanks for the memories Mird and Courtney!  

   

It was a lovely village and you know what they say, "It takes a village". Also, for the record, this is how a lamp post is supposed to look...upright, and well maintained!

In contrast, this was the lamp post at the starting line of the race.  It was a hazard for sure. It was neither upright, nor well maintained and I do not believe this to be acceptable in a clean city. Just sayin' 

Early morning recovery walk

           December 7, 2024 Memphis, TN State # 24

             (Vern, Tera, and Mird)  Just before the race 

Just a couple sub 2 hour half marathoners

(I represented the Lions the entire way!)

       

         December 7, 2024 Memphis, TN State # 24

                      (Cousin Cassie, Vern, and Mird)

PS BTW Memphis won the cleanest city awards long before any of us were born circa 1950s!  We found it to be not the cleanest city in the US,  Here's a couple examples of why...the lamp post...

This was on the side walk and 22,000 runners had to walk over or around it...Yes it is a huge lamp post that fell over a long time ago.

and exhibit B  

 this was in an area that people had to walk through to navigate their way to the finish line.

PPS  We three believe Manteno, IL may actually be the cleanest city in America although it is technically a village, but hey it takes a village and it is really clean!

Magical Mystery Tour

If you polled a group of people who've ridden in a vehicle that I am driving and inquired about my particular set of driving skills, I am pretty sure you would learn that everyone agrees I am a terrible driver. Regardless, I tend to find myself driving whenever we go on one of these running adventures. It is just the way it goes.  Maybe I have control issues, maybe everyone else is lazy, or maybe it is just coincidental, but for whatever reason, when we head out to chase down another crazy running adventure, you can bet I will be behind the wheel for a majority of the trip.  Terrifying? Probably, but it's also tradition!! 

This trip was no exception.  When I pulled into the rendezvous location and found Mird happily doing jumping jacks in the parking lot, I was filled with instant jubilation despite our being behind schedule and over budget.  We quickly and carefully packed everyone's stuff into the van and then quickly and carefully dug me out from underneath everyone's stuff when it came tumbling back out of the van on top of me. We tried again and finally pulled out a few minute later; We were on our way! 

This time we mixed things up a bit and turned the trip into a surprise trip. I affectionately named it the Magical Mystery Tour after the beloved Beatles song. The Daniels (Mird, Kenny and Cody) had no idea where we were going.  My squad (Me, Eli, Kara and Hazel) planned the trip and did know that we were headed first to Katonah, NY to visit The LaPollas (Dominica's sister in-law, Ran, and her husband, Skip) and to revisit NYC again the following day.  

The entire Katonah Crew

The cool thing about this driving tradition is that it frees Mird up to do cool R&D tasks.  That's research and development for those who are not familiar with the term and by the way Mird is the best in the business.  Seriously if she wanted to she could totally move to Silicon Valley and get a swanky job in the R&D department of some big time corporation.  That's how good she is!  On our trips, she learns the most amazing random facts about the places we visit and she tries to teach us. I say tries because an audience of teenagers or middle aged women is not exactly a captive audience and her efforts often go unnoticed and unrewarded. Thanks to Mird I know where the hamburger was invented (New Haven CT), that happy hours have been illegal in Boston since 1984 and that the first transportation subway system in the US was actually established in Boston, not NYC as most people might assume.  The list goes on and on. She also researches concerts we want to attend, Tigers games, dance parties and any other activities that are of interest. 

 Skipping all the details of the road trip itself because it was extremely long and we certainly don't need to relive it, we arrived to our first destination at about 9:30 pm. We were disheveled, smelly, exhausted and thankful to be there. Ran was a super host and had a dessert buffet and drinks waiting for us.  After quick showers and a trip (or three) to the buffet line, we got settled in and headed to bed because NYC was the next day.

Ok one detail of the trip itself.  We maintained the Money Bag tradition.  Remember I have a bag of random bills ranging from 1$ to 50$ and if the kids do exercises when we stop for gas or to switch drivers, they get to draw a bill from the bag.  Also, it is used to encourage good choices and positive attitudes along the way!

money bag squats

In the city we had the best time... well other than feeling like we were inside a furnace of heat and humidity that might never cease and were being forced to walk an endless trail of torture, it was awesome! Honestly, despite all this, we did have a most excellent time! We did an hour long tour of the harbor with the highlight being Lady Liberty.

Our Crew in NYC (It wasn't a scam!!)

Next, we headed to the 911 Memorial and Kara was in charge of leading us there.  This is when it started to feel like we were walking inside a furnace of torture.  By the grace of God, we survived and actually arrived at the memorial which was a pleasant surprise.  

We checked out the 911 Memorial. It is pretty amazing what they have created at ground zero.  I became slightly emotional remembering the day and how scary it was to have our country under attack and nobody really knew what was going on. Although at the risk of getting political that's not really much unlike the presidential election we have on our hands this year! My personal opinion is the museum is more of a memorial as well and it is overpriced for what you experience.  If I went back, I'd just tour the outside area (free) and save my money on the "museum" (expensive).

Awesome outdoor memorial

 
There were special Harley Davidson motorcycles made shortly after 911 for those who lost loved ones in the attack.  This was my favorite one.

This was the last standing column of the World Trade Center. Also spectacular to see!

 

Our happy teenagers sitting inside the 911 Museum

Next up was Retail Therapy or Cocktail Therapy depending on your age.  The kids shopped in a nearby TJ Maxx store while Mird and I had a cold drink at a local pub.  Don't judge, you weren't there.  Afterwards, we decided to head back to the van so that we could get out of the city before the traffic got too crazy and we started to make our way back to the van.  Our path took us through China Town which was an extremely cultural experience.  Block after block of whole chickens, fish, and other unidentifiable animal carcasses lined the streets. Along the way, Eli found this pigeon who was in distress. Bless his heart, he tried to help the little guy out although this opinion was not shared by everyone in our group. I am thinking maybe Eli will end up becoming a veterinarian or an animal trainer at Barnum and Bailey Circus because spoiler alert he was also playing with pigeons and squirrels at the Public Garden in Boston!

Eli trying to help the pigeon along the way...

The kids researched dinner options and we settled on Oishi Sushi in Mount Kisco NY on our way back to the LaPollas' where we'd sleep another night before an early departure to our next stop Boston!!

Dinner pics because it was a spectacular dinner...

Kenny accidentally ordered this Sashimi. It gets an A for presentation, but a lower grade for overall meal quality.  He thought he was getting a traditional sushi roll so this meat platter was a surprise!!! 

 

We also got these traditional sushi rolls to share and Cody and Hazel shared Sesame Chicken.

Eating out is uber expensive so our strategy for most of the trip was to order only what we could eat and share a meal whenever possible. If we were independently wealthy, we would have splurged and gotten one of each dessert, a few more sushi rolls to try and fancy cocktails. However, we are not rich, we are teachers, teenagers, and a small business owner so we shared, drank water, and kept our meals basic.  We enjoyed the dessert buffet again when we returned to home base.  Then we slept, ran 3 miles early and ate a farewell breakfast with the Lapollas before heading east!

It was supposed to rain all day in Boston so we decided to book an escape room as entertainment.  We booked it and then immediately realized it was in Cambridge, not Boston so we shifted our plans slightly and headed to Harvard Square! Other than our temperamental air conditioner, the overcrowded nature of our vehicle, and the horrible traffic the drive to Cambridge was perfect!

Cambridge was excellent. The town is clean and cute and the people were friendly. The Red Fox Escape Room is absolutely amazing!  I would definitely recommend it if you're ever in the greater Boston area.  It saved our rainy day and turned it into a day of fun, adventure and dare I say exercise for our cerebrums that will soon be headed back to school!  The kids LOVED it and begged for a second escape experience.  Mird and I told them to try to get out without our help and headed to the Goodwill in town for our own retail therapy while they completed their second escape!

The whole crew! Mird was grinding!

Team Totally Teenagers 

After the escape room we headed to another mall. Not my first choice (or even top 10 choices) for vacation activities. However, with the gloomy weather and the fact that school starts in less than 3 weeks, I declared it back to school shopping and sent them off (mind you we were already uncomfortably crowded in our van so we just kept buying more stuff as somewhat of a challenge to see if we could actually fit it in the van).  Meanwhile, Mird and I shopped for supplies to make carbonara for dinner to save some cash and our sanity.  The entire meal for 7 cost less than a couple martinis in NYC! BTW dinner was a total success; We saved money, everyone loved it and we had very little leftover!!! 

Our Airbnb was perfect.  It had old style Boston feel to it, plenty of room for everyone and it was close to the city (or so we thought).  To prepare for our trip, I booked three things:  The airbnb, our race in Connecticut, and a duck boat tour in Boston! Everything else I figured we would sort out as we went along. 

After our wonderful dinner, we started researching getting into Boston for our duck boat tour the following morning and quickly learned we were screwed!  The subway system was not nearly as simple as the Airbnb made it sound and driving there sounded like a total fucking nightmare.  Motivated by the fear of missing our duck boat tour, we decided to drive even though multiple people had warned us to avoid driving in Boston.  We applied the same parking strategy we had used in NYC and prepaid for a parking spot located .3 miles from the Prudential Center where the Duck Boat Tours started. We went off to dream land and woke up refreshed the next morning. 

We had to pack, clean, eat breakfast and leave by 8:30. It was a stretch but we pulled it off and were on our way to that prepaid parking spot on time!!   Boston driving/parking is complicated, congested and basically impossible to maneuver which is likely why everyone advised against it. The parking garages are unmarked, and the streets are so narrow that turning around is nearly impossible. After pulling into the wrong lot once and having to back out, we decided to just park at the Prudential Center and forget about our prepaid spot.  This was a clutch decision as we barely made it to our tour on time.  We learned what works in NYC doesn't necessarily work in Boston.  

Our Duck Boat Tour was the highlight of Boston!

Olga Ironsides our boat for the tour!

Everyone quack!

Cody even drove us for a few minutes!  Our tour guide was Milkman Larry or something like that and he was excellent.  He had a verbose sense of humor, endless knowledge of Boston and anywhere else in the world as far as I could tell and he clearly loved his job.  Milkman Larry helped clear up our confusion about Boston driving when he explained that Boston used to have the second worst traffic of all metropolitan areas in the US so they got busy in Boston and built a fancy 1.5 mile long tunnel system that routes traffic under the city to reduce congestion and traffic problems. Click traffic details for more details about the history of Boston traffic.  BTW according to our tour guide, Boston is now the worst metropolitan area to drive in within the US!    

  

After the tour we had about 3 hours and everyone had ideas of what to do and nobody was in charge.  This is a recipe for disaster in case you wondered.  In hindsight, I should have planned another activity for the city. Instead we argued and investigated things to do in the area for about 15 minutes. In the end we ended up at a hotel across the street eating nachos.  During lunch we decided to visit a famous old church and the public gardens.  We did both.  Then we headed out towards our next destination Somers, Connecticut the location of our 5K trail run that night!

Famous Old Church Picture

Hazel really loved this stop!

The animals are so friendly here 

More proof of Eli's potential in the animal training field

The famous duck statue in Boston Public Garden

After accomplishing both stops we headed to the car and stopped at the Boston Marathon Finish Line for this picture along the way just because we could.

Sisters August 7, 2024 Boston Marathon Finish Line

Once we found our van, we headed to Connecticut and our Somers Race Series 5K!  Even though it was again a million degrees, sunny and humid, the race itself was awesome.  Eli is a stud and he ran barefoot.  We all ran and cheered for others at the race with our homemade signs. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful trail with old forest growth that made for a spectacular backdrop in the woods!  There was a splash pad at the park so we all rinsed off afterwards and headed toward home uncertain of how our trip home would play out.  

We had hoped to return to Niagara Falls and stay in the same hotel as last year, but my passport renewal is taking FOREVER so I didn't have a passport thereby ruining our original plan.  Over a post race dinner at Chick-fil-a somewhere between Somers CT and Nunica MI, the kids voted unanimously to drive straight through or at least to attempt to drive straight through to Michigan. Our democracy was a faulty one because they voted for this drive and Mird and I made it happen. Through a series of unorthodox driving relay legs, we tore up the 800ish miles.  Our relay legs consisted of various sessions that included everything from breakdance driving to Delilah's show on the radio, to church at night (Yes I spent a lot of time praying for God to get us home safely) and everything in between. 

We did it though and safely delivered Mird and the boys to the carpool lot a little after 6 yesterday morning.  I guess this just goes to prove that even if you're a horrible driver and you decide to drive instead of taking public transportation, you can still have one helluva good road trip!

Pre race picture Somers Summer Series Trail 5K

The trail map

Somers, CT State #22

August 7, 2024

 

Our favorite holiday

 If asked what holiday you think is the sister's favorite, you likely would guess Christmas because most people probably love Christmas best. There's just something magical about Christmas.  The odds would be overwhelmingly in your favor and yet you'd be wrong. Us sisters we have a totally different favorite holiday. A way cooler one...a greener one...and also a pretty wonderful backup favorite holiday to boot.

St Paddy's Day has held a special place in our hearts for many many years. We can attribute it on our mild Irish heritage (like 1/32nd or something ridiculous like that), but in reality we just love to drink green beer, eat Mird's fancy pudding shots (photo below), and watch people listening to Irish music and dancing a jig. Plus it is just so fun to say "Kiss me I'm Irish!"!  Anyhow, this year for our favorite holiday, we kept our Clare Irish Festival of Races tradition alive and well when we went ahead and finished the 5k race and dined on their world famous pancakes afterwards.  We did decide the food has gone downhill the past few years because they now serve fake orange juice and there is no coffee. Still the kids love the pancakes and it is fun to catch them on your plate after they fly through the air!  Here's the deets on this one.

2023 pancake catching at its finest. 

Only a few misses and those were other people not us!

Thank you Clare, MI for once again hosting an awesomesauce event for all!  GO GREEN!

    First of all, I am still somewhat injured (my soreness in my spectacular butt muscles just seem to be lingering forever and it is anything butt spectacular) and it was also sore back on March 16th which was also known as race day this year.  I also have three teenagers I am trying to keep alive at least until they turn 18 and no longer my responsibility. This seemed like no big deal when they were little and loved me the most.  However, when they became teenagers everything changed and now it is touch and go on the daily!  Anyhow, the point to all this is that it was a miracle I even managed to get away for a couple days let alone run an actual race;  I counted the fact that I crossed the finish line at Clare this year as a big "F"ing "W" for me!  And special thanks to Mark Daniels, I even got to be recognized as the 2nd place finisher in my age group! Mark decided to not run the 5k so he quickly handed me his bib and off I ran!  I had planned on being a bandit and just not getting an official finish time, but thanks to my hero, Mark, I got to be listed as 2nd place! I'm pretty sure the race director wasn't so amused as I explained my situation to him after the race and begged him to change me from the men's category over to the women's category, but he was a good sport and eventually it was fixed. Everyone else did awesome as well and got in a killer workout first thing in the morning.

The 2024 Favorite Holiday Crew

Giddy up let's go! 

Double rainbow on Saint Patrick's Day on our way home from the race. The camera really only captured one of the two, but I am pretty sure that a double rainbow on this particular day of the year is good luck!

Luck of the Irish even in the bathroom!

Love this poster 

The 3 amigas at the The Doherty Hotel post for run snacks and drinks! This is another long standing tradition of ours!

Oh and apparently bloody Marys are Irish. 

I am skeptical, but that's what the bartender told us so for the moment I am going to run with it.

Regardless, they were delicious and nutritious!

Just two short weeks later, the sisters were reunited and it was another great gathering this time with the boys, Easter festivities, a feast of epic proportions and an Easter morning 5K too!  

caution random topic change without much warning...

This is the picture that turned Easter into my 2nd most favorite holiday...I just can't believe how grown up our boys are and they were such good sports then entire Easter weekend. We did a scavenger hunt, egg hunt, decorated eggs and played games.  They also ate all the food we prepared without complaint which was impressive and we actually had some leftovers which was equally impressive with 3 teenage boys to feed!

Easter coffee and puzzling more proof it's a great back-up favorite holiday. Most importantly, Jesus died on the cross so that we might all have eternal life through Him.  That itself is worthy of favorite holiday status.  Eggs, scavenger hunts and food aside, Easter is an awesome day to be thankful and reflective and to spend time with those you love. He is risen! 

PS Oh I almost forgot about the picture of the pudding shots. Mird makes THE BEST one ever and they are even sugar free and we had them for the festivities in Clare.