The Mother of All Relays

Running a weekend long relay race can be a lot of things as I recently learned, exhausting and a lot of fun are two of them. Bonnie and I ran the infamous Hood to Coast relay race a few weekends ago. We had a great time with the team we joined up with, and our Captain Ed was simply put, "the man." He has done H2C a few times and knew all the ropes. Our ride was a Ford Expedition, but for blog purposes, I will be referring to our ride as the "van" bc that's what the rides are called, whether they're actual vans or not. And seeing as no one in our "van" was driving around with a clown's mask and a bag full of candy in a school zone, it was for sure not a real van for us either.

There are 1,000 teams that participate in this event every year, includingh teams from all over the world. Each team has 2 vans of 6 people in each van, and Bonnie & I hardly knew anyone in our van, except for our one friend Amy. We were excited to do this with strangers though. And what better way to meet someone than to be thrown into a van with them, about to be made completely smelly by all of us, and be part of competition with them. We ate together, we slept together, and we ran and competed together.

12:30 pm The First Exchange

This is where van 1 passes off to us. I am so frigging psyched to be doing this, my adrenaline is pumping for sure. We are at the Fred Myers supermarket, and that's actually who's sponsoring our team. I love all the unknowns that go along with this whole event. This huge parking lot is filled and some of the vans are hilarious. One just drove by and it's the "Top Gun" van and they're all dressed up in the pilot gear, and there's big plastic wings atop the van and the movie soundtrack is blasting. I also just saw a van called " The Cougars" drive by, pretty sure they were all boozing, and one of them actually dove in the back seat window while they were driving. I have that pit in my stomach, like before you are about to play in a big game or something.

5:15pm First Leg Down

I just ran my first leg and it went pretty well. It was a 6.89 mile leg and it went fine, nothing to difficult. I learned that there is a game played by everyone that does this event. It's called Road Kill. And you get one of these by passing another runner, and the teams track how many roadkills they get on the outside of the vans with the car chalk. Well on that one leg I just ran, I was pretty much every one's road kill. It was kind of depressing actually, especially as you get back to the van and you have to let your team know how many you had, shit. Telling the team "none" just does not seem like an acceptable answer to me, so my goal is I just want at least one roadkill on each run. I did get one, thank God. So everyone is blowing by me throughout the run, and then I see this one girl walking, towards the end. I come up on her at right at the end and I know this is my only chance to get a roadkill. So just as I go to pass her, she starts running, I was so pissed. She had no clue I was coming or that I had no raodkills, but she probably would have run even harder if she did know. So I did pass her and roadkilled her ass! Oh and Bonnie absolutely krushed her first leg, her "pregg legs" as I like to call them. She ran her first 5 miler at 8:53, goddamn Bon! That's my girl.

Our second leg was pure insanity, and pure dirt and dust. This leg is the late night run in the woods, and I mean the woods. It is dark as hell. Our van started at this leg at like 1am, and this is in the middle of the woods, running on gravel. But wait, it gets better, the gravel is covered in dirt, and as you are running, all these other vans are constantly driving by you leaving to go to the next spot. And as they all drive by you for almost the entire run, you get to breathe in all of the dust and dirt. This was a 5 miler for me, felt like 10, I could never get in a rhythm. I cannot wait to be done with this late night leg I was so excited to run.

6am
We pull into our final exchange for the night. It's siesta time, if you can. Lots of people say they never sleep a wink when they do this, which is funny to me. I have no clue how people do this with no recharge on the batteries. And the fact that I could sleep on a bed of broken glass helps me for sure.

9am Final Leg/Day
Bonnie & I woke up around 8:30am and our first set of team legs starts in about a 1/2 hr, so off we go. It's gorgeous out by the way, sunny warm and breezy. I am suddenly just excited to run, and not anxious about how my legs will hold up on my final run. It gets you pumped knowing you are about to do your final leg, and it really is perfect weather. My final leg is my longest, and it's 7.8 miles, and it is all rolling hills. This was the one leg I was most worried about, seeing as it's my last and my longest one.

Bonnie's final leg right before mine was a hilly 4 miler, and she krushed it. She ran it at 8:50 min. mile, so impressive too bc it was her 3rd and final run. So she hands me the bracelet and I am off. I wasn't going to let the rumored difficulty of this leg get to me. The first mile was rough, it was hard getting into a rhythm. But by mile 2 I was in the zone baby. I felt so damn good, and my legs felt fresh as ever, I couldn't believe it. I was running up these hills at the same speed I was running the flat parts. And on my downhills I decided to push and run faster to make up time. I suddenly wanted to beat my first leg time of 9:53. I remember feeling bad for van 1 knowing that they would miss running on this amazing day.

So I had this last hill to go up at mile 7, and I noticed I could pick up a road kill or two on my final mile, and I had no one at this point. I still felt really strong, so I pushed up the hill, let's go I thought. I passed one fool walking and then I came up over the hill and I see the exchange spot, which for me is my official finish line. I always sprint at the end of any of my runs, and I look and see this one dude ahead of me, but I think I can push to roadkill his ass. He is running pretty fast but I convince myself I can catch him. I was gonna haul at the end anyways, why not full on sprint. He appears a few years older than me as I get closer, but he has no shirt on and the dude looks yoked. I know I have to pass this guy to finish. So I start sprinting earlier than normal, and I am about 50 feet away from the finish. And this guy is running pretty fast as well. So I come flying up from the rear and the crowd all sees what I am doing, and there's a bunch of people there. They start cheering, and I think the guy just thought they were cheering him in, so he has no idea I am coming, hard. I think he thought they just loved his form. All of a sudden I come barrelling up on him and he sees me over his shoulder and I know he is thinking "no frigging way I am his roadkill at the very end of our last run." He starts sprinting and we are neck and neck, but one person always wants it a little more than the other, and at that moment, that person was me. I beat him and it was such a sick way for me to finish. And I ran a 10 minute flat mile for my final leg, which I was stoked about.

All in all it was so much fun and thanks for reading whoever finished this long post, cheers!

Sean

Put one more on the docket...

Portland has this absolutely incredible relay race, it's called Hood 2 Coast, and Bonnie & I are doing it this year! The only difference is I'm not 3 months preggers, and she is. It is the last weekend of August, and we are both very excited about it. Our history on this particular run is 2 years ago, Bonnie took a pregnancy test 15 minutes before a van came to pick her up for her first Hood 2 Coast endeavor. Well it was a go of course, as we have our awesome little Taylor Kate. That year Bonnie ran it and I met her down at the coast of Oregon and we celebrated big time. This year we both get to run it together, and of course Bonnie is el preggers again, classic!

So the race is next weekend, the last weekend in August. Relay teams from all around the world participate in this race, as it is a very popular run. And it's extremely difficult to even get on a team, so we really lucked out this year. Bonnie's soccer mate's husband needed some people, so we jumped at the chance. Kind of funny too because I have the hardest leg out of the 12 of us, perfect. The funny thing is Bonnie's leg is the one right in front of mine, so wifey gets to pass me the torch. We have no say in this matter with what legs we run, it is what it is.

There are 12 people on each team, so there are two vans of 6 people in each. We run from Mt Hood to the Oregon Coast. Each runner runs 3 legs, totalling about 17 miles. My training up until now has mostly been my soccer leagues, but I need to run more. That's it for now, cheers!

Sean

What a day indeed, USA!

I have never been a part of a "qualifying moment." Of course I am referring to the one and only qualifying moment any of us nobles will ever know of. No one in the Sully network is aspiring for any USA Olympic goals, so that really just leaves us with one qualifying event: the one and only marathon in North America that needs qualifying for, the sacred and beloved Boston Marathon. I only know a few people who have even qualified for this (Ivy, Marianne and Coach Karl) but I have never been able to be there for a friend when they qualified, until Sunday, on born on the 4th of July.

And by the way don't let the attached photo throw you off, that's just Karl and I leaving Sauvie Island. We never took any other photos unfortunately, so there ya go. I am wearing Taylor's hat for her at that point, holding my medal up. But I assure you this blog is not about me qualifying or my medal.

Sunday, however, was an incredibly inspiring to me day for many reasons, and as I looked back on it today, I realized I would be doing a real disservice by not sharing the events that took place with you guys. By the way, I am not sending this to my regular blog audience.

My dear friend Kurt Bordchardt, the craziest German and one of the best people I know, had the biggest day of his running career waiting for him on this country's birthday. On Sunday Kurt was trying to qualify for the Boston marathon on Sauvie Island, a cool little island near Portland. They offer a full and a half marathon every year, and I knew I was psyched Bonnie pushed me to sign up for the half when I learned the proceeds of the races went towards the Sauvie Island Fire Department. Now for Kurt, he had only tried once before to qualify, and that was in San Diego of 2008. It would not be in the cards for Kurt that year, injuries popped up, and it was his first marathon, etc. And even then, he was only about 10 minutes off of qualifying. Why do I know these things? No it's not because I have a man crush on Kurt. This is when Bonnie and I first met Kurt, on our first TNT season. We trained for Alaska and Kurt was training for San Diego, with our then Coach Karl, and thus the Team in Training family began. Now back to Kurt, he had stayed focused on qualifying and I knew he had a real shot at qualifying on this one. His training was going so well, and he even ran 21 miles the day of my wedding while he was out in Dallas, TX. No big deal. Kurt is from Maine and I am certain I have never met a prouder New Englander in my life. So for him to qualify for this meant the world to him to say the least. I just hoped I would somehow be there for it when he did.

Kurt's wife Michelle was also performing on Sunday; she was walking the half marathon. Michelle was hoping to finish her walk just before Kurt made his way in, if he was able to keep pace and qualify. I ran the half marathon, it was an awesome run for me. I ran it in 2:05 and it was my PR which is always great, I ran 9:33 miles, whoo-hoo.

After I pulled in from my run, we celebrated and then we got prepared for the real reason we were there, Kurt qualifying. I remember as we were driving in that morning, Bonnie, Karl and I briefly had the whole "what if" conversation. No one wanted to even talk about it though. We compared it to Kurt having a No Hitter going into the 9th, we all shut that conversation down fast. Kurt was goint to qualify, we all knew it. And there are just a few hundred people running in this full, and most of them are doing it to qualify because it's a flat course. And fortunately the weather was nice, mostly overcast in the 60's with just some sun, it was never too hot.

So Kurt needs to pull in by 3:30, which has him running 26.2 miles at an 8 minute mile clip. I can't stress how hard that is to do. So at the 3:10 time, we go to the finish line to wait for Kurt. All of a sudden Bonnie goes "is that him?" At first I didn't see him, and then he appears. I look down the road leading up to the finish, and I suddenly see this missile flying down the street. And there is no mistaking this silver fox. I yell "yeah Kurt!" and I noticed I got the long distance thumbs up from him, I was so psyched he heard me. Then Kurt just comes barreling around the short corner to finish and we are all screaming. I stand up on the wooden fence and scream "yeah you crazy German!" And Kurt raises his arm and yells "fu#* yeah!" He knew he did it, and you know what, he not only did it, but he absolutely krushed it! He finished at 3:20! Are you kidding me? Dude ran 7:39 miles for the full, insane.

And to be honest, for me, the best part of the story is yet to come, and I know I am going to get killed for this. So Kurt finishes, and Bonnie and I find him and congratulate him really fast. He tells us he needs to keep walking, of course. About 2 minutes later, I am just standing there facing the finish line and I see Kurt running to the finsih line, it's Michelle! She was coming across the finish from her walk, and Kurt just sprinted to her. She finished right behind him, which may have bummed her out initially, but because she did, we all got to witness an embrace that I have never before seen. You couldn't even find this scene in a movie, and I am not exaggerating at all. Kurt goes running over to his wife and they both knew he had done it, and they kissed and hugged each other and it took about a second for the tears to start streaming down. In my defense, I wasn't expecting that, wow. And I have never seen anything like it before in my life. I remember thinking, THAT is what it's all about. And it was awesome because Michelle has supported Kurt for years while Kurt focused and worked so hard on achieving this huge goal. And to see them both there to celebrate his victory was something special.

So needless to say, we just chilled afterwards. We brought our celebratory BL's to toast with and we just hung out on the grass right by the finish line. It was great because as all the people pulled in from the full marathon, we could cheer for them. And not everyone had family or friends there, so we loved cheering the runners in. So the morning turned to 1pm fast, and it was time to go. We were pretty sure we had seen everyone come in, and the event staff were starting to pack it in too. I asked one of them on the way out "are we all in?" One of them said "we still have one more out there I think." Now we were bummed we were leaving, we thought we saw everyone finish. And this would have been the first time Bonnie or I had seen a full race of runners finish, and we thought we had just done that, what a bummer. And we aren't even sure if this last person is even still running. It started at 6:30 and it was 1pm, that's 6.5 hrs. Fortunately our car was right by the finish line and as we just started packing up our stuff in the car, and Karl goes "there he is." We all look up and see this guy hobbling down the home stretch. Now when I say this person was limp running, I am not exaggerating. We didn't even have to say it, we all headed back to the finish line to greet this soldier.

Now only because he was so hurt, we were able to even beat him back to the finish line. I suddenly decided that I wanted to finish with him, if he didn't mind. I pull up next to this gentleman and say "you mind if I pull in with ya?" and he says "not at all, I'd like that." By the way the guys is gray haired with a small pony tail in the back braided. He has to be late 50's or early 60's, so I am instantly impressed at what he is doing just on that alone. Our brief dialogue was as follows:

"How are you doing?"
"Good, but my knee. I need to have knee replacement surgery in August."
"Sorry to hear that, but good for you today doing this."
"Thanks, I have already done 219 of these damn things."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Yep"
"My name is Sean, congratulations and it is so nice to meet you."
"My name's Tex (something) from South Dakota, nice to meet you too, and thanks for finishing with me."

Are you kidding me? He has run 219 of these damn things??? That is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever heard of. And by the way, I wonder how many miles he ran limping, by himself. He has run 219 full marathons. I cannot imagine there are many people that have ever even done that, maybe one? And if you could have seen Tex finish, like we did, hobbling, but with such dignity, it was incredible. And the fact that we almost missed him is scary. We pulled in to the main lot just before we left to use the restrooms, and we got to see Tex at his car. He had running bumper stickers all over the windows of his white SUV, and then we looked at his front license plate and it reads nothing but "26.2" So frigging bad ass.

So I know this was a really long blog but I hope some of you enjoyed the stories. I felt unbelievable inspired and I hope any of you do as well. Cheers to Kurt & Tex!


Sean

We did it!

I started my final blog on my honeymoon in St Thomas, and it just wasn't there. I needed to be at home, on a Sunday night, feeling inspired. The marathon was 2 weeks ago from today, and it's nice bc it has given me a chance to reflect and take all of this in. It was another amazing experience to say the least. I have been thinking a lot about why I even do these marathons. Why do I put my body through the months of pain and conditioning? Is it just for the end result, just to know I can do a marathon? That's part of it, it is a cool kind of elite club to be a part of for sure. But I realized there are a lot of reasons why I do it. I love the conditioning my body goes through, it is a remarkable feeling of how healthy you feel while you train for one of these. I love the sense of accomplishment when we knock out our long runs during training. Smaller reasons would be so I can pig out on anything and everything for 4 months, and you deserve it all. The post party you get to throw for yourself is always nice as well, and because I do not want to get fat. But I gotta' tell you, the biggest reason why I do it is for the cause, and the cause is to beat cancer, and to comfort cancer victims as they suffer. Who hasn't been touched by cancer? And joining up with Team in Training, again, has been one of the best experiences ever for me. And everyone down from the coaches, to the people we train with, and to the volunteers that come out to work the aid stations, it is amazing. But here is the real deal, none of this, and I mean NONE OF THIS ever even gets off the ground without the people who donate to the cause, you! As a chapter up here in the great Northwest, we raised $93,000! This money will make a difference, a huge difference. And from every $10 donation to the bigger ones, they all matter so much. So thank you all again for your undying support.

Okay, now just a quick recap of the actual race: It was hot, really hot. We were at the start line hanging out at 4:45 and the fact that none of us were cold raised an early concern for me. You could just tell it was going to be a warm one. We made it out the gates at around 6:45, Bonnie, John, Kate & I. It was overcast as it should be in June for the early part of the race. The 4 of us ran together for the first half of the race (13 miles) but at mile 10 or so, I knew I was not going to be keeping up with the Jones'. I needed to run my own race. My plan all along was to take what the run gives me, and at the halfway point it was giving me a lot to deal with. It gets a bit discouraging when you're not running your big race the way you trained, but you just fight through it. The sun came out around mile 9, and when it arrived, it was beaming. We all had sun block on but I probably sweat mine completely off at mile 5, perfect. I cut those guys loose and made my way on to the 2nd half of the race solo. It was good for me, I could stop when I needed to and not feel guilty by having any of them wait for me. There were so many TNT people running so I would rap with people from time to time. I was plugging along doing pretty good until around mile 18 or so. I remember my feet were absolutely killing me, I still am not sure why. I literally stopped and took my shoes and socks off at mile 18to massage my feet, just so I could finish, it did help. But this is the last thing you want to be doing during the end part of your marathon, it's so easy to cramp up. The risk was worth the reward though, it had to be done.

I knew I had my great friends Geoff and Todd out there somewhere between 18-20, I just wasn't sure where. I prayed I would find them, especially because Geoff promised he would run 2 miles with me. And seeing as I was unexpectedly running solo, I was really looking for these guys. I come up to mile 19 and there is Geoff! I could not have been happier to see him, I was hurting pretty bad. I was so completely exhausted when I saw him, and nauseous. The sun was winning. Geoff and I ran along and my man kept pumping me up the whole time, I needed it. There was never thoughts of stopping or anything, I just needed a friend and a positive source of energy. We ran about a mile and then we saw Todd, so pumped. It was a perfect time to walk for a bit so we walked for about 5 minutes and rapped. Then Geoff and I were off again. At mile 21, Geoff and I approached Fiesta Island, and the last 5 miles were running around this island with the deceptive name, as there was no fiesta to be had I can assure you. Geoff kept telling me to cut him loose whenever I needed to, and I would tell him "you are gonna have to cut yourself loose buddy." He understood. As we approached the island, I had gotten my 2 miles out of him, and by the way Geoff just barely started jogging recently. He ran his first 5 miler the week before. And he had already run a mile with Bonnie earlier on. Bonnie cut him loose and said "now go get my boy."

As we approach the entrance to Fiesta, he tells me he is doing the island with me. I was so psyched! In my head I was praying he was not paying attention and that he was going to enter that final stretch by accident or something. Because once you start, there is not backing out. I could not have been more thrilled. Miles 21-23 were nothing short of a complete runner's nightmare. There was hardly any bands on the island and there was not an ounce of shade. I was roasting. And I was so nauseous I could barely hold down water. I dumped it on my head every chance I got to stay cool but that barely helped. But I was still sweating which was a good thing. If that stops you are in trouble. We ran and walked from miles 21-23, and Geoff told me afterwards he was pretty worried about me at like mile 22. As Geoff puts it, "you were a little wobbly." Then all of a sudden at mile 23 I came back to life, all thanks to the one and only Journey. Yeah that's right, Steven frigging Perry saved my arse! One of the only bands in there was there at mile 23 ripping off a Journey cover and it kicked me into gear. I can't even remember which one it was but I know it's on the greatest hits album. We ran the rest of the way which was awesome, I just wanted to finish so bad, and I wanted off the island! I kept yelling that, calling myself John Locke. Other runners were rolling. It's funny I get this "crazy time" as I like to call it at the end of my marathons. I just start yelling or singing or just talking crazy, and it helps me, and singing journey and yelling I want off the island was my crazy time.

We finally get about 50 yards from the finish and Geoff cuts me loose. He says he can't cross the finish line bc it's be like drinking out of Lord Stanley's Cup without winning it, I understood. So I say my goodbyes and I start hauling. When I tell you I sprinted, I mean I am not even sure I have ever run that fast before in my life. My other friend Gerry said he saw some screwball come flying through the finish and then realized it was me and started cheering 'go Sully!". Classic.

So I finished my race in 5:07 and Bonnie did hers in 4:14, her PR, her personal record. Imagine she runs her best run on a steamer like this? Truly unbelievable. As Bonnie puts it, "I just felt good." My boy John finished but struggled hard at the end, he pushed to hard and tried to run with Bonnie for too long, silly boy. But A for effort Johnny! So the marathon itself was such a huge success; we hit our fundraising goal, and we both finished and didn't hurt ourselves, well permanently. So once again, I am signing off on the blog, at least until another marathon sucks me in. Once again, Bonnie and I can't thank all of you enough for your support and encouragement. You guys reading this are the ones that make this all possible and worth while. Signing off from blogville, I will miss you and terribly miss doing this blog, cheers guys!

San Diego-Here we come!!!

We are less than a week away from the big dance, oh how the time can fly. Happy Memorial Day to everyone reading. Saturday was our last long distance run, and I couldn't be happier. Not happy to end our TNT experience, but you get to a point as the marathon nears, where you just say "enough already, I am ready!" It is great knowing your training is essentially over, and that the big event you have been training so hard for is just around the corner.

Saturday was an 8 miler, just an 8 miler kids, no big deal. Everyone just calm down, please. The weather was kind of crappy, but not actually raining, just damp and chilly. I told Bonnie if there is one week I did not care what the weather was going to be like, this was the week. We are just tapering down now, the trainings done. John, Bonnie, Kate and I ran together, at least for about 7 of the 8 miles we did. We could all tell Bonnie was feeling it and that she was kind of holding back. Then at mile 7 she said she is gonna "pick it up" because she feels like running hard. So I saw her raise, and I sped it up a bit. Well it didn't take long for me to get winded, so I said bye to babe and slowed it down. Then it hits me, this my last run. I have to catch Bonnie, or at least die trying. I turn to John and Kate and say "you think I can catch Bonnie?" I was off, almost sprinting. I was about 50 yards back from her, but she was not jogging. I dug deep to catch her, and I did catch her right at the end. Bonnie was surprised to see me, I was too. Her and I were fully sprinting at the very end, but of course I held her off for the victory. I am not competitive or anything...

So next Sunday June 6th is the marathon. San Diego has this bad boy starting at 6:30am. Bonnie and I hope to see everyone we can while we are in town. Sunday night Longboards looks like the call.

As we near the end of our marathon training, we also near the end of the blog. I will miss the blog, a lot. And once again, this Team in Training experience has been nothing short of amazing. I always seem to be chatting it up about our phenomenal Coach Karl. Our other Coach is Jenn, and this girl is just unreal. She was due to have her first baby last week. She is as pregnant as pregnant can be. She comes to all of our workouts, and for our Wednesday night track workouts, she's always there, cold rainy nights or shine, doesn't matter. She has been such a great coach and inspiration to all of us.

I look forward to letting you all know how my 2nd marathon goes; wish Bonnie and I luck. This will be her 4th marathon, so she doesn't need as much luck as I do. And I have only had a few people ask me to run on behalf of a family/friend, but we both would love nothing more than to fill up our shirts with names, whether it's a Cancer victim or a Cancer survivor. Thank you again everyone for all of your support throughout, and I will work extremely hard to make you all proud of me. This is an amazing cause, and I am blessed to be a part of it, cheers!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean

May 22nd-What a day!

Today turned out to be a phenomenal day, and it's so great when you can pull off one of these days on a day when things could be rough. Today is the 3 year anniversary of Big Neil's passing.

For starters, my brother Brendan got a yellow lab puppy, he picked it up today. The breeder called him today and said "he's ready." The breeder had no idea what today was, but they played a nice role didn't they. And what better way to celebrate my dad's anniversary of his death, with life. So Brendan went and got his new puppy and now they had to name it. My mom of course pushed the Irish names (A for effort mom) but in the end, there was really just one name for this special little dude, Ace. My dad's nickname. I love when Neil reminds me how my dad got that nickname, I mean the guy had about ten nicknames. So for about a year, my dad and I worked together everyday doing windows, just the two of us pretty much. And I told him how if we were going to work together everyday, we needed to come up with a nickname for him. Calling him "dad" was too boring. I eventually came up with Ace; it was short, easy and it worked. And he was an Ace in the hole, always was. So cheers to Brendan on the puppy and the awesome name.

And the other good thing that happened today was Bonnie and I went out and smashed our 12 miler! We simply krushed it. Oh, and guess what else happened? My man Kurt came and surprised us for a celebratory run. So John and I had our old partner in crime to run with today, bueno. My run went well at the beginning, pretty standard, just not bad and not great. But as the run went on, I felt better and better. I remember John saying to me at like mile 9, "you got that extra step today Sean, I see it." And I did, I could feel the "pop" today, I was running inspired.

At around mile 10.5 or so, I realized that I still have a ton in the tank, so I cut loose. I took off and I caught up to some other TNT friends and ran with them for a bit, but then I kept going. And two of the people I passed were Kate and Tyler, two of the fastest people we train with. I was now flying for the last mile, and one of the best things about this training is I am learning what I can do with this body I was dealt with. I know how hard I can push it, and when I need to pull back with it. I have had such a great training, no injuries and no bad runs. You cannot ask for more than that. So as I am hauling, I kept looking back at Kate and Tyler to see how far I was distancing myself. And on one of these times I turned around, I see Kurt, flying! I yell "you better not let me beat you" and then I ran even faster. Well that's all he needed to hear and see. A minute later he is right next to me and I was practically sprinting. We finished the run together, and still somehow conversing with one another. John tells me after I finish that I was running sub 8 mile at the end, which is just a cool way of saying we were running less than an 8 minute mile, schwing!

It was another great run, and it was a blast running with Kurt. And again, everyone else had a killer run too. Bon crushed her run, and my man John came in right behind Kurt and I, so he was hauling at the end as well. And Bonnie is going to be a joining the Team in Training staff (Congrats Bonnie!). So today she started her run at 7am (we all started ours at 8am) because she had another TNT event to go in the a.m. She did say she would try to come back and see me finish my run. So as I pull into the finish of my run, there's Bonnie waiting there in this crazy wig I own, and she is wearing my official shirt I wore in the Alaska marathon. The shirt is so sweet, it has a huge picture of my dad's firefighter picture on the back, and it has all the names of the people we ran for that year. It was an awesome surprise. It was an amazing finish and a wonderful tribute from Bonnie to Ace. So yeah, what a day right? And of course the Celtics won one for the big guy as well, why not. And lastly, for everyone that has donated to our cause, thank you so much. Let's face it, no one likes to ask their friends and family for donations, and this week was crunch time for us, and so many of you were unbelievable with helping us at our most critical hour. And if anyone still wants to donate it's not too late. But thank you to each and every one of you that donated to our cause in a real crappy economy. And for the people that were unable to contribute, thank you so much for your support. Thanks for the great emails and phone calls of encouragement, and of course the awesome blog comments. Thanks to everyone for doing what they did, as Bonnie & I try to make a difference against Cancer. We are nothing without all of you, I promise. Gracias, and as always, thanks for reading.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm



Sean

Who does # 2 work for???

The task at hand on Saturday morning was daunting, or at least it seemed to be. Go out children, go out and run 20 miles, that's what they told us to do. So what did I do? I went out and took a big dump all over those 20 miles, that's right. And then I said deal with it! Ok sorry, that was disgusting, I appologize, all I was trying to say is I had a great run, and so did Bonnie. That was gross and there will be no more talk of poo, I promise, well, at least not my poo. But everybody does poo you know.

Ok, now that we have that all cleared up, let's talk about the run. Saturday again provided picture perfect temperatures and you couldn't ask for better weather to take on a 20 miler. It was about 65-68 degrees, gorgeous. Bonnie & I hadn't run at all in the last 2 weeks by the way, we've been kind of busy. We did get an 80 minute run in on Thursday though, and it was a nightmare run by the way, but we got it out of our systems. We needed to get the junk out so to speak, and in Bonnie's case on Saturday, literally. Poor Bonnie has been nicknamed "inoppurtune pooer". The last few times we have had long runs, Bonnie's stomach starts going haywire right before we run, or just as we are pulling out of the driveway type of stuff, poor kid. We will be ready ro run and Bon just gives me that look, and it's the "inopportune poo look", and I know it well. Neil, it was the same you look you used to give me outside Ernie's Lunch on the way to school as kids, I know this look. So anyways, poor Bonnie had to make 4 different trips to the latrine along the way, which sucks. I am joking about this bc that is what we runners do, in our "running world", we really yuk it up big time about the inopportune poos...

All joking aside, we both had phenomenal runs, we couldn't have been happier. As were coming into our mile 17 aid station, we were feeling unbelievable, and miles 10-17 were pretty hilly. So Bon had some stomach issues, and my only issue was my legs were really sore, the sorest they have been all season. But the only reason I was so sore is bc I hadn't run in almost 2 full weeks, so that was no concern. At around mile 17 we were realizing how great our breathing was, we weren't winded, at all. So as we came off the big hill of Terwilliger, we are so pumped! It was great bc we kept getting each other pumped up about how great our runs were going, good ol' husband & wife teamwork ya know.

So mile 18 or so we are coming up to some train tracks and this long freight train is about to come through. And the last thing you want to do when you are that close to finishing a run is to stop, you will tighten up within seconds. So we are approaching the tracks and we hear "ding ding ding ding". We are now both sprinting, which is no fun at mile 18. We beat the train by about 10 seconds and otherwise, we would have been stuck there for over 5 minutes, unacceptable. I remember thinking if it were me, solo, and I got stuck, I'd consider walking over it, it's not really going that fast.

We ended our run sprinting, of course, like we always do. And John's GPS said we ran 20.8, can't argue with that. So our marathon is in San Diego in 3 weeks, we hope to see anyone and everyone while we are there. Details on that to follow, and thanks for reading.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean

16 Miles, whadda' you get?

Some real sore legs and a puddle of sweat. So another milestone knocked out for the kids yesterday and this one really felt good. John was back in town so it was nice to have my running mate back with me. And Bonnie ran with Tyler again, and they knocked it right out of the park. Bonnie's really hit her stride, and it's great to see.

Another Saturday, and another perfect weather day. The running Gods smiled upon us again. The route was NW Portland and it was good because the route was all mixed up, some trails, neighborhoods, cool areas with shops. John and I kept commenting on how much we were enjoying the route. I felt great, right out the gates. I have this new mindset with my pre-run preparations on Friday night. I am anticipating these long runs, as I am realizing how amazing these weekly accomplishments are, especially for guys like John and I. We are not runners, in that, we run when we have trained for these marathons. In the 2 years since I ran my last marathon, I have run on my own less than 5 times. So when we go out and knock out these long runs, I am absolutely pumped. I knew this week would be my first ice bath, and I actually was happily anticipating it often during my run. And let me tell you, it was everything I hoped it would be. It is unbelievable how much those help.

So John and I finished our run with Jan, and those two both have a gps, and they both had us at 14 miles, two short of our goal. The Coaches thought they could have lost their gps signal in the park, we weren't sure, so we made our way out, to go run two more. Two miles, just 8 laps around the track. It is crazy how little that distance can feel like, and how long it can feel like. It was a very long 2 miles to say the least, but we both finished strong.

The attached picture is of John, Bonnie, myself, and my nip guard band aids. The band aids are a unique brand, they are pink Hello Kitty band aids, compliments of Coach Karl, thanks Coach, they are just so manly...But no bloody nipples for this kid. So in summary, it was a great run, my best long run of the season. We all krushed it. The marathon is less than two months away, so from now on, it's all about nip guards and ice baths baby! Aren't you jealous? Thanks for reading.

http://etools.teamintraining.org/Etools/?ProgramGroup=tnt

Sean

Guess who's back???

Let me begin by telling you it is not the wingnut in this photo that's back. And don't you just look great after a nice 15 mile run? It's funny, I bet you had no idea Bonnie was gone, but she was, kind of. For most people, running like Bonnie when she is "off" is running great, it's what I have been doing. And that kind of sums it up though doesn't it? I don't run with Bonnie!!! You all knew this, and yet no one said anything to me? Todd, anyone? I thought we were friends. I started thinking I could hang with the big boys and you all didn't say a word? Not one reply post of:

"Yeah Sean, good job running with Bonnie while she takes running siesta"
or
"Nice Sean, what's that, you beat Bonnie? Ohhhh, so right at the end you sprinted faster? Wow, awesome dude".

That's all fine and good, I was not completely naive to think I was a Bonner; a runner and Bonnie in one. But I will say it has been great running with her the last few weeks, it just doesn't happen often enough. And on Saturday, for the first time this year ladies and gents, Bonnie was on FIRE! Nearly perfect, well it was a perfect run for her, so yeah, it was perfect. She Krushed it Karl! Nothing is better than taking on your longest run, and making it your best run. Our girl kicked butt.

As for my run, it was interesting. 15 miles baby, no joke. We started at our coffee shop spot, perfect weather. Bonnie makes her way out the gates with Tyler, total stud runner, she's fast. And it was cool because I remember thinking, this will be perfect for Bonnie. She has been due to crush a run. But it's not like she has a lot going on or anything...I am running behind her with Marianne, and my run is going fine. Not great, not bad, it was just fine. Like you are floating in the ocean, and there's no sharks around, or at least you don't think there are.

So I start this game in my head of "how long can I run and still see Bonnie". Miles 1-10 were good, I could see her most of the time. Then at around mile 7, my left contact lense is driving me nuts. This goes on for about 5 annoying minutes, so I say adios. You only technically need one anyways. Bonnie and Tyler started waiting for me at the aid stations, and I kinda knew it, but I wasn't complaining. I ran solo pretty much. Sometimes you just wanna run alone, today I did. So around mile 9, my RIGHT contact starts bothering me. So I tried rubbing it and I knocked it out of my eye. I stop running and I see it on my finger, even though it's windy. I know I have one shot at this, and as I raise it, it blows away. I have no more contatcs. I swear I couldn't make this shit up.

Now this should not be that big of a deal, but "I can't see so good..." And it's so fun squinting as you are running long distance with sweat in your eyes, just to read street names linked to your routes, while running solo...At around mile 12 my right foot starts KILLING me. I am wearing brand new shoes for the first time. Every Keith Byars step I took at this point killed. So I drop to the curb, the shoe's gotta come off. I have never removed my shoe mid run before. You hope to never have to. I rub it and loosen the laces, and it was better, I could run again. The last aid station is at mile 13.25, but I know I will not see Bonnie at this last one, I was so far behind them now, and then I see her purple shirt ahead in front of me! I actually sprinted to the aid station, I was so pumped to see her after what just happened. I was really hoping to see her, and she was there waiting for me, of course. I ran with them for 30 seconds and said see you at the finish. So we finished the run in one piece, with a lot of help, our aid station workers ruled! I came into the parkling lot with guns in the air, like I just won a marathon. I was pumped to knock this one out. And my buddy Mike the cop knocked out his first 15 miler, on an ankle that looks like a grapefruit, unreal. Thanks for reading guys!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean

Inspired

Wednesday:
Usually our Wednesday night endurance runs are not that exciting, but this one was. About a month ago, a girl named Shannon came and spoke to us before one of our Saturday runs. She talked to us about her special friend Natasha, a little girl she got matched up with through the Children's Cancer Association. Natasha lost her fight to cancer. Shannon was so touched by this little girl Natasha that she decided to run a marathon distance (26.2 miles) for her, after work on Wednesday. Imagine that, imagine running a marathons distance in the evening in someone's honor. These are the types of people we are blessed to interact with. So during our endurance run through downtown Portland, our Coaches made sure we met up with her along her route so that we all got to run with her for a bit. It was awesome, and we got to see Natasha's mom and other TNT people/friends rooting Shannon on while we ran with her for a bit, very emotional to say the least. I wondered what Shannon's water cooler chat was like on Thursday. I imagine it being something like this:

Shannon: "Hey Tina, how was your night last night?"
Tina: "Oh it was good, I made some dinner and watched Modern Family. How about you Shannon?"
Shannon: "Well I got out of here and went and ripped off a personal marathon around Portland."

Are you kidding me???

So my actual training on this night was just go run 6 miles, and again, I ran with "the fast kids", but this run got interesting for me about halfway though. I pushed myself on this run harder than I have on any previous run. I thought I just wanted to push myself, but I realize now, as I type this blog that I did it because I was inspired, inspired by Shannon. Oh and just to set the scene, I had this sharp, sucky pain in my side as soon I started running, probably bc I didn't drink enough water, and that pain never went away during my run, awesome. And then, at around mile 3, I find myself running next to Maryann, the fastest girl we train with. You have to see this girl run, it is beyond effortless, and beyond impressive. And before I knew it, her and I were pulling away from Bonnie and the gang. And then we pulled even further away , and there was no letting up now, so I said what the fu*#. I knew we had about 2.5 miles to go, and I just hauled ass with her for the rest of the run. I was one level away from sprinting, and before I knew it, we were easily running an 8 minute mile speed, probably faster, and we were conversing! Well, I conversed and sucked wind while Maryann casually conversed and trotted along. And at one point, she even tells me that I am pushing her, I couldn't believe it, nor could I believe I was still keeping up with her. And I almost finished the run with her, but I was either going to throw up or pass out, so I slowed down right at the end. Oh the things we do for the cause.

Saturday's run (our long run) started off rough, weather-wise. It was raining pretty good and it was just raw as hell. We have been so lucky on our long runs, so I knew this day would come. But it was a fall back day, so we were only running 10 miles, last week we ran 12. I love that I am already saying "only 10 miles". Bon and I said we would run together, nice and slow. I was committed to that cause. We have both pushed pretty hard on our long runs up until now, so I LOVED taking this one easy. And I have to say, it was an easy 10. It seems like such an oxymoron but sometimes you have these good runs, you wish they were all this good. And Bonnie and I got to run with this great couple Mike and Kelly. Mike is a cop, and he and Kelly are running the San Diego marathon with us in June. I got to find out why they signed up for TNT. Mike lost one of his fellow cops/friends on the job to cancer, and they are both running in his honor. It is amazing what these people we train with do to themselves for other people. The time this training takes out of your lives is unprecedented, and what it does to your body is mind blowing. The aches and the pains are all worth it though when you have a purpose. But the ones that really blow me away are the ones that are training with us and are raising thousands of dollars just because they are amazing people. Happy Easter everyone, and thanks for reading.

And by the way, we are a country mile away from our fundraising goal, so if anyone feels inspired to help by donating a small amount, please do so. Thanks!


http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean

12, is the magic number

Tuesday:
I finally ran on my own, finally. I was really holding out, I mean it's been almost 2 full months of training, and I have not run on my own once, until today. Tonight Bonnie and I set out to do a 40 minute run. We knew the run would be short, so we pushed. We ran hills and tried to run hard. It was hard, but fun running with just Bonnie, and we both did pretty good.

Wednesday:
Wednesday night is when we do our endurance workouts. Tonight was fun, we met at a pizza place downtown and ran over the bridges of Portland. If you do not live here, you would be impressed with the bridges. There are about 10 of them heading into Portland, and you can run back on forth over them all day. That was our run tonight: run a mile, and then for 15 minutes, run 30 seconds hard & then 30 seconds light, I loved it. Bon & I ran it together, so yes, I kept up with Bonnie. We take on 12 this Saturday, and I know I feel ready. I like the new challenge of the new longest distance run, bring it.

Saturday was a good day for us, just not an easy day at all. The Portland half marathon is in two weeks, and this course we ran was similar to that. Like I was saying last week, you love the fall back (in distance) runs, but the next week it's hard. We did 10, 10 again, 7 last week and 12 this week. That jump from 7 to 12 is hard. The run went pretty good though, it just took everything I had to finish it, same as Bonnie. I did tell John at around mile 7 that I was going to beat Bonnie on this run, he laughed at me. I ran my 12 miles at 9.3 minute miles, which is pretty good for me. Our Coaches were telling us to pull back on speed because we should run slower on longer runs. But it was funny, John and Bonnie and I started off the run with "the fast kids", and I was determined to try to finish with them. We ran with them for about 11 of the 12 miles, not bad. So we didn't finish with them, but I did beat Bonnie. Granted it was by about 5 steps, but you have to take those small victories when you get them. Just the fact that John & I kept up with Bonnie til the end was impressive.

That's about it, good run, logged 12 more, and ready for more. Thanks for reading.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm


Sean

Did you hear that???

In case any of you were wondering what that sound was on Saturday, it was the sound of me Krushing it. And Timmy, you may have heard Bonnie as well, because she krushed it too. What a day to say the least. The stage was set for a couple of small town kids that are trying to do the right thing, to absolutely krush it, and that is what we did.

As you can guess, both Bonnie & I had great runs on Saturday. Weather-wise, it was one of the best days of the year. It was in the low 70's at it's warmest, just stellar running weather. We start our run at 8am, and by 8:45 it was already a perfect temperature. And we ran my favorite route, the good ol' OMSI route, along the trail, for the first time this year. I slap Bon on the butt and said bye to her before we even left the gates, I know whats up. It's funny I usually do not even start with Bon anymore because it lasts for such a short amount of time.

So John & I (picture above) make our way out and we are not even 2 minutes in and he asks me if we want to try to run with Kate today, and I was kinda laughing, til I realized he was serious. Oh yeah John, great idea. Let's attempt to run with Kate; one of the fastest girl we train with, ha. I go "nah Johnny, I am perfectly fine running at my regular pace, but she's right there 20 runners up near Bonnie if YOU feel catching up". We both silently agreed that was a bad idea, but it was kind of funny to hear John even throw that out there. I even remember telling John how, "I don't like to train faster than I normally do bc it could screw up my training". What a wuss statement. Playing it a little too safe sometimes Seanie boy, because you have to step it up once in awhile, don't you?

So John always has his GPS, which is awesome. And on today's menu we are only running 7, sweet. And it's the second to last time we ever pull back on our mileage, everyone loves these days. So John tells me about 3 miles in we are clipping like a 9 minute mile, I say "no shit". And what do you know, we were. That's really good for us snails who normally run 10 min. miles. But then I start wondering if we are running this fast, why don't we see Bonnie? I will tell you that in a bit now.

So it's a 3.5 out and back. So we hit the aid station and our friend Jan is there, and we were running with her for a bit and she runs like a 9.20 mile or so. And Jan says "man you guys were flying". I saw Bon at the station and I realized if I was flying, Bon must have really been flying. So we make our way back and John and I started running a little faster. I remember John saying "you need a nice hill to chill you out". Now keep in mind, John & I are the poster boys of the 10 min. mile guys, we could wear T shirts that said that. So we hit about the 5 mile mark and I am not feeling the affects at all. And I realize that I have the chance to put together a legit run for once, goddamn! I keep pushing it and John is starting to fall off a bit. I really want to finish this run with John, us two slugs don't ever run this fast, except for today.

Coach Karl pulls up out of nowhere and starts running with us on his phone, while possibly finishing up his coffee. It's so funny how effortless running is for Karl, he could juggle and run with us two. So John's a few feet behind me with Karl and I start yelling things to Karl like:

"Dude don't even bother trying to keep up with me today"
and
"Stay on that phone pal, because you don't want none of this today son!"

Karl finishes making a sandwich while running with us and leaves us. I was psyched though that Karl got to see Johnny & I crushing it though. But then I was thinking "he was on the phone, he has no clue how fast we are running, damn it".

So I am at about mile 6 and I decide to go Hulk Hogan on the route; the shirt's coming off for this victory lap in! Hulkamania is going to run wild today! I look behind me and John's tailing off further, and I am bummed, but I can't slow down now. So I keep running at my pace and I turn around about 100 ft from the finish and guess who's pulling up? My man John!!! I am so stoked, and he is flying by the way. I am just laughing right now so hard writing this bc I think my man surprised the hell out of himself, shit he surprised the HELL out of me. I tell John how stoked I am he caught up, and he is as well. I was psyched he wanted to finish this run with me as much as I did with him. So we are about 50 ft from the finish and I say "you know how I like to finish these", which is full on sprinting. And John says "dude, I just sprinted to catch you". I say "come on, let's be famous today" and we both bolted.

We finished the run at 8.38 per mile! Hands down a personal best for John & I. Oh and by the way, Bonnie ran the entire run with that fast girl Kate, and Bonnie ran at 8.15 per mile, wow. Bonnie usually hovers right around a 9 min. mile so this was a personal best for her as well. So it was an amazing day for the TNT crew.

Thanks for reading everyone!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean

10 more fillmore

Today was our second 10 miler, in a row. We knew before our run it was going to be emotional, as there was an incredibly sad loss for TNT this past week: we lost one of our honored teamates, Hunter, and he was 4 years old. Each season for TNT we honor cancer victims, so we run for them, and it is pretty powerful. But can you imagine losing your child at the age of 4? And Hunter fought the fight of fights, but sadly lost in the end. The coaches passed out Hunter's picture and safety pins so we could all run with Hunter on this run. I would need his inspiration later.

So the first 6 miles we just ran 3 miles out and back. So I hit the TNT aid station and took off to run my last 4 miles. Well the first 6 were ok for me, and then it was almost all hills for the last 4. I don't know if it is the bh's or the lack of personal training during the week, but the last four miles were rufffffff. A few times on the last four miles, I couldn't catch my frigging breath at all. And I was running with my friends Kurt & John, which always helps, as running alone blows. My kankle started bothering me again, probably 'cause I've sprained it three or four times. At about mile 8 I am in pain, I can't catch my breath, and I was just struggling. So I rubbed Hunter's picture on my chest and was like "do it for the man". It helped me focus and get my breathing down. It's crazy how hard it is to run in any type of rhythm when you are sucking wind. So John runs with his his GPS, and as we pull in to finish our run, John assures Kurt and I that we only ran 9.7 and that we need to run another .3 to hit 10 miles. I told John he was going in the lake, I was half kidding. But the run did end good for me and of course Bonnie crushed it, even the hills. She is so much cooler than me nowadays...

Now two years ago when we trained together, we were one less in the Sullivan Clan. So when we got home we both could just crash. Now when we get home, we have to take care of Taylor. Normally I don't even take naps, but these post-run naps aren't even an option. Your legs are so tight, and you are physically exhausted. I am walking like Frankenstein already. Bonnie said to me at one point "now begins the lazy Saturdays", and man is she right. Because even after your siesta you are just out of it, and sore as hell. Feeling "screwed up" seems to sum it up nicely I think. So we let our babysitter go home and we both hit the wall. I am so tired I can't even change out of my smelly running clothes, oh and Taylor is sick with conjunctivitis and one hell of a cold. Fun I tell ya for two exhausted parents. So I plead with her to let me nap first, and to be honest I wasn't really even asking. I was going down hard. So I pass out for about an hr and Bon wakes me up for second duty. So we got through it but as these runs get longer and we get home even more exhausted, this is going to get more and more difficult. But we will manage, we always do. Maybe we will keep the sitter sround while we sleep, who knows.

But it's all so worth it, every bit of it. As much as we hurt and struggle as we train, it pales one million percent to what all cancer victims endure, and their families. And so everyone reading knows, I do not plan on always asking people reading this to donate on my blogs, but if you are planning on donating, our recommittment deadline is this Friday. We need to have 25% of our fundraising goal to stay in the TNT trainig, and we are a ways away from that. So if you are planning on donating (thank you!), could you try to donate by Thursday? We will be extremely thankful. And guys a $20 donation will go a long way for us, thanks.

We love you guys and thanks for reading!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean & Bonnie

Jumping right back in with a nice long one...

Saturday was interesting to say the least, but I think a little morning chaos can be good for you. We were told we were going to be running 100 minutes on Saturday, on the steepest street in Portland called Terwilliger. So some basic math here, I run about ten minute miles, so I am looking at running 10 hilly miles. Last week I only ran 5, so I was a little unnerved about running this far, and the route. And a slight piece of history here with this street: This is the street the infamous "Shamrock Run" takes place on, the one I ran 2 years ago the day after getting annilated with my brother Mark on St Patty's. I thought I was going to collapse on that run, It is the run that made me start writing my blog. I was still drunk that year and ran 9 miles. Not a good idea.

So every weekend has been funny for Bonnie & I, as we try to figure out who will watch Taylor for our Saturday long runs. Well, we had no one this weekend, but we got the ok from Coach Karl that we could bring Taylor to the workout. Now Bonnie is a Mentor for our running group, so she was going to skip our group run, and just hang out with Taylor, and maybe work one of the aid stations. We figured when we got home she could run on her own, but that's just no fun.

We arrived right at 8am and at around 8:10 I was off. The route for today is run up this huge hill and down the other side, and then come on back. The run was intimidating for me also because on the way to the car I was carrying Taylor in her car seat, and I feel this tweak in my back. Unreal, right before this long run. The whole ride there I was nervous about how much it was going to affect my run. The good news is it didn't at all. I ended up having an unbelievable run, I was so pumped. And it was one of the nicest days we've had all winter, and my back never bothered me at all.

So I am on my way back down Terwilliger and I see Bonnie running up the hill, and no Taylor. Bonnie did bring our jogging stroller but she wasn't supposed to be running. I guess Bonnie got antzy and got the ok to take Taylor for her run. So Bonnie loads up Taylor and starts running up this insane hill with her. You would laugh if you saw how steep this street is by the way. So Bonnie gets about 40 minutes into her run and Linda, one of the running captains, was on her way down the hill and thought Bonnie was insane pushing Taylor up this mountain of a street, so she took Taylor back to our home base. So I pass Bonnie on my way down and I see her, but no Taylor. Bonnie runs by me and says "Linda has Taylor", and then Bonnie's gone. I say to myself, ok, but who the hell is Linda? I have no clue.

One of the best things about doing our marathon with Team in Training is it really is like one big family. I met Linda at the bottom and she was great. Taylor was in great hands and Bonnie ended up having a kick ass run as well. And knowing that we are raising money for cancer research makes every long run worthwhile. That being said, if everyone reading this could find a way to donate just $20, we would come close to our goal of $2,900 that we need to raise. And if you donate on our website, it's so easy, and your name will scroll by on our website, very cool.

You can copy & paste the website below. Bonnie & I are running the San Diego Rock n Roll marathon for cancer, and we need your help. Thanks everyone!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

I'm Back...

Bonnie and I decided that we didn't nearly kill ourselves enough 2 years ago doing the marathon up in Anchorage, AK, so why not do another one? We are running the San Diego Rock-n-Roll in June. Training to me is already funny. I am like Jennifer Anniston in Office Space, really just getting by on minimum flare. I only run when I am forced to and I am yet to even jog a mile on my own. So last week's 7 miler was really easy....Training could be interesting for anyone who is bored and feels like a laugh from time to time. Here we go...

It’s pretty funny the different times I am watching American Idol and I realize one of the reasons this show is as successful as it is, these people are crazy. I mean wow. I watch the show, I admit it, big deal, 1/3 of the rest of the country does too. American Idol gets these people to come try out and then we all get to sit at watch them show how nuts some of them are.

So I was just in Dallas, TX and Bonnie's good friend Carla was there, and she always asks for a blog, so here ya go, this one is for you darling. Bonnie is doing great, and April 18th is the due date, almost 2 months away. We have decided on names, and seeing as we are not finding out the sex, we are not holding back on the names:

If it is a boy, he will be named Jack Cornelius Sullivan. He will be named after my grandfathers, and his grandfather as well, Big Neil.
If we are blessed with a daughter, she will be named Alexandra Kate Sullivan. Bonnie and I just love Alex for a girl.

So I have noticed when you tell people you are not finding out the sex, you can get some interesting reactions. For all you parents reading, I’m sure you were asked the million-dollar question a ton as well:

“Do you know what you are having?”

And then we say, “nope, we’re not finding out.”

You would not believe the reactions! I will say to the people that are not parents yet, who swear they have to know, you should at least consider the latter. Keep in mind I am only saying what I know, but it has been pretty fun for us guessing. I said I would never want to know and Bonnie was kinda leaning towards finding out, which was good for us because we knew we would be talking openly about both options. We are both glad we are not finding out.

I had a lot of cousins growing up, and my cousin Brian was a few years older than me. In my family with cousins, the cousins kind of paired up according to age. Well, I paired up with Brian, he let me. Brian and his wife Lisa have 5 lovely children. Guess how many they found out the sex on? None.Four girls and a cool little dude name Jack. Brian, I love that name Jack by the way...So when I said on a blog we were considering finding out the sex , Brian emailed me and said "you are going to get a lot of advice from a lot of people when you are having a baby, so I mine as well give you mine: don't find out."

I find myself telling the story often of you and Lisa not finding out the sex with all five when this topic arises. And for your information, you guys are almost famous out here on the west coast, very cool. People almost fall over when I tell them. And then I always follow with how Neil and Jess have never found out on their two and will not on their third coming at the same time as us. Is not finding out making a comeback?

I hope everyone reading this is doing great. We miss all of you guys. Cheers.


Sean

What's new in Portland...

So I am trimming my beard the other night, and I don't see a ton of trimmings in the sink, huh. Then I look down and see the hairs of my beard resting peacefully on my belly, ouch. So in case anyone was wondering how much I've been running, or just how good of shape I am in since the marathon, there's your answer. Yeah I am pretty much at my fattest weight ever. But I'm still under 200, for now..So with the pregnancy, supposedly it's a whole thing where the guy puts on weight with the mom, ya know to make her feel better about her weight gain. Yeah, that's what I've been doing...

On a serious note, I am very happy to report that our lovely Bonnie is doing awesome. She is very lucky, and grateful. And speaking of being grateful, I am very happy to report all tests have come back fine with the baby thus far. And Bonnie is officially showing!!! So funny, she was getting a little perturbed that at like the 5 month mark, she was still not showing. She has a little poochy, nothing too crazy, yet. I hear the last few months of the pregnancy fly by, so here we go. We are now just under the 6 month mark. They say the baby is fully developed and is just growing now. By the way, I love saying “we” are pregnant. As if I am carrying a little bambino inside of me too. Not the case. But on that note, “we” are due on April 18th. I plan on frolicking and doing the no pants dance for at least part of that day. We are not finding out the sex which has both of us so excited and constantly guessing. I think her insane running kick she was on this summer has helped her out a bunch. We had our 3rd ultrasound recently, these things are like crack. You cannot get enough of these things. I am sure the baby would love that analogy.

So I finally got engaged, God it took her long enough….But man it was worth the wait. I totally said yes! I took Bonnie for a nice get away weekend down to Bend, OR and did the old “knee-dance”. It was cool, she had no idea, which was my biggest concern. We went for a Mt bike ride through this cool park and we pulled over and I finally got her to put her bike down after asking her to like five or six times. I swear at one point I almost grabbed the damn bike and threw it on the ground. That would have gone over smooth I’m sure…I had my bottle of expensive (ha) champagne in my backpack ready to go. I tried to buy non-alcoholic before I left but I guess who bothers to drink that? Well no one is making it, at least not out here in alcy-ville. It was funny bc I popped it out after she said yes, and Bonnie was like “well I guess you have to drink the whole bottle now, I'm pregnant”. The cork went flying off and probably killed a deer when I popped it. So we sipped and dumped, and then I just tossed the empty bottle out into the woods...I am kidding, we smashed it off a rock by the lake...no.

On a different note, Bonnie, the dogs and myself, and most likely the baby are moving back to Boston. I guess we just want to see how much or little the baby actually cries at night...jk. But seriously, it is just “back” to Boston for me, but I think Bonnie is ready to take on the Bostonian ways. I have been teaching her to use her horn when she drives to get ready. We do not have any set date for the move, but we are for sure having the baby here in Portland. Tentatively I guess we think the end of next summer or early fall is when we would like to move.

It was a tough decision to make seeing as neither one of us are from Portland. The main deciding factor for us was that if we are moving mostly bc we are having the baby, we should keep the baby’s best interests at heart. With Thomas James and Sophia both being so young, he/she will have cousins to grow up with as kids. And the fact that Neil and Jessica are just baby making machines and are now having their THIRD baby, how couldn't we be back there? And Jess is due now officially ONE WEEK AFTER US!!! Are you kidding me??? It feels like a sign. These little rugrats could come popping out on the same day, unreal.

I really don’t have too much more to report at this time. Oh actually, Bonnie and I had our first official adult snow day today, and we only had 4 inches, and it was all last night. Man, we didn't even get a day off of school back home unless we had 6 inches the morning of....We miss all you guys and we hope to see you all soon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone reading from Bonnie and I, Cheers!

Sean

Whoops!

So what it is they say about laughing at yourself? Fool me once....we won't be fooled again? Wait no, well whatever, let's just say this: if you laugh at yourself, shouldn't the people you know be able to laugh at you as well? Sure, why not.

So yesterday my company was putting on a software release kickoff for the new 2009 software. It was at OMSI here in Portland, the Oregon Museum of Science Institute. . Anyways, it was about midway through the morning session and I needed to use the restroom. So I walk out of the room and walk towards the bathrooms, right outside the room actually. So I am in there and the door opens next to me. Almost annoyed because there was 3 stalls and no one else in the other one, but whatever. So I look down because you always do when you can see the shoes, but something threw me off.

The shoes were small and the socks weren't socks, no they were, they were STOCKINGS! Holy crap I was in the wrong goddamn bathroom!!!! I started to freak. I was actually looking now thinking is there anyway those could be a dude's shoes? No frigging way. My heart almost stopped, and of course, since she is not a dude, she will be joining me for sure. Zikes! So she turns around (obviously) and watching a pair of shoes turn around has never been so scary in a stall. My first thought now is if I can see HER shoes.....Oh shit! I now slide my size 12 Freddy Flintstone shoes over as far as I can to the right. At least I was in the end stall if we had company. I am dying right now. How did I do this? So my hairy legs are literally as far off to the right as they can be without me falling off. Now I am in complete freak out mode. Do I try and beat her outta there, or do I wait it out? What if we have company? Oh my God, I am like how the hell did you screw this up, and how do I get out of here unnoticed.

So I decide to play beat the clock and get the hell outta there. All I am thinking now is it probably smells like a dude in here, and can she, or has she seen my feet? She would totally know those were not women's feet/legs. So I am almost ready to go and the door opens, crap! Now I have no clue when I am getting out of here. And of course it's a woman and a kid, chaperone probably, it's the frigging Museum of Science! And of course the place is already crawling with kids. I have to get outta here. The woman next to me leaves the stall, thank God. The other woman is in the third stall and the little girl is just washing her hands, I think. A lot of chatter was going on, I know that, and it wasn't helping. I knew I could get by the little girl, well because she is small. I was ready to run but I couldn't do it because the ladies toilet flushed. Damn it! Now I wait again. They finally leave and I am so embarrassed it is not even funny. I now start to walk out PRAYING no one else is coming in and no one did. I saw the woman and the kid outside but they missed me (I think). I ran into the men's room, washed up, and there was a dude in there, I felt like high fiving the guy, but I didn't.. I got out of it I think, but what a horrifying experience. And then I had to go back to my professional work event. It was fine though, I shook it off like a relief pitcher. We can all laugh about it now, Bonnie and I sure did last night. Whalzy, this one was for you brother, get well soon.

Sean

Let's move to Portland and make some babies!

Who knew that when I spoke these words to Bonnie, the first time I mentioned I wanted to move to Portland, that they would be taken so literally? Not me. Seriously the first time I told Bonnie I wanted to move to Portland, those were the exact words I said to her. And here we are 8 months later and we can officially say we moved to Portland and we are going to have a baby! Careful what you wish for eh Sully?

We have a "bun in the oven"
Bonnie is El Preggers
My boys can swim
Bonnie is knocked up
Bonnie is "eating for two"

You see where this is going. We just found out on August 22nd, on good ol' Tim McLoughlin's birthday! Happy bday Timmy! We are 6 weeks under way, well 7 now. We had our first ultra sound last week at 6 weeks, and it changed my life. Seeing your baby on the monitor for the first time, as I am sure all you first time parents know, is nothing short of mind blowing! You now KNOW you are pregnant. The baby is the size of a grain of rice, but has this amazing little heart beat that could bring the toughest of guys to their knees. We were not trying, we just got lucky. And I love thinking Big Neil may have played a hand in this. This was meant to be for us.

I feel very blessed. That 24 hours after first finding out I was going to be a dad, was the greatest 24 hours of my life, aside from the day I met Bonnie. We are both extremely excited and maybe a bit nervous.

Are we going to find out the sex of the baby? We have not decided, but funny thing is Bonnie swears it's a boy, I concur. I think we are leaning towards finding out, it might kill me to know I could know and don't. People are asking us what we would prefer, and I think we would both love to have a boy first, but we will both be very, very excited to have a baby girl as well. We will be stoked for different reasons for either, just a healthy baby please. I come from a family of four boys, I have always dreamed of having my daddy's little girl, so we shall see.

Anyways, I wanted to share this with everyone. Our due date is April 19th.
I wish I could have called and personally told everyone who reads these blogs the news, but there are not enough hours in the day. And on that note, I am still planning on calling everyone from donating for the marathon. Sorry it has taken me so long. I changed phones and I have not re-entered everyone's phone numbers. No sim in my phone, so it takes so damn long to do them all manually. I may need some of your phone numbers as well, but I will let you know if I do. I will call at some point, hopefully sooner than later, unless I have already seen you in person and thanked you.

Anyways, I hope everyone reading this is doing great, Bonnie and I sure are. Cheers!


Sean

A chat with Bonnie

It is not often that we get the opportunity to sit down and speak with people that have accomplished amazing feats. And when someone accomplishes a few of them in a relatively short time span, I feel it's worth hearing about. Especially when that someone is the one and only Bonnie Killion. I know my last post was pretty random, I will be honest, I was looking for something to put out there. I miss writing to everyone. This is not that; this is a pretty cool story.

So I told Bonnie I wanted to interview her, she laughed, then she realized I was being serious, and agreed. Bonnie just completed a daunting task, she hiked Mt. St Helens, which is quite an accomplishment. It is a volcano located in Skamania County, WA. Bonnie had no idea what lay in store for her and a few others last Friday when they took on Mt. St. Helens, but there was just no way they could have really.

The Interview:

So you hiked Mt St Helens, how did you get involved in hiking it?

I went to a barbeque with Kurt at his friend Kristy’s house. She and her boyfriend Cliff were getting a group together to hike Mt St Helens and they asked me to go.

Did you know much about the volcano that is Mt St Helens or the hike itself?

I knew nothing of the hike, just that it was a volcano that exploded.

How much in advance was the barbeque from the hike?

A little over a month

On a scale of 1 to 10 how much of a hiker would u consider yourself?

3.

Tell me how your day starts the day of the hike?

I woke up at 4:20 am, but I didn’t eat anything.

What? Why?

I don’t know I think bc I had a ton of bars and snacks in my back pack.

How many of you were going?

There were 12 of us going.

So you get to Mt St Helens?

Yeah, and it takes about 45 minutes to get the permits, and then another 20 minutes to the parking lot to begin the hike.

So how was check in?

We got there at 7 30 am and bc there was a glitch in the computer system, they sold 450 permits and they normally sell 100 per day. So by the time we arrived, 300 people already checked in

How was the weather?

Crappy, rainy, no sun, overcast. About 60 degrees maybe

What is the elevation of St Helens?

8400 ft, and as Cliff explains it, the temp drops 3 degrees every 1000 ft in elevation.

So take me to the beginning of your hike?

We drive to the lot at 3700 ft and that’s where you start your hike. We were all pumped and ready to go. We were hoping it would be sunny by the time we reached the summit. We begin the hike and the first 2 miles are through a forest area. There’s some incline but it’s super easy.

Ok then what?

Well as we’re hiking through the forest, people are coming back down towards the lot.
And everyone that passes you, you ask them how it was, and they are all saying that the conditions are miserable. They are all bailing. Once you step out of the tree line, you have no shelter from the weather. So most of the people are turning back at the end of the tree line because the weather is that bad.

How far in is that?

2 miles in.

Out of how many miles?

5 miles up, 5 down

So people are just giving up it’s so bad?

It’s so bad that no one wanted to go. The thing with St Helens is the view, so why the agony with no views.

So what did the 12 of you do?

We’re kinda spread out throughout the forest, and its Tara and I in the lead. So right out of the forest, Tara and I wait for everyone. A couple other people are with us, and then Cliff comes. He says most of the others (out of the 12) have turned back; they do not want to continue. Now we have 5 out of 12 left. And some of the people are out here from Wisconsin.

So they just bailed even though they came all the way from the Midwest for this?

Actually, the wife bailed, the guy was one of the 5 still left. The weather was just brutal.

So now there are 5 out of the 12 left, then what?

It’s me, Tara, Cliff, Chris and Joe. So we leave the trees and we come to this huge incline field of boulders, like huge boulders, bigger than 3 people put together. There are different ways you can hike up; there’s a field of boulders in the middle of 2 exit glaciers, or you can go up the 2 narrow exit glaciers. Some are hiking up the glaciers with their poles.

So it’s either go up through boulders or through the glaciers?

Yes. We went boulders. So Chris heads for the glaciers bc he has poles. Tara and I are following Cliff. And he is going fast as hell, his fastest pace doing St Helens. He is the only one of the 5 who has done it before, it’s his 5th time.

So you guys hike the boulders, how long does that take, and how hard is it?

It’s about 2 miles, and the steep incline starts. The boulders are a steep 2 miles. Not that hard but it took about 2 hours to hike 2 miles. It was very strategic, hoisting myself up and not falling in between boulders. And the weather is getting worse and worse. My weather proof boots are soaked. While in the boulders, people are coming back down saying you can’t make it past the boulders, it’s too miserable and too windy. One couple even said its 20 degrees colder at the top of the boulders bc of the wind, and it is cold in the boulders. Meanwhile Cliff is hiking in shorts right now.

So as far as you know, has anyone hiked past the boulders?

No, no one has gone to the top.

How many people did you see turn around so far roughly?

Over a hundred.

Wow. So why did you guys think you could make it?

At this point we are not thinking we can or can’t, we are just hiking. We are kinda bothered by everyone saying it can’t be done. The consensus was let’s see if we can do what everyone says cannot be done.

So you get through the boulders, then what?

Right before we are done with the boulders, we stop and Cliff puts on 2 layers of hiking pants and rain pants. Tara already has on 2 layers, and puts on her wind pants.

How bout you?

I take off my shoes and wring out my socks. And I have no extra layers, and I am still in my one layer of hiking pants soaked to the bone.

What about up top?

I have a tank top, a running shirt and a thin rain coat. All 3 are completely soaked already. I have a fleece in my backpack but everything is entirely soaked in there. Tara gave me a pair of socks soon after and as soon as I put em on, they were soaked bc my shoes are soaked.

So you have no dry shelter?

No

So then what?

Now we see the last couple we can actually hear with the wind, and they said they made it up about 200 ft up the volcanic ash. From the boulders to the summit, its 1000ft and it’s a 70 degree incline, and it’s all ash.

So the couple made it up 200 ft?

Yeah and they could not take the wind and cold. We still have yet to meet anyone who has made it to the top. Oh wait, we saw one other couple after them that made it within 100 ft of the summit and turned around bc they could not do it.

How could you get that far and turn around?

That’s what we were thinking. But we have already lost Chris and Joe awhile ago. So it’s just me Tara and Cliff. By the way, Tara and Cliff are complete rock stars.

Sounds like it. How is the hike through the 1000 ft of ash?

Miserable, it was the hardest part of the whole hike.

Because of the weather or the ash?

The weather.

How bad was the weather now?

50 -55 mph winds with rain and volcanic ash pelting you all over. You had to keep turning the other way so it didn’t pelt you in the face.

How long did it take for you to hike the ash?

About an hour, and we didn’t stop. We stopped once to take cover behind a big boulder for like 2 minutes. I had asked Cliff earlier when we were hiking up the boulders what the hardest hike he had ever done was, and he wasn't sure. Now as we are all 3 huddled behind this boulder he looks at me and says "this is the hardest hike I have ever done". Made me feel alot better because I was thinking in my head that I was a wuss compared to him & Tara.

Describe your approach to the summit?

You can’t even see it, Cliff and Tara were about 20 ft ahead of me and I could not really even see them with the wind and the rain. Picture trying to climb up gravely beach sand where every step you take you slide back down.

Did you even know you were reaching the summit when you did?

We finally meet the first guy that reached the top. He said you're almost there, just 700 ft to go, which made me want to cry. So we continue on, and now we meet a few others who have reached the top and they say about 300 ft to go. I am now bending over to avoid getting blown off the mountain. I could not even open the hiking poles Dave and Jenn gave me.

So are you the only lunatic out there with no poles?

No, Cliff and Tara didn’t have them either.

That’s good. Describe the summit?

I finally see them stop just ahead of me but it looks like more mountain to go so I am trying just to catch up to them so I can have a break. I get there and I see it’s the top. I asked them if this is it? I thought we had more to go so I did not want to think it was the top and be wrong. But yes, we reached the summit!

How was the summit, the views must have been awesome with that weather?

You could see about 50 ft into the crater, but nothing around you. We could not even see 10 ft down from where we came from.

How long did you stay?

About 5 minutes, about all we could bear. A quick video and some satisfaction for getting there. We were the 5th 6th and 7th people that day to reach the top.

Was the hike down much easier?

Going down the ash was easier bc you could slide and sprint down the ash. Every step you took you slid 5 ft. With the boulders you were now hidden from the wind a little. But the boulders going down was the 2nd hardest part for me bc it was never ending, and going down boulder to boulder was so time consuming bc you have to guess on what boulder to go to next.

How long did it take you to get up and down?

4 hrs up and 2 ½ hrs down.

How great did it feel to reach the summit?

I didn't know I reached the summit. I saw Tara and Clidd standing there but I did not want to get too excited and realize we were not there.

What did you say when I first saw you about what you would rather do than hike that again in those conditions?

Oh I said I would get up and run a full marathon the next day hands down before doing that again.

I am proud of you babe, you should be too.

Thanks



*Here is a video taken by Tara at the summit of St Helens. The person walking in on the video that looks like a killer in a scary movie is Bonnie. Check out that weather, makes you really want to go, hiking eh?

www.youtube.com/user/mrsrealson