A New Kind of Endurance

My main goal for 2019 is more writing. It’s been a year and half since I’ve published a blog. This was one of the hardest stories I’ve ever written. I hope it brings meaning to your day. -Susie

There is a story I haven’t been telling. Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t know how.  It is a story of struggle and of loss but also of unexpected joy and newfound strength. It is a common story–though one I wish to hear spoken of more often. For this reason, it is a story I must now tell. It is my story of 2018…

How Was the Moon, Dude?

When you’re like me and you return from your first lap around the world, you’re an authoritative expert on basically every problem in the book. You have all kinds of motivation…

The Fear of Forgetting

I have never had someone very close to me die. I won’t pretend to know precisely what that is like. But I can imagine there would be a fear of forgetting…

Sights Unseen

You know you’re in a cool place, when you can get your eye poked out, and it’s still cool. Two Mondays ago at Red Rock beach in Melbourne…

A Mountain Is Not Merely a Triangle

We drove the dry, bristly foothills for five hours, enjoying the standard-issue Patagonian bus ride. Silent passengers. Plenty of backpacker BO. Not a building or soul in sight! But then we rounded what seemed like just another scruffy hill in a cosmos of scruffy hills. Except around this corner, Mother Nature stood waiting, silky lingerie at her ankles, shimmering in blinding glory.

The problem with some places, like Patagonia, Chile, is that…

The Price of Church

I’m sitting alone in the only cafe in El Chaltén that accepts credit cards. I’m out of Argentinian pesos…

Edge #1: Things Are Easy Until They Aren’t

To describe Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonian, Chile is like trying to explain, I imagine, the details of heaven to someone who has never been to the afterlife. It is impossible…

Southern Descent: The Journey to Patagonia

I knew my Spanish was rusty when I couldn’t retrieve the words, “Please step aside quickly, I need to throw-up!” Four hours into our longest flight for this continent–New York to Santiago, Chile …

A Quest to Reclaim Self-indulgence

My wife sat in front of me, almost eclipsed by her giant margarita, then peeked around to ask, “Do you want to take a trip around the world, with me?”

“That just seems … too self-indulgent,” was my unthinking response.

Giant alcohol slush puppies are fine, but trips around the world?! For some reason, I condone one but not the other.

I hated what came out of my mouth. I hated …

The Basement Within Me Honors the Basement Within You

What was once an unthinkable idea–to commit ego suicide, let go of our attachments, tuck tail, ask for help, throw ourselves upon the generosity of others, sacrifice privacy and curtains, cohabit with spiders, has brought an infinitude of…

The Beauty of Being Shortsighted

I can faintly hear her laugh wafting down from the T.v. room that sits almost directly above my head. We are separated only by floorboards and a layer of industrial plastic that I’ve haphazardly stapled to the ceiling in my new “apartment” in my parent’s basement. It’s 12:30am on a Tuesday. I’m lying in bed, Chris is beside me and already hours ahead in the land of dreams.

Indebted

I was half-bent over bracing myself on the granite kitchen counter with giant watery eyes when my husband, Chris, walked in the door last Thursday. “What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked. I couldn’t steady my words. I just let the tears continue to roll down my face while waving three, hand-written checks in my right hand.

Censored: Community

My new roommate Ben says witty things like, “How can Eskimos have 50 words for snow and we only have one friggin word for community?!” And things like, “Jesus was probably having more sex than ALL of us!” Until I moved into my mother and father-in-law’s basement, we too-rarely got to have great conversations like these. I’m on the fence with his ChristoIogy, but couldn’t agree more with his etymology. Community is…

Somewhere Between Hell & Revolution

Two phrases will not leave me alone.

What the hell are you doing?

This is the beautiful revolution you hoped it would be!

I’ve tried to kick them out of my head. I’ve tried to get them to work out their differences. I’ve tried to choose one over the other. But they seem intent on staying. Both are real. Both describe exactly…

Taking the Leap

There are some things I never imagined I’d say at the age of thirty-five. The phrase…

In Defense of Slow: Training and Living Against the Grain

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve published a blog and after reading this one you will know why. Take a moment in your day to pause … and read slowly. Enjoy!

Simplicity Rules

“If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.” -Rumi

Commitment is a tricky little devil. Two months ago we made several private declarations and five weeks back we made them public.

Rule #1 Eat 99% of our meals at home…

Ultra Tripping: T minus 365

If you are in the world of running–or social media in general–you’ve probably seen this quote by famed Runner’s World columnist John “The Penguin” Bingham, “It’s not the finish line that matters, it’s having the courage to start.” I’m totally on board with that sentiment as well as Bingham’s positive messaging about overcoming the intimidating stereotypes of being a runner to just start running. But, the reality is, most people don’t give two shits about start lines, they value that finish photo. And you can’t really blame them. We are a culture that worships American Idol-style quick fame, winning Superbowl catches, Bill Gates-sized billionairism and the like. We are repeatedly bombarded with the idea that success is a single moment in time, involving lots of followers and, of course, mega-bling.

Ultra Tripping: Phase Zero

You just have to trust your own madness. -Clive Barker I can remember the moment when the idea cemented in my brain. On a Tuesday night, a half-glass of Cabernet sat on the kitchen counter with my tiger tabby cat Calisto standing guard over of it as I completed the finishing touches on dinner. The …

In Search of Flow: The Journey of My Second 50-mile UltraMarathon

Pushing your body past what you thought it was capable of is easy; the hard part is pushing yourself even further … past what your mind wants to let you. That’s what ultrarunning is all about; introducing you to a self you’ve never known. -Rex Pace Ride the wave. Breathe, Susie. Keeping riding. Just breathe. …