Put in a Nickel and Get Out a Dollar

UPDATE: Cindy and Cormac's well-deserved run of fame continues with an online story with People Magazine!

Life and running can be quite serendipitous.

I've written a lot about my run buddy Liam over the last two years. Perhaps serendipitous that I found IRun4 Michael through a man I've never met. Michael (unrelated to IRun4's Michael) from Run Nerds Rock. If you are a runner who spends any time online in the social blogosphere, you've seen him. I've never thanked him, but I am thanking him today.

My IRun4 Friends Cindy and Cormac

It was around the time of my near-fatal triathlon crash, that I started to observe posts about Michael's run buddy on his Facebook and twitter. I saw the video of the first time he met his run buddy. I knew that this was something I wanted to do. I signed up and it normally takes a little while to get a match.


When I was out of the hospital and recovering, I emailed Carol from IRun4 and "put it on hold" as I could only walk. This was perhaps the best thing I could have ever done, as once I told her "go ahead" I eventually got matched with Liam. I won the lottery.

Bell I gave Cormac for sharing his blade

Liam was born with hydrocephalus, he has cerebral palsy, and has had over 150 brain surgeries. He is blind and confined to a wheelchair. His parents are two of the most giving parents you will ever find and his mom goes toe-to-toe with my on sometimes "off color" humor. His parents (Joan and Fabian) live in San Diego and met my mom, sister, and aunt before they ever met me.

Part three of (random) serendipity was meeting Liam's friend Cormac last year. I flew into San Diego and surprised Liam and his mom. I met Liam for the first time and many of his friends who are also special needs kids. Among those friends, I met Cormac and his mom Cindy. Over the next couple of months, Joan and I decided we wanted to give Liam the experience and adrenaline of a race and chose the Carlsbad 5000. Graciously, Cindy (who was also racing Carlsbad) offered up her Team Hoyt running chair for Liam's first race. She used Cormac's normal day-to-day wheelchair for the race. 

Wow...just wow! What an unselfish move on her part. Not a surprise, she and Cormac graced the September cover of Competitor Magazine in their cover search contest. No pair more deserving.

Drawing I did of Liam and I at Carlsbad 5000

Part three...or four of serendipity was meeting Maggie Seymour from RunFreeRun.com at the Carlsbad 5000 inadvertently. Call it inadvertent, or call it random, it was literally a five minute conversation with her and Jim Pathman from Team Hoyt San Diego which again turned into something greater.

As I wrote about HERE, Maggie is running across the country to raise money for special needs and military communities. Her first generous gift was fully funding the fund raise we'd started to get Liam his own Team Hoyt running chair. She presented the blade in San Diego and we ran the first few miles on her cross-country tour to Virginia Beach. You heard that right. She's running from San Diego to Virginia Beach. As of this writing, she is somewhere just beyond Oklahoma City not quite into Pharoah, Oklahoma. 

Start of Maggie's Cross Country run and her Presentation to Liam

Did you follow all that? Ty met Liam through Michael through I Run 4 Michael via twitter and Facebook where he met Joan who introduced him to Cormac and Cindy who loaned him a blade where he met Maggie who bought Liam a blade. Maggie is somewhere in Oklahoma, Cindy and Cormac are on the cover of Competitor Magazine and Liam (didn't mention this) is in Colorado next month to race again with Ty. In other words, life and running can be quite serendipitous and the best return on an investment? Put a nickle into a special needs relationship and you will get out (more than) a dollar.