“For starters, they had a shopping cart……”

For those of you who don’t know Billy that well, he may seem very quiet, but I can assure you that sometimes his still waters run pretty deep.  When we are with a group of friends, he may not say a word for an hour, then bust out with something that has us all laughing for days.  I get to see a lot of this in our everyday life as well as on our long runs.

Billy and I run long together but we also see each other on our solo runs, particularly on Saturdays when we run around the same time.  And Billy is always very funny when we encounter each other.  For example, as soon as he recognizes me, he stops.  He waits for me to run to him.  Why?  I have no clue.  But one of these days I am going to stop on my end and see what he does.  Will we have a weird stand-off on the Peabody Bike path?  If we stand still long enough, will all the bunnies come out?  In any event, we had an encounter last week that I’m still giggling about.

As I approached the bike path, I saw Billy and he stopped.  We chatted for a minute and then, as so often happens with Billy, the conversation turned.

Billy:  Oh, by the way, I just interrupted a homeless couple making out on the bench back there.
Me:  Oh.  Ok.  Really?  A homeless couple?  Making out on the bench?  That’s odd.  And that’s not very nice.  They could’ve just been a random couple.  That’s kind of presumptuous of you.  I mean, how do you know they were homeless?
Billy:  Well, for starters, they had a shopping cart………………

I wasn’t really sure what to say to that.  Billy can be pretty quick with a “that’s what she said” and, truth be told, he can bring any single conversation back to a Seinfeld episode with a simple “that’s what makes this so difficult“.  But he’s typically quiet in crowds and I’m sure that patrons in restaurants comment that we are one of “those” couples who don’t say anything during a meal. But people should probably realize that I am *always* much more interested in the food than any conversation.

Billy does have a very active communication with the cats.  Every time he enters the house he yells out “Bertie B!!!” She usually comes out to see her Daddy (e.g. try to get food), and he talks to her the whole time.  My Daddy used to talk to all the animals so I have a soft spot for anyone who does that.

But the truth is that we both enjoy our long runs together because we can talk or be silent.  Sometimes other runners ask if they can join us on a long run and we are reluctant.  It’s just our time. But we have never actually run a race together.  So I was nothing short of THRILLED when Billy told me that he wanted to run the NYC Marathon together.  Side by side.  The whole thing. The truth is that our training hasn’t been great, I am a little injured and we’ve decided that this will be our last full marathon.  So, why not wrap up our illustrious marathon career running through all 5 boroughs together! Billy does know that I take selfies and high five spectators and even share a beer when I feel like it, so he knows what he is in for.

We are four weeks out.  BRING ON THE BIG APPLE!!!!!

Thank you for your support!!  We are both SO CLOSE to our goals!  I have $48 left and Billy has just $214 left.  Who can help this awesome charity as we run for Patrick????

Shannon:  https://www.crowdrise.com/the-degregorio-family-foundation-nyc-2017/fundraiser/shannondowney3

Billy:  https://www.crowdrise.com/the-degregorio-family-foundation-nyc-2017/fundraiser/billyhutchinson