It's Wednesday.  I'm back in the office sipping on a fresh cup of coffee pondering the happenings of this past weekend. On Sunday I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon along with around 31,000 other crazies. It was fun to say the least.

First, you should know that this is not a story about how grueling the run was or how I qualified for Boston or how I ran in the same race as Lance Armstrong. Yes, the race was long - just as long as any other marathon. Yes, it was hot, but no hotter than a morning run in the middle of summer where I'm from. And no, I didn't qualify for Boston. I'm not that fast and there were way too many people in my way to even try.

So what is this about? It's about sharing the adventure. The way I ended up in Chicago went like this...

I got the itch to do another marathon. The agony of the last one had worn off. Also, I have a bunch of really close friends strewn across the country. We're dudes, so we don't talk on the phone much, though we do email to the group all the time. We all have busy lives and families and whatnot, so we don't get together very often. So I proposed to the group that we all run a marathon together. They were surprisingly receptive. We threw around ideas and landed on Chicago. We dubbed it the Dude's Chicagothon. Everybody chose their training plan and got to work. Oh, and most had never run more than 3 miles in their lives.

The shenanigans ensued. We ate great food. My wife was the only female in the group, so there was much eye-rolling. We toured the city in a double-decker bus. There were many "your mom" jokes and talk of our 30-something lives - marriage, kids, jobs, economic policy - certainly different conversations than we had in high school or college.

We started with 7 committed runners. The final count ended up as 4 with one extra that came on the trip even though he had no intention of running the race. All 4 that started finished some in more pain than others. Everyone was the thinnest and fittest they've been in 10 years. All were talking about the next race as soon as they crossed the finish line.

All in all the Dude's Chicagothon was a great success! If you get the chance, I highly recommend you organize your own Chicagothon. Get the friends together. Get a training program. Eat some good pasta. Share the experience with the ones you love.

Pictures to be posted very soon.  Check back.

Just got back from the Himalaya.  I apologize greatly for my being MIA on the blog.  Onward and upward....really upward.

It has been a great year, climbing and raging up and down Mount Rainier and then crushing Mount Mckinley or as you may know it Denali.  Yeah, we got it in 13 days, what a great weather window and climb that was.  

Get on with it, I just got back from Kathmandu where we jumped off to Tibet and climbed Cho Oyu.

Called the Turquoise Goddess, she really is, and it is no less of an 8000 meter peak than you may think.  To be fair to my friends and clients who climbed, it is every bit of 8201 meters.

 It took us the better half of 50 days to get up and down, and after it was over, we appreciated every step we took.

 A couple hints for along the way.   Drink Coffee in the morning (Hazelnut was my choice)........

Oh yeah, don't forget to breathe as you go through the Yellow Band above 26,000 feet and keep the Oxygen mask open and don't let it freeze.

 Happy to be home.  All the fingers and toes intact!

The next big trip, off to Antarctica and Vinson Massif.

So, here are some of the pics we took over the weekend.  I'll give you the quick run-down of the players:

Me: (see my profile)

Meghan: My wife and mother of my children. Don't worry.  She's cool with hanging out with the guys.

Brian: Friend from high school.  Roommate in college. Best man in my wedding. Fellow aerospace engineer.

Dan: Friend from high school. Suitemate in college. Groomsman in my wedding.  Ladies, he's available.

Scott: Dan's best friend since age 2. Friend of mine from high school. Dan's roommate and my suitemate in college. Groomsman in my wedding.

Casey: Brian's younger brother (notice that I didn't use the term "little brother"). Fun guy to hang with and a fellow gear whore.

Notably absent dudes that may be found in future posts: Jeff and Dave (a.k.a. Schmu and McDave respectively). Both were going to run with us, but had to drop out for very legitimate reasons.

More pics to come...

There is an indisputable anticipation that builds this time of year as we wait for snow to fall, but the story that nature tells through awe-inspiring color is unfortunately not a precursor for the winter to come.  If it were so, this fall would be a sign for truly good things to come as the colors have been nothing short of brilliant.  If the snow season is half as good as the color would indicate, if there were any correlation between the two, then this winter would be a good time to quit your job and buy some new Head skis and move to a ski town. None-the-less here are a few of the falls best sights and maybe some of the best through a lifetime.

As the leaves fall this time of year it forces us to start planning for the inevitable.  The cold can make you plan and ponder the months to come, but no matter if you are chopping wood or waxing skis there is a unique vigor that motivates us through this time of transition.  As the days get shorter, colder, and it becomes less and less appealing to get out of bed in the morning when it’s still dark; the energy of anticipation carries us through the weeks of snow-less gray until winter’s arrival.  Trying to predict the amount of snow that will fall, or when the snow itself will come, does us no good but ultimately these thoughts may be all we need to calm our earnest desires to frolic with winter yet again.  However, as planning for the season becomes increasingly difficult yet more imperative given economic constraints and other factors we are faced with, we have to remain resolute knowing that soon enough it will come and the colors of blissful unimportance will soon be gone.  So pour a cup of coffee as you wax your skis, get out the winter jackets and start preparing for the seasons to change because the blanket of fluff that will mask all the earth’s imperfections and open up a playground is eminent.

The girls hit it hard once again in CB this summer....more photos soon.