We are back from an exciting adventure in Boston and abroad. Hopefully all of our faithful readers now know that Mike finished the race with an awesome time (3 hours, 26 minutes and 21 seconds)!! Unfortunately, the weather in the northeast US decided to turn for the worse the day before the race, so he was forced to run (and we were forced to spectate) in less than ideal conditions. It was somewhere in the lower 40's, rainy and REALLY windy. When we greeted Mike after the finish line, we could hardly even stand upright with the forceful wind. It was crazy. We were blessed to have both sets of our parents and two of Mike's brothers along for our adventure. To celebrate Mike's achievement, we dined at Legal Seafoods on some tasty seafood and champagne.

After spending three nights in Boston for the race, the three of us took a side trip out to Cape Cod. Lucky for us, the lovely weather continued and as we were told, the area experienced one of the worst April storms ever. However, we made the best of the situation and enjoyed ourselves regardless. We ate lots of seafood, drove to the tip of the cape (Provincetown) and took in all of the amazing summer houses throughout all of the quaint towns. Later we drove back toward Boston and stopped in Plymouth to see the rock and the Mayflower II. The weather improved and the sun was shining that day. Benjamin loved seeing all of the boats! Also, I think his new favorite animal is a "Lobfer (lobster)." He is still talking about them! Back in Boston we toured the Samuel Adams Brewery and visited Harvard University and the surrounding area. Of course, after we left Boston, their weather jumped up into summer-like temperatures. Ah well, Murphy's Law, I guess (thanks MOM).

I have posted lots of pictures from our trip on our photo website (you can see some samples througout this posting). And I also have added a couple of videos to our YouTube account.

This picture is of some ads for the marathon that are apparently up all over Boston right now. I wanted to post this here to first of all get everyone excited for what is to be the biggest race of Mike's life and secondly to encourage Mike to keep up his excitement!! It can be easy to focus on the pain of training or the stress affiliated with planning for the race but when it comes down to it, the most important thing is that he is accomplishing a life's dream and a goal that most people will never reach. Back in 2005 he was defeated by a short 48 seconds while trying to qualify for this race. He overcame his own demons and came back to Chicago in 2006 to finally achieve his goal. Now the only thing he has left to do is to taste the sweet feeling of finishing the most elite marathon in the world.

Good luck Mike!

***Update***
For the third year, cable network Versus (channel 35 in Rochester) will provide complete, live, national Boston Marathon coverage from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CT. A same-day, encore presentation of the Versus telecast will air from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. CT.