I started slow with a couple of drinks on the 18^th. I also walked the dogs and flossed. 

On the 19^th I started on the push-ups and had completed 200 by lunch, ran 4 miles with the dogs on one trail, added another 100 pushups, and did 2 home improvements by dinner time, then cranked out the last 100 pushups while watching the Olympics. 

I was not too sore on Friday, but my hamstrings tightened up from the pushups, so I mounted my hangboard (to start training for the weekend of pull-ups), baked 40 cookies and had a BBQ with my family, with 3 drinks and a beer...

above: partying with two sisters, mom, and fiancé mary lynn.
right: number 400.

Saturday was the big day: 5 Flatirons in a day.

Bruce Genereaux, who flew in for the birthday challenge, and Bob Davis met me at Chatauqua Park at 6:45 AM and we topped out on the 1st Flatiron at 8:30.

We took the long away around to the base of the 2^nd and summited at 10:10 AM. We were on the 3^rd by 10:30 and summited at 11:00. At this point, I knew we were going to take a bit longer than my expected 6 hours, and Bob ran out of water. We thrashed our way down to the Royal Arch trail, tiptoeing through the fields of poison ivy and poison sumac, went past the 4^th to the base of the 5^th. By 12:30 we were on the 5^th, and broke out the rope for some tricky moves midway up, before summiting at 1:00.

More thrashing and more poison ivy brought us over to the 4^th. Halfway up the holds got scarce, so we roped up and got to the top at 2:33. A long traverse around the summit of Green Mountain brought us to a poison ivy free trail and an easy descent to the cars.

The drinks started a few hours later on the deck of the Foundry, with 40 friends who each told at least one story.

More drinking occurred Sunday the 22nd with the family, and I ran another 4 miles (4 trails) with the dogs on Monday. Oh yeah, 2 beers and 2 ice creams also Monday night.

In summary: I’ve flossed every day, had 6 new foods, 7 unique beers, 9 unique drinks, 2 ice creams, ran 16 miles on 12 trails, done 3 home improvements, and donated $40 each to 4 different charities. I woke up this morning feeling a bit overwhelmed by what I had gotten myself into, but then remembered to climb it one pitch at a time…

8/24 Swam 40 minutes in Boulder reservoir this evening. Lake Patrol would not allow me to swim across, so I swam 7 laps around the beach area, about 1 1/2 miles, farther than I have ever swam before. Interesting note: the beach area was closed, but that has never stopped me before, so I dove right in. I noticed a peculiar odor, common to port-a-potty's and began wondering if the beach was closed due to high levels of bacteria. As I continued swimming uneasily, I made sure not to swallow any water. I checked out the Boulder Reservoir website as soon as I got home (after showering) and was relieved to see the beach closure was do to school starting up. Drank my one Sam Adams for the 40 days, and impressed MaryLynn by eating leftovers (because I never do). Bought a magazine subscription "Outside" from one of those door-to-door salesmen and donated it to the Ronald McDonald House, thereby getting credit for a random act of kindness (for not telling the salesmen to get the #$*& off of my property) and a charitable donation.

8/25 Walked the dogs in the morning, ate lunch at a new café, cut the grass and then ran 5 miles with the dogs on 3 trails in the afternoon. Also picked up 3 bags of other people's dog poop, in addition to Wolf's for 3 random acts of kindness. Ordered Thai food for dinner. Also, over the last week I have received 15 new ideas from employees on how to improve our business. Same employees are highly skeptical that I will be able to fast for 40 hours! Continued training for the pull-ups, which may be the toughest feat.  

8/26 After staying up late stuffing envelopes with wedding invitations, sleeping for 3 hours, and flying to DC, I am now in DC for 6 days for business and a party. So, until Wednesday, aside from working a lot, I will be racking up the running miles, training for the pull-ups, and tallying up more drinks! My buddy Steve made a charitable donation for me, and will join me for the paddle (Steve in kayak, me on surfboard) across the Boulder Reservoir next Thursday morning.

8/27 Donated $40 to 2 more charities (NARAL, co-worker recalled to duty to Iraq). 3 ice creams, 2 beers, and a drink during dinner with the future in-laws. Also biked for 50 minutes, in training for the big bike days. I’ve got to get the butt used to sitting on a saddle all day.

8/28 Ran 4 miles, then attended a wedding shower for MaryLynn and me and ate a couple of new foods, and drank 3 new beers. I could not resist a Sierra Nevada , but don't get credit for it as I already had one earlier in the 40 days. It is not easy finding good unique beers. The heat and humidity in the DC area is brutal! I don't know how I would be able to train regularly here. Maybe your body gets used to it, like the altitude in Boulder , but I'll take the altitude with the cool, dry air that goes with it.

8/29 Did nothing to contribute to the 40 feats today, but I'm resting up for the big week planned once back in Boulder . The Mt Sanitas run will be Wednesday, the surfboard paddle across the reservoir is Thursday and Friday-Sunday will be 40 sports in 4 days.  

8/30 Ran 6 miles in the leading edge of tropical storm Gaston (light breeze and rain) and then lifted about 10,000 pounds in a short gym workout. 40,000 in a day should not be too tough, but will probably take almost 2 hours to complete. Picked up trash and dog poop on the trail for 2 random acts of kindness. Contributed $40 each to Tyler Hamilton Foundation and SINAPU. Then had a Foggy Bottom Ale and black grouper for dinner (and tasted a yellowfin tuna in ginger sauce) followed up by a dish of Mom's Apple Pie ice cream. Also got a bunch of new ideas from our sales reps in a meeting this morning. That rest day yesterday really helped contribute to a very satisfying day today.

9/1 Climbed 4 routes with Dave Suleski in the Flatirons (Tiptoe Slab, Lost Porch, Babyhorn and Square Rock: NW Corner). Brought the dogs along for a walk and ticked a new trail: Porch Alley. MaryLynn and Dave's wife Val joined us for pizza and beer at Woody's where I tried the spinach, feta, and tomato pizza, and 2 unique beers. I recommend the Golden City Amber. Earlier, I donated $40 to I Have a Dream. After 14 days the totals are: 5 feats completed, 9 climbing routes, 8 walks for the dogs, 15 charities, 10 drinks, 18 beers, 38 miles ran on 18 trails, at least 20 ways to improve the business, 6 random acts of kindness, 4 home improvement projects, 230 pages read, 9 flavors of ice cream, 4 new pieces of music, 21 new types of food, 14 days in a row flossing, and only 1 hour of non-olympics TV. I need to work on the calls and emails to friends and family, and I keep forgetting the dog treats! The last two weeks have challenged me mentally to act and think differently. If I fail every physical feat left, my challenge will still be a success, but I plan on succeeding on all of them! 

9/2 Paddled the surfboard across Boulder Reservoir at sunrise with Steve Crider in kayak. Beautiful peaceful morning, with no one else on the lake. The time was 39 minutes, but we made a big “L”, and could have gone under 30 minutes if done in a straight line. I replaced my standard soda at lunch with a blackberry lemonade. Delicious. Ran the dogs with MaryLynn for 2.5 miles, but not on a new trail. Lifted about 10,000 lbs in the gym and weeded the front yard. Tomorrow I start the 40 sports in 4 days. Stay tuned…

8/31 Today was a travel day from DC to home, so although there were no physical feats accomplished, I managed to get the dogs out on a walk after I got home, had 3 new foods, 1 beer, and donated $40 to Girls Inc., one of the groups that we work with at Climbing For Life.

9/3 I started the 40 sports in 4 days with a mountain quadrathlon: I left my house at 6:30 AM and biked to the Cragmoor trailhead, switched shoes and started hiking up the North Shanahan Trail at 6:47, then running, then hiking to the base of Shanahan Crag at 7:18. I switched shoes and started climbing at 7:20, reaching the summit at 7:28. The sun was rising, the birds were chirping, no one else was around... beautiful morning. After switching shoes, I ran down the South Shanahan Trail and reached the bike by 7:47 and was home at 7:55. Worked until 4:00 PM, and then met up with my friend Matt, my 10 year old nephew, Beau, and his friend Sebastian. We played a quick game of ping pong, followed by darts, then loaded up the car and went to the park. After a quick 6 game set of tennis, and 2 on 2 soccer, Matt and Sebastian left. I kicked Beau's butt in a game of Horse, we played lacrosse, and were joined by another friend of his. We played some softball, and were joined by my niece Sophia for volleyball, frisbee, and badminton. The mosquitoes were eating us alive, so we headed back to their house for some skateboarding. I managed a 720 before realizing how late it was, and we loaded up the car for my house. We picked up MaryLynn and headed to Fairview High for some rollerblading and roller-hockey in the parking lot. It was getting dark, and we wanted to high jump and long jump, but the pit was covered, so we just did the standing broad jump, followed by handstands, headstands, and cartwheels (gymnastics). Day 1 = 20 sports. We finished up the evening with some Indian food and beers, and 4 double scoops of ice cream (8 flavors). I gave a homeless guy $1, and bought Sophia "The Alchemist".

 9/4 Is poker a sport? If it's on ESPN, it's got to be a sport. And anyway, Hemingway said, "The only real sports are bull fighting, mountain climbing, and automobile racing. All the rest are simply games." So this challenge is really 2 sports and 38 games in 4 days. Anyway, we started the morning with poker and Beau cleaned us out. Then it was on to golf at the driving range, baseball in the batting cages, and since we had already climbed and there were no bulls to fight, we raced automobiles. Go-carts that is. Sophia kicked Beau and my butts with a combination of light weight, fast car and the motto “to break is to admit defeat”. Then I came from behind to beat Beau 7-6 in air hockey, and the kids were off to other plans. I was so far ahead at this point, that I started taking it easy. We had dinner with friends, who coincidentally had horseshoes and booze (Dark and Stormy and 3 bottles of wine). Chalk up 2 more sports for a 2 day total of 27. I also finally got started on the dog treat feat.  

9/5 Sunday dawned clear and cool, so I warmed up by jumping rope, then went on a 45 minute mountain bike ride. I took the dogs for a walk and then did a quick 20 minute 9000 lb weightlifting workout. I drove up Flagstaff Mtn for a bouldering session, followed by a 500 meter swim. The dogs were recovered from their morning walk so I took them to the reservoir and paddled my kayak while they swam along behind. We had friends over for dinner and I made them play croquet for the 33rd sport. Also had a margarita with dinner and some unusual but delicious salsas.

9/6 Woke up late not feeling too good, but met Bob at 10:00 to go sport climbing in Boulder Canyon . We did 4 fun routes, rappelled (it's not a real sport, but some people do it on their days off) and played a quick game of pool. I was feeling miserable at this point, went home, ate, napped in front of the TV, and thought about quitting with 37. MaryLynn got back from a bike ride, and would not let me stop. She dragged me out to go fly fishing on Boulder Creek, followed by foosball and more air hockey at the Walrus. We got home at 8:00 PM and did a 20 minute pilates workout (my first ever) for number 40!

9/7-8 Recovering from pushing hard over the weekend. The only feats I worked on were charities, walking the dogs, and unique foods.

9/10 Ran 5.5 miles with the dogs on 2 trails and picked up 2 dog poops and trash on the trail. We had sushi for dinner and I had 2 new foods: fresh water eel and ginger, along with a Kirin Ichiban and Boulder Amber beers.

9/12 Saturday was a rest day in preparation for the 40 mile mtn bike ride, but I did have several new foods and drinks and a home improvement project.

Randy met me at 7:00 AM Sunday morning. I ate my first piece of apple pie, as today would be the All American Day in addition to the biking. We drove to Waterton Canyon and started riding into a fierce headwind blowing down the canyon.

We did 6 1/2 miles in a little over 1/2 hour and then the climbing began. An hour later we had gone only 4 more miles and I was wondering if we were going to make it 40 miles. The trail leveled off somewhat with about 4-5 miles of beautiful rolling single-track. We stopped 15 miles out at an amazing overlook of the south fork of the South Platte . Continuing on meant a 3 mile 1000' descent, which we would then have to reverse. We opted out and headed back. Randy, coming off the couch, kicked my butt on the downhills, and followed me on the climbs with a steady pace. At the top of "the final climb" on the way back we opted for a loop through Roxborough Park . After steep climbing for another 10 minutes, we encountered some steep downhills, beautiful forests, and nervous horses who wanted to kick us in the head. We passed the horses, and descended back to the car. Total miles 30.10.

Randy was done. I refilled my Camelback, ate a slice of apple pie and headed back out. The headwind form the morning had reversed and helped push me up the canyon, than reversed again and I slowed to a crawl and began suffering.

We stopped at a convenience store for a hot dog on the way back, washed down with a Bud and a Bud Light. After a short nap, ML and I headed over to Steve Crider 's house for 40 basketball shots, 40 football throws, 40 soccer kicks, and 40 Frisbee throws before the Broncos game. We listened to the national anthem and then I somehow managed to force down 3 hotdogs (2 beef, 1 turkey) with 2 more Buds, and finished up with 2 pieces of apple pie ala mode (cookies and cream), before going home and passing out.

9/13 Ran 3 miles on only 1 trail with the dogs. Picked up lots of dog poop, and trash around the trailhead for 4 random acts of kindness.

9/14 Did wedding planning stuff, drank 2 unique drinks, 1 food, and gave 1 dog a treat.

9/15 Ran 4 miles on 2 trails with dogs in the morning, picked up trail trash. Added 1 more unique food, 2 beers, and went climbing in Dream Canyon and added 4 climbs to the total.

9/17 I ran Mt Sanitas in 39:40! My fastest time yet, although my ascent time was 23:37, about :47 slower than  my best time. MaryLynn and the dogs hiked up ahead of me, welcomed me at the top in the midst of my suffering, and then Moki joined me for the run down. I hiked back up to meet ML and Wolf, but went the wrong way, but managed to pick up a bunch poop. I had a beer, drink, 4 ice creams, and finished off the food challenge. We got home around 11:00 and began the pull-ups with 40.

9/18 I planted 50 tulip and daffodil bulbs today after climbing with ML at Avalon. We did 5 routes. I cranked out another 160 pull-ups, with 200 to go tomorrow. By the time I got to 100, I had to begin using gloves because the hangboard was giving me blisters!

9/19 Today was a great day! I finished the 400 pull-ups in a weekend with 200 today. Somehow, I got stronger towards the end and was able to finish up with sets of 8-10 reps. During the low point of the day, I was struggling to crank out 5 in a set! I finished the reading last night (1600 pages), music today, and added 7 random acts of kindness (lots of poop, helped teach a dog to retrieve, picked up trash, and gave a homeless guy $1).  

9/20 Ran 3.5 miles on 2 trails with the dogs and picked up 2 dog poops. Added another charity, CO Public Radio.  

9/21 Tuesday was a travel day to Tampa with little accomplished. I walked the dogs, had 1 drink, and made a bunch of calls to friends and business contacts.

9/22 I did the 40,000 lbs in a day today at a Bally's Fitness in Tampa . It took about 80 minutes and did not hurt as much as I thought it would, although today (Thursday) I am feeling a bit sore. I did a total of 41 sets with most sets of 10 reps. The squats and leg presses hurt the most, since I had not done any in months. I could have done the total weight in lat exercises, but that would have been repeating the weekend’s feat. I probably could do 40,000 kilos, but would have to train the legs with weights for a few weeks to manage it. Also, added another drink, and more calls.

9/23 3 charities, walked the dogs in the morning and then ran the dogs on 3 trails, picked up 2 poops. Tomorrow starts my bachelor party weekend, so I had 2 beers with Shawn and Bruce, and ate the first King Pin fritter which traveled from Berkeley to Atlanta to Boulder with Shawn.

9/24 Big day: ran the dogs 3 miles on 1 trail, picked up 2 poops. Then climbed 9 routes at North Table Mtn with Shawn, Bruce, Bob, Randy, Doug, Tim, drank 5 beers and 3 cocktails, including a car bomb, and finished off the King Pin fritters. The fritters have so much sugar in them, my whole body buzzed after eating one of them, and through me off balance. I finished the 4th one at 11 PM. They seem to be an important part of Birthday Challenges, so I complied, but why are hell are King Pin Fritters a part of this?  

9/25 Continued the bachelor party weekend by doing a classic ride in Steamboat. Started working seriously on the beers and drinks and finished the night with 4 beers and 10 drinks. Also, some serious lounging at Strawberry Hot Springs. Carried around a ball and chain shackled to my ankle for 4 hours that night, and outlasted all of the bachelor party attendees except Rick Winters, by putting them to sleep with a slide show.

9/26 Not as rough a morning recovering from the previous night, as I thought it would be, but the boys were kind of quiet this morning. We drove home and I took the dogs for a short run. Had a glass of wine for dinner, making my total drinks so far: 39.  

9/27 The finish is near. Walked the dogs in the morning, donated to the Edgewood Center , walked the dogs and gave out some dog treats, had my 40th beer with dinner, then began the fast at 8:00 PM. Also did 240 sit ups, starting at noon.  

9/28 Began this day of fasting with a 3 mile run with the dogs on the Boulder Creek Trail (the 40th trail!). Donated to my 30th charity, MS Foundation of NY, did an additional 160 sit-ups for a total of 400, and flew to San Francisco . I was able to continue the fast until I arrived, but then went to a delicious Italian dinner with Doug and Suzanne, ending the fast after 26 hours. Had a glass of Chianti (my 40th unique drink) with dinner. Fasting for 40 hours would be tough. Maybe it was the 400 sit-ups, but my stomach was killing me and I had to eat after 26 hours. I will try it again.