Soo...Do you workout here?

*So I think that I am finally convinced that Chicago's weather is worse than Cleveland's. It is consistently 15 - 20 degrees colder and almost always has a nasty wind to accompany it to consistently produce single digit and often negative windchills. This doesn't make it very easy to play the "tough guy" to all of my work friends and run outside so I've been finding myself spending more time on the treadmill than I really like to. I am however getting more motivated to start "training," so we will see how that goes. I hit 71 miles last week with a fairly decent tempo run on Monday. Six miles averaging 5:41 although there is some skepticism about the mile markers on the path. Damnit CARA (sarcasm). Also, Saturday a really good group of us drove out to Barrington (~45 NW of Chicago) to get a nice long run in. Groups ranged from 10 - 20 miles on a nice hilly, traffic free loop course. There are several loops that made it easy for people to cut off when ever they liked while others continued on. The footing was not great because of the 8" the night before but it was a good time and a great strength building run. Breakfast afterwards as usual was fun as well. Total trip time from home to home: 7 hours (ouch). I actually like these longer get aways as it gives me a chance to get to know some people that I have only heard their names and really made no connection with.

*Work is driving me a bit crazy right now. Not a lot of things going on since it is the winter and we have also just recently been acquired. The new acquisition sort of drags out many of the decisions and just adds more frustration because of the uncertainty of everyone's roles. I think this acquisition is going to be very interesting in many ways. I'll be interested to see and be a part of (maybe) how PNC moves into a market that they have zero presence in. How will they introduce the brand, the products, the systems, training, and even the PNC culture to our corporate offices. We are told that we will not be converting our retail stores until October 2010 so on that front things are moving pretty slowly. However, I am already beginning to see the cut-throat nature of people you work with when their jobs are in jeopardy. Don't get me wrong because I am definitely a gamer and love a good competition. I have and will make sure that I don't cross my own ethical and moral boundaries throughout this thing, but I will also make sure I get a fair shake and they know what I can do. Good times...more updates til October 2010.

*Another quick work update. I've been working with Fox Chicago the last couple of months on a sponsorship of the St. Baldrick's Foundation. It's been pretty cool and a lot of great experience working with a first class organization that is real deal. They've tons of capabilities and resources to produce some really awesome stuff that I've never had the chance to work on yet. I've got to meet some pretty interesting people as well. more to come.