Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Weekend Recap: Hangin' With The Fam

by 3 Comments

Wow, what a weekend. Marathons 49 and 50 of 2011 in the book and I had a great time with Tiffany and Benjamin in Kansas and Colorado. We took a ton of pictures, so I’ll try to keep the writing to a minimum and the photos to a maximum.

Real quick, just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic, but improving well. I’m attempting to run 61 marathons in 2011 to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 50 marathons, which is good — I’d hate to have to run 61 between now and December 31!

On Saturday, I ran the Kansas City Marathon (recap here).
Yesterday, I ran the Denver Rock ‘N Roll Marathon (recap here).

For the first time this year, my wife and oldest son Benjamin tagged along and we had a blast! The weekend started when I woke up at 3 a.m. Thursday morning to head to the airport after getting four hours of sleep. Here’s how it went from there …

First things first — FOOTBALL!
I graduated from Kansas State University. Thursday night, my alma mater played in-state rival Kansas and we won 59-7! And yes, we went to the game and had a great time! Too bad it was in Lawrence on the KU campus.


Me, Tiff and Benjamin after the race.

First of many friends I caught up with
A good friend and pledge brother of mine from college, Mike Ryan, was in town for a wedding, so we caught up for breakfast. Shoot, he was a groomsman in my wedding, too. I’m not sure he had seen Tiffany since our wedding and I hadn’t seen him since his wedding in 2006. He had never seen any of our kids. So, we had a great time, plus we ate at Cracker Barrel. Does it get any better than that?


Me and Mike chilling in the rocking chairs outside Cracker Barrel.

Visiting My Old Fraternity House
I’m a Phi Delt, for those of you who went through the Greek system. Before my last semester, we sold our house to Delta Chi because it was falling apart and they really wanted it. They sold it a year ago to a sorority. I went by to go on a tour, if possible, but it’s abandoned now. And it’s condemned. It’s getting torn down. It was so sad! But it was cool to see it one last time. Sniff, sniff.


Me and Ben at 508 Sunset, 66502. Rest in peace, Phi Lodge.

Visiting My New Fraternity House
So at least my chapter has a new house. It was pretty nice and I took a tour courtesy of Beau Dewbre, an active with the Kansas Gamma chapter. Benjamin got a big kick out of the house and he wants to go live there someday. I like that!


Beau and me outside the new Phi Delt house.

The 1995-96 composite is still on the wall. Little did I know I’d get even uglier.

Ben: Go To College!
Benjamin is only 9, and he’s only in the fourth grade, but it’s never too early to encourage college, right? I took him for a little bit of a drive through the campus at KSU. Then we went into the newsroom I spent a million hours in. Then we went to the Student Union, where they have a bowling alley in the basement. He’s sold. He can’t wait to go to college! That’s what I like to hear!


Me, Ben and Tiff in the Collegian newsroom.

Ben in the Student Union. He’ll be back later, as a student. Man, that would be rad.

Strolling Down Memory Lane
Well actually, a street called LeGore. Tiff lived in Manhattan for a semester. I lived in the Phi Delt house, she lived at 1433 LeGore. We were kids back then. So we had to go back and take a picture.


Man I look fat in this picture. And this was before lunch.

Next Good Friend I caught up with
I met up with a buddy of mine, Scott Fritchen, who was one of my best friends in college. We’ve kept in touch over the years, so we met up with him for lunch. He works for a K-State sports publication called Powercat Illustrated and they have a TV studio in their office. Ben got a big kick out of that. And of course, I didn’t take a picture. But I did take a picture with Scott.


Man I look fat in this picture, too. In all fairness, though, this was after a huge lunch at Hibachi Hut.

OK, Moving Along, …
We went back to Kansas City, picked up my stuff and stayed at a friend’s house in the Kansas City area. On the Kansas side, of course! The Kansas City area covers Kansas and Missouri and I’m definitely partial to the Kansas side.

I got about six hours of sleep and then I got up and ran the Kansas City Marathon on Saturday morning (recap here). After the race, we had to scoot pretty quickly to make it to the airport. We did a quick stop-off at 12425 W. 120th Street #1023 in Overland Park. Yeah, that was the first apartment we lived in after we got married. Ahhh, memory lane again!


This is my new Facebook profile picture.

We drove through Taco Bell, rushed to the airport and got in to Denver. After getting our next rental car, we headed straight from the airport to Pei Wei in Boulder to meet up with some runner friends. We had a nice time there.


The obligatory picture for the blog.

We got to where we were going by 9 p.m., staying with friends of ours in the Denver area. I got to bed a little before 11 and had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on …

Sunday!
I woke up naturally and realized I forgot to check in for our Southwest flight Sunday night! Tiff wondered why I was typing furiously on the keyboard at 4:30 and it was because I didn’t want us to get stuck in the middle seats in separate rows on the way home. We got A57, A58 and A59, so we were fine.

Anyhow, I ran the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon on Saturday morning (recap here).

After the race, I went back to my friends’ house, got cleaned up and we went out to lunch. It’s funny — last weekend when I was in Chicago, I didn’t get any pizza. I got McDonald’s at the airport. But in Denver, we went to a place called Old Chicago. Go figure. I had a stromboli, whatever that is. And fries.

Tiff and Benjamin went shopping or something like that and I chilled on the couch with my friend, watching the Jets-Broncos game. We said farewell, then took off and headed for dinner. We were going to hit Sonic, but we saw Cracker Barrel again!

I decided to go with dinner for dinner instead of breakfast for dinner. There was a chicken BLT sandwich that looked really good, so I ordered that. A funny thing happened, though. They just brought out a BLT. I NEEDED that chicken, so they told me to snack on the BLT while they brought out my sandwich. So I did. They must have known I had run two marathons over the weekend and I was starving!

So I actually got two dinners out of the deal, plus I finished some of Benjamin’s french toast and I split some carrot cake with Tiffany. That took care of me. I had five cups of coffee, hoping that would keep me awake on the flight, but I couldn’t hack it.

Benjamin had the line of the night when we went through security. Tiff put a jar of peanut butter in his backpack, and apparently that’s a no-no. So they asked him if that was his bag, and he said, “It’s OK, I didn’t pack any guns or knives.” They took the peanut butter and he asked if he was in trouble. The TSA agent joked that they might put him on a list. So he said, “Well my name is Benjamin and my last name is spelled F-e-l-s-e-n-f-e-l-d.” Me and Tiff were cracking up!

Anyways, I got about 90 minutes of shut-eye on the flight and we finally landed a little after 11 p.m. After getting Tiff’s bag, getting the car and driving home, we finally walked through the door at 1 a.m. I think I got to sleep by about 1:15.

Too bad I was up five hours later attacking my Monday, huh?

I went to In-N-Out for lunch on Monday and while I was there, Tiff updated her Facebook status and it made me smile.

Had to take a two hr nap to recover from my trip to Kansas, Colorado and I DIDN’T run two marathons this weekend. Sam, I seriously am in even more “awe” over how you do this. Crazy.

I’ll admit it, this was an exhausting weekend. But so far, through nearly 36 years of walking this planet, I think this might have been my best weekend ever.

Just In Case You Have Similar Thoughts, …

by 10 Comments

I got a comment on my blog today and I wanted to clear some things up. If one person says it, I’m sure 20 people think it.

On Oct 19, 2010, at 4:45 PM, C Stroud wrote:

Sorry guys, I agree that charity runners are not THE problem at Boston, respectfully submit they don’t belong or at a minimum have outlived their purpose.. Charity running has become an industry unto itself.

And Sam, I don’t know you so this is by no means directed at you, but many people use charity running as merely a means to fund, indulge, or otherwise justify their pursuits. I know a gal who just did an endurance event in all 50 states under the guise of charity. Certainly she raised funds but had her goal been to benefit the charity of her choice, the amount of time spent in the pursuit could have been put to far better or more beneficial use than the funds raised.

And please, do not tell me it is about “awareness”. People are aware of these diseases or causes. Not a single person is now aware of breast cancer because the NFL is using pink shoes and gloves this month. But Campbells has sure sold a lot of pink cans of soup.

———————– My reply: ———————–

FYI, since you seem to be jumping to a few conclusions about me, I want to clear a couple of things up …

1. I agree with you that charity runners are not THE problem at Boston, but as long as they continue to raise money for great causes, they have not outlived their purpose. Charity running has absolutely become an industry. Team In Training (which I have never been a part of) has raised more than $1 billion over the past 20+ years and knowing the percentages of their expenses, they’ve probably spent $220M of that funding races. So, a good $800M or so has gone to fighting leukemia and lymphoma through TNT. That’s HARDLY outliving its purpose.

2. Read this: http://operationjack.org/blog/?m=b&i=48 I don’t know if you’re a spiritual person, but I truly believe God led me down the path I’m on. This year has been incredibly difficult on me and my family and we knew that going in. But I have an idealist’s dream of making the world a better place and with my ability to recover quickly from marathons, I thought this might be a way — especially in the autism world. My son is severely autistic, and as part of my inward way of dealing with knowing that his childhood is ruined, I want to make what he’s going through “worth it” … I want to make things better for other kids if I can. So this was my first attempt at that.

3. Re awareness, I don’t need to make anybody aware of autism, and that’s not what I’m doing. I’m making people aware of Train 4 Autism, a small charity based out here in Southern California that helps people raise money for local autism-related charities that they choose. I think it’s a great vehicle that needs a spark and that’s what I’m trying to do. I have new chapters in Maine, Utah, Kansas, etc., as a result of this and money will be raised for autism-related charities in those areas as a result of what I’ve done. So yes, it is about awareness.

And for what it’s worth, I’ll be 36 on race day next year, so my qualifying time is 3:15:59. I’m in with a 3:03, I have six sub-3:10s and I think 14 or so BQs that count towards that race (so far). So I’ve earned my way in. I understand both sides of the fence and really, it’s pretty disheartening to see such hateful comments come towards me from someone who really didn’t even take the time to find out what I’m all about. You say your comments are not directed at me, but we both know that’s a cop-out.

Take care,
Sam

The Boston Marathon: It's Boston's Marathon

by 11 Comments

I had a weekend recap almost completely worked up for today, but with the Boston Marathon opening and closing registration yesterday, I figured I’d address that because I’ve saw a lot of complaining about the way it all went down. Charity runners are getting a bad rap, and that’s just wrong.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a marathon runner and a father of three. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I decided I wanted to do something to try to make a difference in the autism community, so I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on track, through 50 of 61 with only 11 to go!

Anyways, registration for the 2011 Boston Marathon opened yesterday and I registered and got in. Registration was only open for eight hours or so and I’m glad I didn’t delay. Once it closed, though, I started seeing a lot of griping about charity runners on the Boston Marathon’s Facebook page, and that really annoyed me. So, I figured I’d address that today.

If you’re not familiar with the Boston Marathon and it’s qualifying standards, it’s fairly tough to get in. Men 18-34 need to run 3:10:59 or better (7:17 average pace per mile) and women 18-34 need to run 3:40:59 or better (8:23). Many marathon runners set qualifying for Boston as the ultimate goal and spend years getting there. I had to work extremely hard for about two years before I qualified for the first time. I went from a 2:29 in my first half marathon in December 2005 to a 3:07 full marathon in October 2007.

I went and ran Boston in 2008, and I consider it an annual reward for all the training I do. I train hard and really push myself. Boston is a race filled with great runners, great history and great support. I just love it.

In 2008, registration closed in about March. In 2009, it filled in either late January or early February — I don’t specifically remember, but it was around that time. Last year, the Boston Athletic Association made a gamble and sent off an email on October 29 stating that registration was almost full. I didn’t believe it, but I registered anyways, not knowing how many people would take the bait.

You get a number when you register, and fewer than 14,000 people had registered when that email went out. Shrewd move by the BAA — I was right! But within a week, registration was closed and I was in. I knew immediately that I would need to register on the first day this year. Boston had become a race with a reputation of closing early.

I registered yesterday morning, about five hours before registration closed. Then the next thing you know, I’m seeing all sorts of complains about charity runners on the Boston Marathon’s Facebook page, so I decided I’d write about that today. I wrote a quick post yesterday, but I’m following up with what I read about, because it really annoyed me

First of all, there are 26,700 runners in the race. There are 12 corrals and two waves. Each corral has 1,000 runners. 12,000 runners go in the first way and 14,700 go after that. From what I’ve read, there are 1,350 charity runners and about 3,900 entries that are somehow given out or sold through the Boston community to runners who haven’t qualified. So, you’re looking at approximately 5,250 runners out 26,700 who aren’t qualifiers.

Fewer than 5 percent of those are charity runners, and they START AT THE BACK! They’re not taking spots from anybody. They start behind all of the qualifiers, and based on the number of qualifiers, participants and wave one runners, I’m pretty convinced charity runners are add-ons, not spot stealers. Plus, since 1989, Boston Marathon charity runners have raised more than $100 million. Most charity runners are raising more than $3,000. And for that privilege, they get to sweep the course! I don’t know the exact number of entries sold yesterday, but it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 21,450.

Over the course of eight hours, that’s about 2,680 an hour. The registration rate probably accelerated during the day, because there were system issues early in the morning. So, take away those 1,350 charity entries and eliminate all the money they raise and give those entries to runners who achieve the qualifying times and you’re looking at registration closing a whopping 30 minutes later. Charity runners clearly did not cause yesterday’s problems.

Other folks are complaining about the entries given to the local community. Here’s something else I have a strong opinion about. The quality of the field and the history of the race are a big part of what makes Boston such a great race. But the local community does, too. They take the day off of work. They line the course and throw parties from start to finish. While residents of most cities complain about road closures, people in Boston treat you like royalty during race weekend.

People are excited to talk to you when they know you’re running the marathon. I had people applaud me when I walked into a bar after the 2008 race. The enthusiasm ranges from kids to college students to senior citizens. I gave hundreds of people high-fives during the race each of the three times I ran it because they come out and make the race what it is, so if they want a high-five, then I’ll give them one.

And along those lines, if the people of Boston want 3,900 entries, I don’t have any problem with the BAA giving those to them. It’s their race, not mine, and not some other fast guy’s, either.

It’s pretty simple, something we all learned in high school. Supply and demand. Entries are limited and there are a lot qualifiers out there. I expect the price to go up next year, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the qualifying standards get tougher. In fact, I think they should. It’s pretty obvious that only a minority of the people who qualify and want to get in can actually get in the race.

The purpose of the qualifying times is to reward the best from each age group with a spot in the race, not to reward all people who can run a marathon in an arbitrary time. The qualifying levels need to be re-evaluated, because they’re not limiting the field. If that happens, I might not get in, and I’m fine with that. I’ll just work harder if I want to go back.

For now, I’m glad I’m in for 2011. And I’m bummed for people who qualified but didn’t register in time. But I’m really bummed hearing people try to lay the blame on charity runners and the Boston community. As individual runners, we don’t own the race and we don’t have a right to run in it.

2011 Boston Marathon Registration: Open and Shut!

by 1 Comment

2011 Boston Marathon registration opened AND closed today, by far the fastest the field has filled for the race. I’m not surprised it happened this quickly, but it’s still shocking to know that anybody who waited more than seven hours to get in will be shut out.

The Boston Athletic Association made this quick sellout happen with a shrewd gamble last year. On October 29, the BAA sent out an email blast announcing the race was close to filling. I didn’t believe the email, because the race sold out somewhere around late January or early February for the 2009 race. I was convinced it wasn’t close to full. But after about 30 minutes, I realized I was also convinced that tons of folks would take the bait and register. So I registered.

You get a registration number when you register. Mine was 20013971. I don’t know the numbering scheme for certain, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t incremental. In 2009, my number was 9018681 when I registered about a week before it closed. It makes perfect sense that I was registrant No. 18681 in 2009. While the email blast last October said registration was close to filling, I firmly believe fewer than 14,000 had actually registered for more than 20,000 available spaces. Note: I don’t know my number from 2008, although I registered in October of 2007 and I think the race filled around March of 2008 and it hadn’t filled in a while.

Anyways, last year’s race filled about a week after that email blast. Once that happened, Boston had a reputation as a race that filled early and everybody knew to jump early this year. They took a gamble with the email blast and it paid off. I suspected the race would fill within a week, but maybe even within a day. I registered this morning and I’m in. I’m pacing a 3:40 group in Mankato, Minn. this weekend and I’ve been thinking that even though I’ll be leading those folks to qualifying times, they wouldn’t be able to run until 2012. Sure enough, that’s the case.

I suspect there will be changes for 2012. If neither of these come to fruition, I’ll be surprised. If both do, I won’t be.

1. Price increases? Obviously, with demand considerably higher going forward and supply the same, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the price takes a nice hike next year.

2. Tougher qualifying standards? There are more than enough runners to fill the field. The BAA could raise the bar and toughen the qualifying standards. The race would still fill and qualifying for Boston would be even more prestigious than it already is.

It’s definitely an interesting day for marathon runners. If you wanted to get in, I hope you did!

Race Report: Denver Rock 'N Roll Marathon

by 2 Comments

Another day, another marathon. In my case, that was the truth Sunday. After running the Kansas City Marathon the day before, I continued along the Operation Jack train with my 50th full marathon of the year, the Rock ‘N Roll Denver Marathon.

I didn’t expect a lot out myself heading into the race. My previous three races were 3:28, 3:29 and 3:29, plus this was the day after a 3:29 and it was up at altitude. I was a little bit afraid that I wouldn’t even have a 3:40 in me. I was really hoping to go sub-3:30. Realistically, I thought I was good for about a 3:36.

This was my 78th lifetime marathon, but I’m still getting the hang of these things. I never seem to pace them correctly, and while I try to alter my strategy to find the right recipe, I always seem to have problems. Today, I figured I’d go out conservatively, trying to run in the 7:30 range and adjust as the run went on.

It was weird starting out at that pace. Aside from when I’ve paced at slower rates, I’ve never set out intentionally holding the pace slower than a Boston qualifying speed. But I knew I needed to take care of myself and avoid blowing up. Long, slow death marches are no fun in marathons. I really didn’t want one of those in my second marathon of the weekend!

I got rolling and felt fairly OK. I started thinking about how I felt like I normally do and realized that my legs are completely fatigued right now whether or not I run a marathon the day before, so it was business as usual. I was a little cautious, however, because of the altitude.

Things were going fine and I enjoyed the early part of the course as we snaked through downtown Denver. I really didn’t struggle much. The course got a little boring as we started to go through a typical Rock ‘N Roll course. There were out and backs in industrial areas and we spent a fair amount of time snaking through a park to tick off miles.

At about mile 16, I started to have problems with my right knee. I’ve been experiencing some issues with my IT band in that area lately, and over the past couple of years, I’ve had tendinitis flare-ups. That tendinitis frequently surfaces when I run doubles, like I did this weekend, and a combination of those two conditions made my knee buckle sporadically over the final 10 miles.

I’d be running, and then all of a sudden, my knee would buckle and I’d have to stride with an exaggerated hop for 10 or so steps. When I dealt with that, my pace dropped. When I felt a little stronger, I did my best to push like I was kicking because I knew my knee would give at any time and I wanted to bank time while I could.

I was fairly disappointed with the race as it went along. I didn’t think that the course did much to highlight Denver (Rock ‘N Roll courses are good at being boring) and there weren’t as many bands out as there typically are for one of their events.

But the biggest problem I had with this course was that it was long. I’ve run 78 marathons now, so I know that the distance comes up long because of tangents. But I know when miles are long and there was one early in the race that was off (somewhere around 3 or 4, I don’t remember), and the “mile” between 23 and 24 was closer to 1.15 miles. We went up and back on a boring overpass and I’m completely convinced the turnaround was too far out.

I was ahead of the 3:30 pace, even looking close to a 3:27, but when I hit mile marker 24, I knew I was going to be getting a time for 26.4. I hate that and was pretty mad. But I kept on pushing and hopping, intent on going sub-3:30. I really wanted to be faster than my 3:29:38 from Kansas City on Saturday.

When I hit what I knew was 26.2, I was at 3:27:56. But I had to keep moving. I pushed up the last little bit to the finish, and crossed the mat 3:29:28 after I started, a 10-second improvement from Saturday. I was pretty happy with that. I don’t have a ton in me right now, but I know I gave it a good effort and I was happy about that.

So there you have it. I’ve now completed 50 full marathons this year. I like the look of that number. It looks kind of cool. And you know what I really like? Only 11 to go!


Yep, I was there!

This is what 50 medals looks like.