Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Weekend Preview: Chicago Marathon

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Well, it’s Thursday, time for a weekend forecast. I don’t have a ton to talk about, but I am running a marathon (I know, shocker, huh?) so I might as well write a preview. This time, it’s a big race — the Chicago Marathon.

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. To try to make a difference in his honor, 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 through 47 and a couple of ultras. No. 48 is coming on Sunday.

Chicago Marathon Preview
Well, this preview is for my running at the Chicago Marathon. They have world-class elites who run sub-2:10 there. I have no idea about the competition or the field. I just know what to expect out of myself. Or, should I say, what not to expect out of myself.

Chicago has a reputation for being fast and flat and I doubt I’ll even look at a course profile. It’s Chicago. From what I’ve seen, the wearer is going to be decent. You never know about the wind in Chicago, but I’m expecting good running conditions on a PR-friendly course with tons of spectators, great support, and plenty of fast runners to help keep me moving.

That being said, though. I have zero confidence in myself. I haven’t been running much in training over the past five weeks, opting for the bike at the gym instead. I beat the heck out of myself in September with five marathons at considerable elevation (including three in three days two weeks ago) and two timed ultras.

Last weekend, I realized how much I’ve wrecked myself when all I could muster was a 3:28. I’m also in a mental funk right now and not very motivated.

When I saw this race on the schedule, I originally eyed it as a sub-3 possibility. A month from now, I think maybe I could. But I have two chances at pulling it off on Sunday. Slim and none! I’ll still go my hardest, though. I’ll try to run smart and get back on the right track. I’m going to start off trying to run between 7:10 and 7:15 miles, roughly a 3:10 pace, and adjust from there. If I slip, I slip. If I hang on consistently, I might try to step it up in the second half.

If I was betting, I’d suspect I’m going 3:18 this weekend. But I wouldn’t be surprised to range eight minutes in either direction. I really don’t know where I stand right now.

Weekly Contest
I’m not doing my weekly contest until I meet my goal for the St. Jude’s Marathon in Memphis. Click here to see my page for that event. It’s for a great cause, pediatric cancer treatment and research. If you like what I’m doing, head over there and drop a buck or three or five. I’m running my body into the ground to try to help make things better for kids in need. Sunday is going to be my 48th marathon of the year. It’s a whole lot easier to click that link and donate the cost of a cup of coffee!

That’s All For Today
I’m tired and done writing for now. I’m mentally and physically beat and just need to sign off for the week. Have a great Thursday, Friday and Saturday, y’all. I’ll see you back here Sunday with a race recap.

12 Random K-State Stories

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I had no idea what to write about for today, so I sent out a request for topic suggestions on Twitter, and a good friend of mine from college suggested I keep it K-State themed. As you probably know if you’ve been here, I’m a K-Stater, and right now, it’s Nebraska week. We’re playing them tomorrow night on national TV. So, I’m gonna go with 12 random K-State college stories.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. Click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism.

The Good
1. A lot of people ask me how I chose K-State, because I was born and raised in Southern California. Spent my entire pre-Kansas life there. Well, I was a journalism student at my local community college and I narrowed it down to five colleges I wanted to go to based on the quality of the journalism department and the student newspaper.

My list included USC, Missouri (Columbia), North Carolina (Chapel Hill), the University of Kansas and K-State. USC was too expensive for a journalism degree, North Carolina was farther away than I wanted to go and I probably wasn’t going to get into Mizzou, because they have an incredible (and incredibly competitive) journalism department and they had very tough standards for junior-college transfers (I was about a 3.0 student, which is OK, but not good enough to go there).

So, all of a sudden, I was down to KU and KSU. My neighbor in California was from Topeka and I asked her about the in-state reputation of the two schools. She told me the people that are better than KSU go to KU. And the people who don’t care about the people who are better than them go to KSU. I figured KSU was my place, so I applied, got accepted, and flew out to see the campus and register without ever looking at KU. And in case you couldn’t tell, I’m thrilled with the decision I made. I loved it there.

2. Since we’re talking K-State today, it was a lot of fun going to a college that was (at the time) a major football factory. The program was top 10 for most of the time I was there and even No. 1 in the nation during a chunk of my last semester. The biggest win while I was there was against Nebraska in 1998. We hadn’t beaten Nebraska in 30 years until that night. It was fun being in the press box for the AP for that one. With the team doing so well, there were about 300 media credentials issued weekly. For that game, the national media converged and there were more than 600 members of the media there. ESPN did their College Gameday broadcast there. While I was writing in the press box after the game, I was talking with folks from the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe … the list went on and on. It was certainly a memorable experience.

3. My buddy who told me to write this column told me to include the play that one of my stories got that week. I was writing for the AP, and since the game was the national game of the week, my stories would go out on the wire and get picked up by everybody. There was one I wrote about our quarterback, Michael Bishop, that spent 24 hours as the lead story on every major sports website — espn.com, cnnsi.com, thesportingnews.com, usatoday.com. It was pretty cool, still being in my final months as a student, to see something like that.

The college football reporter from the L.A. Times did a huge story on K-State football that took up half of the front page back home in the paper, and he talked to me and my buddy and quoted us in the story. They took a pull quote (when they make it bigger so you see the quote before you read the story) from me and it was above the fold on the front page of the sports section of the Times. I had a TON of people back home calling me up about that.

4. My last semester, I had a sweet 800-square foot studio apartment. It was in a great part of town, Aggieville, and it had thick green shag carpeting that killed a bag every time I vacuumed. There were flowers on the wallpaper, wood paneling from the ’70s, it came fully furnished (including an olive green refrigerator), it had off-street parking, was a three-minute walk to campus and two-minute walk to the bars, there was bright red carpeting in the bathroom, sweet formica countertops and my kitchen was about eight feet away from the country bar next door, so I could always hear the music. The price tag? $350/month. That’s living large, my friends. It was awesome.

5. I just did my thing at the time, but I got to talk to a bunch of people who’d end up having pretty good NFL careers. I had a 15-minute phone interview with Donovan McNabb when he was a junior at Syracuse. I spent 5 or 10 minutes doing a 1-on-1 with Drew Brees in San Antonio when he was a sophomore at Purdue. Most of the guys who were in college back in 1998 are out of the league now, but for several years, I couldn’t turn on a game without seeing multiple players I had interviewed.

The Bad
6. I used to drink a lot in college. One day, we had our daily newspaper budget meeting at a bar. It was St. Patrick’s Day and half-yards were $1. I spent $4 and then we went back to campus. Good thing I wasn’t driving. Somebody brought in a tray of Jell-o and for whatever reason, I thought it would be a good idea to stick a square on the ceiling in the newsroom. It stuck! We put a table beneath it for when it fell, but it didn’t fall that night! Nor did it fall the next week! Nor has it fallen over the past 12 1/2 years! The water evaporated and it basically turned to a rock. It’s still there, and there are all sorts of urban legends about the Jell-o now, but I’m the one who put it there. Yes, that’s my legacy at Kansas State University.


This picture was taken in 2009, I believe. They re-did the ceiling, but preserved that tile.

7. 776-5577, call us now, Pizza Shuttle. I still remember the number, 15+ years after I first arrived on campus. Is it bad if you turn a pizza upside down in the box for 10 minutes to let all the grease soak out? Not if that pizza only costs $3.50! Best 2 a.m. food ever.

8. We had a football player named Frank Murphy who was a highly-touted recruit with blazing speed, but he had to miss the first four games of the season for accepting improper benefits (a deal on a $3,000 used car) from a booster. He was not made available to the media before his first game of the season, at Colorado, so I asked Michael Bishop, our quarterback, about how excited Murphy was. Bishop told me that he was talking to Murphy, who said he wanted to score a touchdown on his first play. Bishop asked him, “What if we’re only on the 20?” Murphy told him, “Then I want to go 80!”

Well, I put that in my story, and I didn’t take it out of context at all. But my story ran on the wire and Woody Paige, who’s a big-time columnist in Denver, wrote a column about how Murphy bragged he was going to go 80 yards against CU’s defense the first time he touched the ball. That went over well.

It turned into a war of words, Murphy didn’t play much in the game, and afterwards, at the press conference, KSU coach Bill Snyder dragged Murphy into the press conference to apologize to CU coach Rick Neuheisel. It was extremely awkward, because Neuheisel didn’t seem to think it was any big deal. But then when Neuheisel and Murphy left, Snyder went off, yelling at all of us media gathered there. The press conference was broadcast live. I was about three feet from him when he was yelling and he was looking right at me about half the time. I really, really, really didn’t want to be there at that point.

The Ugly
9. My fraternity went on probation for hazing at one point when I was there. One of the things that got us in trouble was an active cracking a whip and threatening a pledge in the middle of a large lecture class with about 300 people in it. Seemed bad at the time, but it sure is a fun story to tell. I mean, who can say that their fraternity went on probation for that? Oh yeah, I can.

10. Two times, I played drunk football in college. The only problem is, one time was in the hallway of a hotel, and I outweighed my opponent (who was sober) by more than 100 pounds He wasn’t a willing participant and there wasn’t a ball. The second time was in the hallways of Kedzie Hall, the journalism building, and my two opponents each weighed about 80 pounds less than me. And again, they were sober, there was no ball, and they didn’t want to play.

11. Have you ever been on a teleconference for a men’s basketball postseason announcement, and thought your line was muted, and then made a phone call from your cell to talk to a friend and used too much profanity to tell her about how bad the men’s basketball team was going to get beat in its postseason game, only to find out your line wasn’t really muted? Yeah, I have.

12. I spent 6 1/2 years getting a mass communications degree. I had fun, went on academic probation, and did a million memorable things to have the “college experience” everybody should have. When push came to shove, though, I got it done and was set to graduate in December 1998. A funny thing happened, though. Somehow, I was failing a one-hour freshman geology lab class I was taking that semester. I found that out about three or four days before graduation and didn’t know what to do. Apparently, I’d missed one too many labs. So, I begged the instructor, a GTA, to let me make up the work, and she was cool with that. I got to go out by a lake in the freezing December weather and dig around for fossils. I must have spent an hour or two out there. It was miserable. But it was better than explaining to my dad how after all the money he spent, and 6 1/2 years chasing a journalism degree, I couldn’t graduate because of a one-hour freshman geology lab.

So that’s it. My 12 random things about K-State, since it’s Nebraska week. We get them tomorrow night. They’ll probably beat us, but even if they do, I’m still proud of where I went to school and I always will be!

Rambling For Tuesday

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If you read my blog yesterday, you saw that I’m pretty down right now. I don’t even know what to think or do. But I’m going to use my blog to just write about what’s on my mind. Nothing more straightforward and to the point than that, right?

Just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m trying to run 61 full marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 47. Only 14 to go! Can’t wait!

Anyways, I guess I’ll just write about what’s on my mind. I’m beat up and I’m sore. My legs are dead and I think I made a mistake in kicking hard at the end of Sunday’s race, because the outside of my right leg is killing me now. I don’t have a real good feeling about this weekend’s marathon in Chicago.

I’m not going to worry too much about brainstorming ways to fundraise any more. If it happens, it happens. I’m not going to set myself up for any more failure. I’m just going to take care of my obligations and these days will go by and I’ll run marathon No. 61 before I know it. 83 days from today, not that I’m counting.

I also want to say that I read every single comment that came through on yesterday’s blog, but I didn’t respond to everybody. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that I’m not really up to talking about it once I write and post my blog. I’m in a tough place mentally right now.

Anyways, …

Thank You Sarah And Danielle
The night before the Boston Marathon this year, I was looking at my replies on Twitter and saw that two people were talking about a sign they made that they were going to hold up for me. The funny thing is, I don’t think I had ever talked to them before. They were behind what I did to the point that they were going to randomly make and hold up a sign for me. I was pretty flattered by that, because while I know I have a lot of people lurking and following me and I have no idea who you all are, it’s still pretty new to me and I’m not used to it.

So, I made sure to know where they were, and as I got close, I made sure to keep my eye out. I was excited to look for them, I saw them, and it gave me that last little boost I needed since they were at about mile 26.

I tracked them down when I got my phone after the race and we met up for lunch. They were really nice and it was fun hanging out with them for a little while. We talked and them forming a Train 4 Autism chapter in Maine, which is where they live, and they’ve done that. I’ve talked to them a fair amount since then and they’re very enthusiastic about their chapter.

I’m glad that what I’ve done has brought them on board. I’m heading out there next year to pace one of them through her first marathon. They’re pretty high on my list of favorite people I’ve met through Operation Jack.

The point I’m getting to is I wrote a bitter blog yesterday and after I wrote it, I was going through my email and saw an email from them with seven photos they took while working the Maine Marathon expo over the weekend. I figured I’ll include the photos in here, then copy and paste the email I sent them.

I really liked those photos. They made me happy. And they made me feel like a jerk for being so grumpy while they were out there recruiting at the expo. So I sent them an email to let them know I appreciate their efforts.

You’re going to have to forgive me in advance for the blog I wrote for Monday. Everybody wants to put a Superman cape on me but I’m just a guy who’s away from his family a lot and running his body into the ground. I know I signed up for it, and I don’t mind what I’m doing, but as the year goes on, I’m getting more and more beat up (as is obvious with my times) and when I have miserable failures like I did with my function with the Cardinals players on Saturday night, it makes me wonder if it’s worth it or if anybody even cares.

You guys will always be two of the people who most make it worth it for me. I can’t even explain what it’s like to be me and see these pictures arrive in my inbox. It’s pure awesomeness and I’m a pretty lucky guy.

Anyways, you’ll see in Monday’s blog that I’m on the bitter bus, but it has zero to do with you. You guys are a huge boost for me and I really appreciate your enthusiasm and efforts. Definitely looking forward to getting out there next year and pacing you (Sarah).

– Sam

Time To Think About 2011
I’ve been thinking more and more about 2011. I don’t know what to do. I have a lot of you guys following who think there’s something good about me. Obviously, that’s an indicator we’ve never met, but still, it means I have a platform. I don’t want to waste any opportunities if they’re actually there. So I need to think about what I’m going to do.

Autism is always going to be my primary cause because of Jack. But I’ve thought about branching out and working to help multiple causes. I’m not running 61 marathons next year. This is too much. So, if anybody out there actually thinks I could/should do something to keep people going or to do some good, let me know if you have any ideas.

That’s All For Today
Not really much of anything, other than what’s on my mind right now. Kind of bummed that I’m not more excited heading into the fourth quarter of this. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll snap out of it. Have a great Tuesday, y’all.

Good, Bad, Ugly

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I suspect some of you are going to tell me to quit my fussing, but here comes a whiny weekend recap. Good stuff and bad stuff. If you’ve been following along for any chunk of time, you know I go through mood swings. Well, Grumpy Sam is in the house. Sorry.

Just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m trying to run 61 full marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

I ran marathon No. 47 of the year yesterday, turning in a lousy performance at the Lewis & Clark Marathon in St. Charles, Mo. yesterday. Read all about it here. It was a tough run — I was probably in the worst condition, physically and mentally, that I’ve been in all year.

Anyways, the reason I write this blog is so that y’all can live vicariously through me as I go on this mission. Sometimes I’m having fun, sometimes I’m not. But you can be sure I’ll let you know when I’m struggling … like today.

Here’s the first item for today’s blog … I wrote this on my flight to St. Louis on Friday.

The Check Is No Longer In The Mail!
As a lot of you remember, we pushed and pushed in July in the Chase Community Giving Contest on Facebook and won $20,000. Well, the reality of that win came last Thursday when a senior vice president from JP Morgan Chase showed up with a check for the Operation Jack Autism Foundation! I guess people and groups really do win these contests!

As I’ve mentioned before, the net result of this is that Train 4 Autism is going to be the recipient of an extra $20,000 at the end of the year! And equally important, in my mind, is that this is roughly the cost of Operation Jack. So this, combined with a few things I’ve done outside of the donations that have come, means that all the money y’all have donated over the course of the year is going to Train 4 Autism.

I’ve made it no secret to that my Foundation is covering the expenses of Operation Jack. I can’t afford to do this, but I have firmly believed that it would be worth it and generate money and exposure that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Bringing in considerably more than the expenses has been a big concern of mine for more than a year. But this is America, land of opportunity. I took a chance and now I know with absolute certainty it paid off. And I still have the fourth quarter ahead of me, plus huge exposure coming in the December issue of Runner’s World.


Me getting the check!

———————————————————————————-
OK, now here is where I take a turn for the worse. Like, a complete 180. I wrote this on the plane back from St. Louis last night.

Saturday’s Fundraiser With St. Louis Cardinals Adam Wainwright and Skip Schumaker
We had a fundraiser on Saturday night at a sports bar with St. Louis Cardinals players Adam Wainwright and Skip Schumaker. Wainwright is a fan favorite and he’s been the best pitcher in the National League over the past two years, without question. He finished second in the Cy Young voting last year and will probably do the same this year. He led the league in wins last year and won 20 games this year. They’re rabid about their baseball in St. Louis, like you wouldn’t believe.

Schumaker, the team’s second baseman, struggled a little at the plate this year, but he hit better than .300 in 2007, 2008 and 2009, his first three full years, and fans love him. He’s a guy with a great work ethic who’s a team player and leaves it all on the field. When I talked to him about this earlier this summer, he told me that when him and Adam do autograph sessions like this, the lines go farther than the eye can see. We were pretty excited that this would raise a lot of money for Operation Jack. I did what I could to push it, I had people in St. Louis working to push it, the sports bar handed out flyers for weeks, they had posters and signs up inside advertising it and a big morning radio show in St. Louis was talking about it.

I talked to the manager of the bar about two weeks before the event and he told me he expected 300-400 people there. I recruited helpers so we could manage the line. Vendors donated items for a silent auction. I get little bits here and there from donations and various fundraising ideas, but I expected this to be one of the biggest fundraisers of the year. This had the potential to do very, very well.

So obviously, at this point, you get the hang of what this could have been. Well, I think we might have about 10 people pay for autographs. The bar was a ghost town. I’m not going to Monday morning quarterback the “why not” of this, but this was incredibly deflating. Adam and Skip were sitting at a table waiting to sign autographs and there was nothing to do. We probably waited 10 or 15 minutes for the first customer. I was beside myself. I didn’t even know what to think.

I joked with them that when they were done with their careers, they’d always remember this as the worst autograph session they ever did. They joked that it was the best, because it was easy and laid back. I felt bad for wasting their time, but they felt equally as bad for me because we were barely raising money. This was an absolute golden opportunity for Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism, and it ended up being just a little bit of sterling silver. We talked baseball and running for a little while to pass the time because there was nothing to do. It was just a painful experience. Skip told me that next year we’d give it a shot again, but he’d make sure it gets promoted better. I’ll keep that in the back of my mind, but I need to find some heart again. This was just a killer.

Now that you know what happened with the event, I’ll explain why this was such a mental smackdown for me. As you know, I’m all-in with this endeavor I’m on, and I never stop thinking of ways to raise money and attract people. That’s why I’m running 61 marathons and thrashing my body and spending the year writing blogs on airplanes. I’m perpetually exhausted, I hurt physically every day, but it’s been worth it, because I want to make a difference. I have this utopian dream of making the world a better place. Everybody has their skills and talents, and mine happens to be running marathons at a decent clip and recovering quickly. So, this is my attempt to use that ability to make the world a better place.

I have no clue what I’m doing. It’s trial and error, hit and miss. I fail a lot more than I succeed. I love, love, love succeeding. It was awesome taking that Chase check to the bank on Thursday. But I don’t think I’d be a good salesman, because I’m not good at handling rejection. I get a lot of rejection with Operation Jack. But I think this one, along with where we are in the year, might have been the one that finally did me in.

I couldn’t even fake a smile Saturday night or yesterday. It’s not just the money. I mean, we still brought in money that we didn’t have, even though it was probably about 5-7 percent of what we could have made. And yes I’m grateful that we even had this opportunity. My disappointment comes from the failure. I’m running out of gas, and that was like getting four flat tires. Right now, it’s just kind of like, “why?” I mean, I’ll finish up these 14 marathons and run every single one of them as hard as I can. But I don’t have much confidence in my ability to make any more of a difference the rest of the way. I’m not growing my base, I failed miserably with this event on Saturday, and really, I just think I’ve hit a wall in what I can do. It’s pretty much white flag time.

I feel like I’ve tried hard and put forth a hard, honest effort, and I’ve been doing it for a long time. But I think the heart switch got flicked to off. Yesterday, I had a couple of people, including my wife who I’ve been away from so much this year, reminding me that I can’t grow weary. That verse is right there at the bottom of this blog. Tiff told me God is testing me. I’m content with failing for the next 88 days.

I hear a lot of people tell me things about me inspiring them, and that scares me in a way, because I really don’t feel like I do anything out of the ordinary other than run a lot of marathons. And that ability is something that was given to me by God. He’s the one who’s inspiring. But my point is that as I write this, if you’re in the club that looks to me for any kind of inspiration, I hope I’m not letting you down. But at this point, you know I’m honest with you. I’m cooked.

Anyways, while I’m being honest, I really enjoyed going to the Cardinals game yesterday. Skip got some good karma for showing up Saturday night, going 2-for-5 with a run scored and a nice play in the field. The Rockies had one out and a runner on third when somebody lifted a lazy fly ball down the right field line and he raced over from second base to make a nice catch with his back to the infield. The runner on third tagged and tried to score, but he nailed him at the plate with a strong throw. The play wasn’t even close — the runner eased up about 20 feet from the plate and let the catcher tag him.


Great place to watch a game.

OK, that’s all I have for today. I’ll be back here with some updates on Jack. Have a great Monday, everybody.

Race Report: Lewis & Clark Marathon

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Q: What do you get when you cross dead legs, an unmotivated runner and an unremarkable marathon course? A: My run at the Lewis & Clark Marathon in St. Charles, Mo. on Sunday.

Heading into the race, I felt fine physically, but I suspected my legs would be unresponsive after last weekend’s triple in Lake Tahoe. I’m normally sluggish the weekend following a double, so even though I was pain free, I had no reason to suspect I’d be sharp. I feel strong right now, but I don’t feel fast. The course profile looked easy, so I suspected I’d be good for a 3:18. For me, that’s not blazing fast by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought I could do that.

Unfortunately, I had a tough day on Saturday. Setbacks can bring me down, especially when they’re Operation Jack related, and I was in no mood to run. So, I couldn’t run, I didn’t want to run, and it showed.

I got rolling and kind of felt OK early, but I knew it wouldn’t last. My heart rate monitor isn’t working right, so I had no idea what kind of effort I was giving. I figured I’d try to give about a 7:15/mile effort and not push any harder. I know that’s a 3:10 pace, but I didn’t feel like that would burn me out. I figured it would be a reasonable effort and when my dead legs decided to fade, then I’d roll with it and not worry.

I don’t remember a ton of specifics about the race, other than I got gradually slower and slower. I knew early it was going to be a long day, but I didn’t even bother trying to do the math. I hit the half in about 1:40 and knew I’d be slower in the second half.

The course itself was a fairly easy course. There were a few moderate hills, but even if I had driven the course beforehand, it was nothing that would have fazed me. It’s a fast course on a good day, but it certainly wasn’t a good day for me. I got slower and slower, stiffer and stiffer. It was just a long day on a pretty boring course. Lots of strip malls and industrial parks. There was about eight miles on a trail, but overall, I really wouldn’t recommend this one unless you live in the area. It really doesn’t matter, though, because Competitor bought this race, turned it into Rock ‘N Roll St. Louis, and will move the course next year.

Anyways, I struggled to hold on to the 3:20s, resorted to a shuffle and just wanted the day to be done. A guy in red shorts passed me at about 24.5 and I had nothing for him. I tried to kick at about 25, but it hurt way too bad and I thought I was going to hurt myself. I did everything I can to increase my turnover and I probably looked like a racewalker with my speedy shuffle. I turned it into a kick with about a half-mile to go and went by the guy in the red shorts pretty easily.

I thought I had him for good, but he came right up on me with about 100 meters to go and in a friendly way, we told each other to race it to the finish. I found a gear that I don’t know I’ve ever used before and smoked him, which was fun. Then I stopped and the outside of my right knee was killing me. And as I write this, nearly eight hours after I finished the race, it still is.

Perfect finish to a forgettable day for me. 3:28:22 or something like that was my finish time. I’m not even going to bother to look to see where I finished in my age group or overall, because anything positive from that would be solely an indicator of the field. I did not have any kind of a remarkable run today.

So there you have it. 47 and a couple of ultras down, 14 to go. That same percentage is like mile 20.2 of a marathon, with only six miles to go. I don’t really want to do this right now, but I know I can and I will.


Sam was here.