Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Race Report: Emerald Bay Marathon (Tahoe Triple #1)

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I’ve been dreading the Tahoe Triple for a little while. September has been a long month from the running and racing perspective, and three marathons in three days at elevation on hills hasn’t sounded too appealing. On paper, it looks frightening to me. But none of that compares to actually getting out there and doing it. I ran the first leg of the Tahoe Triple Friday, the Emerald Bay Marathon, and it was even tougher than I thought it would be.

I tried not to think about what I was doing as we got ready to start. I’ve never run three marathons in three days. I’m not very good at elevation — I’m a sea-level guy. And I’m totally beat up right now. I checked the elevation on my Garmin, 6,850 feet or so, and mindlessly got ready to run. That’s what I do — I run marathons — so I’d just go out and run 26.2 miles like I always do.

Vaguely knowing what I did about the course, I was hoping to run a 3:40 or better, but I didn’t worry about it. I knew I’d go out, run myself into the ground and get to the finish line as quickly as I could. If that meant 3:40, then that’s what it meant. If it took 4:00, so be it.

We got going on a big downhill early on a winding road and we had to go single file to avoid traffic. The views of the lake were amazing, and the forested areas were very nice, too. I was moving all right early, but definitely not fast. I had no spring in my step and I definitely realize at this point that I have dead legs.

I felt nauseous for quite a while. I was sick to my stomach and pretty miserable. I know this is probably too much information, but I threw up a little bit in my mouth at about mile 10. It was just a little bit, but it was gross. I’d never done that in a race before.

My stomach started feeling a little better by about halfway through, but I felt like I had nothing physically. We bottomed out somewhere around 6,200 feet and started a series of gradual uphill climbs. I think I hit the half in about 1:45 or so. I don’t really remember and I wasn’t really concerned. I just knew to keep running hard so I could finish the run.

By about mile 16, I hit a point where I shut off the competitive switch mentally, because I knew there was nothing there. It was kind of a primal feeling. I was just running, looking at the trees and the laking, pushing myself with all that I had (or didn’t have), trying to get to where I had to go. It was a nice, albeit painful, feeling at that stage.

I kept rolling, but the miles were pretty slow. They were well into the 9s, which is a crawl for me. I knew there was a hill coming up at mile 23, but I had no idea exactly how difficult it would be. People can describe them in words all they want, but until you run it, you can’t feel it.

At mile 23, we were at about 6,300 feet. And then we started climbing. And climbing. I thought it was only a mile long for some reason, but we were still climbing at 24. I was shuffling at about a 12-minute pace. I was still shuffling at that speed as we continued to climb through 25. Around every turn, I thought it would level out, but I kept seeing more of the hill. We finally peaked at about 25.5. Elevation was 7,038 feet. That had to have been the worst hill I’ve ever run up in a race.

We made a turn off the road we were on down to the finish. I didn’t know what to expect for the finish line, so when I closed in and saw a man sitting at a table next to a chalk line, I asked if that was the finish and it was! Thank goodness! I crossed through to complete the toughest marathon I’ve ever run. No question about it. That was brutal! The hills, elevation and late climb made it an incredibly challenging run. But it was beautiful and it was nice to be out there running.

On a side note, and a pre-triple dinner event the night before, I was recognized for what I’m doing with Operation Jack, so it was nice that a lot of people heard about what we’re trying to do.

Anyways, I finished in 3:49:42, and really, that doesn’t even faze me. In May I might have cared. Right now, I don’t. I went out, I gave it my all, and I wore myself out for Operation Jack. That’s what I’m here to do, so I’m glad that’s what I did.

44 and a couple of ultras down, 17 to go. Next up, leg 2 tomorrow!


I knew I was about to run a marathon, but I really didn’t know what I was in store for! The lake looked nice, though.

Done! Time for pancakes!

It's September 22 … A Big Day In My Home!

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If you’ve come around here more than once or twice, you know I’m head-over-heels in love with my wife, Tiffany. Well, today marks 16 years to the day since I took her out on a date for the first time, so we celebrate this as an anniversary. So, I figured I’d dedicate this blog to her.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, click here to see why I’m trying to run 61 full marathons this year for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

OK, so here’s the quick rundown of how we started dating. We met on the newspaper at college. I was the sports editor, she was a good-looking newbie reporter. I tricked her into taking a women’s volleyball story so I could get to know her. The trick worked. We spent a lot of time working on that story and eventually, I worked up the courage to ask her out on a date on Sept. 21, 1994.

We went out on a date the next night, to a restaurant called Buffalo Ranch. I spilled my salad on my lap, but she didn’t really notice and I brushed it on the ground. We went down to Thalia Street in Laguna Beach for a walk on the beach. And then we went for a second walk on the beach, because I was too nervous to try to kiss her during the first walk. She forced the issue. Lucky me!

Anyways, I figure that for today, I’ll write down one quick memory, hopefully mostly funny, from each year we’ve been together.

1994: Meeting Her Parents
We had been dating a week or two. I went over to her house (she lived at home) to pick her up to go to a party. She had a midnight curfew, which I thought was funny since she was in college, but I respected that. She was very embarrassed about that and tried to talk her parents into easing that up.

Anyways, I got to the door and she told me to come in, because her parents wanted to meet me. That was fine with me — how bad could that be? The house was fairly dark, with just one lamp on at night time. She introduced me to her mom and I said hello. Then she said, “And this is my dad, Andy.”

So the first words he grumbles are, “So you’re the guy my daughter thinks she shouldn’t have a curfew for, huh?” Yeah, that’s me. Nice to meet you, too!

1995: She Followed Me To Kansas
At the time, my perspective was that she was moving out to Kansas, where I had transferred to go to Kansas State University, and she needed help finding a place. So, I called all the ads of people looking for roommates, I went and talked to people and I had her all set up. When she got to Kansas, she didn’t have a car, so I just gave her mine even though she didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. And she didn’t have any money, so I put her on my credit cards. I lived in my fraternity house and went to class. She worked two jobs.

Of course, from her parents’ perspective, she quit both her jobs, dropped out of school and bought a one-way plane ticket to Kansas, all in the course of a day. I was glad she was nearby. But I don’t think her parents were too big on me back then.

1996: Her 21st Birthday
Her birthday (December 16) was on a Sunday night, so I told her I was trying to get people together to go out, but I wasn’t having much luck because it was a work night. She was waiting at her parents’ house for me and the three other people who were going out to show up.

One by one, all of our friends called her up to apologize that they wouldn’t be able to make it out that night because it was a Sunday. Thank goodness that was before the days of caller ID, because she would have known that they were all calling from the pre-party at my parents’ house. She was beyond shocked when 18 of us piled out of two limousines to pick her up. Her parents were beyond shocked when about 10 of us piled into their house to use the bathrooms.

We had a great time that night. I think. I got cut off and then kicked out of the place we went to. I’m not going to say why.

1997: Frequent Flyer Miles
We left Kansas after 1995 and lived in Las Vegas in 1996. But I went back to finish up school in 1997 and we agreed to do the long-distance thing. I needed to focus and finish up my degree. We lived pretty far apart the entire year, and it was pretty tough. But we flew frequently. I’d fly west and she came to Kansas a few times.

One of those times she flew out was 13 years ago right now. On our September 22 anniversary in 1997, she was out there in Manhattan, Kan. with me, and we ate dinner at our favorite place in town, Harry’s Uptown. We ate there again in 1998, but we haven’t been back. One of these days we will.

1998: Surprise Visit!
I graduated from Kansas State University in December 1998. My brother, my parents and my grandparents all came out to visit. Tiffany couldn’t get the time off of work and was really upset that she couldn’t make it.

She called me up the night before my brother flew out and was crying on the phone, upset that she couldn’t be there. She was roommates with my brother in Las Vegas, so she put him on the phone after she was done talking to me. He was coming in on a redeye and renting a car, so he told me to leave my apartment unlocked so he could get in when he got there at 6 a.m.

No problem. I went out the night before, got my drink on, then crashed at about 2 a.m. I woke up at 6 a.m. to see Tiffany standing right there. What a great surprise! I was so glad she made it. We struggled so much to make it through those two long distance years and I’m glad she was able to see me graduate.

1999: May 23, Our Wedding Day
What more can I really say? I guess I have one quick anecdote. I lost 40 pounds in the three months before the wedding so I would look good for our pictures. Two nights before the wedding, I got a black eye. So much for the pictures, huh?

If you’re wondering what the other guy looked like, it was a doorknob. Two of my buddies were also a little drunk when they carried me in at the end of the night.

2000: Finding Out She Was Pregnant For The First Time!
I was the sports information director at a college and I was chit-chatting during halftime of a football game. I asked one of my co-workers about how the health care benefits were for when I had kids some day. They asked if there was something they should know, and I swore that no, there wasn’t. I wasn’t going to advertise that we were trying, but I figured Tiff would be pregnant within six months or so.

No more than three minutes later, she called me up screaming with excitement. Yes, she was pregnant! My co-workers thought I set the whole thing up. No, not at all. I was completely surprised! After the game, one of my student assistants asked me if I wanted a boy or a girl. That’s when I realized that after the whole “pregnancy” thing, there would be a baby as a party favor! Yikes! Me! A dad!

2001: A Romantic Valentine’s Dinner
So she’s about five months pregnant with our first child. I had planned on going out to Maggiano’s with her for Italian food. But on the way there, she changed her mind and said she wanted crab legs. I’m not a big crab legs guy, so I didn’t really know where to go. Red Lobster? I was going to make a call and find out where to go, but she knew where she wanted to go. She knew who made crab legs exactly to her liking. No matter what I said or where I suggested, she was dead set on where to eat for that Valentine’s Dinner when she was pregnant with our first child.

Yes, we went to Hooters.

2002: Wrong Restaurant In Puerta Vallarta
We were on a seven-day cruise and we stopped in Puerta Vallarta and had lunch at a restaurant the cruise ship recommended. While we were waiting for our food, a roach that was about two inches long walked across our table. We wanted to cancel our order, but the waiter wouldn’t let us. We were going to have to pay $40 to get out of there, so we decided to just eat anyways. We hoped it would be OK.

We went on a horseback riding excursion later that day. I got, hmmmmm, sick while we were out on that excursion in the middle of nowhere. I’ll just leave it at that. Tiff is probably laughing as she reads this.

2003: Tiff Can’t Surprise Me
Tiff called me up at work three times one morning about a month before my birthday asking for me to try to get in touch with one of my good friends for her. Then about an hour later, my mother-in-law called me from Tiff’s phone asking a question about seller integrity on eBay. I asked her what the seller’s star rating was, and she had no clue about what the eBay website looked like. When I asked her what she bought, she hesitated before saying, “Uh, a lamp?” I had used eBay a few times to buy and sell event tickets, and I knew my Chiefs were playing in San Diego the week after my birthday, so I knew what my present was. I told Tiff to be smarter about things and she got upset because she felt like she can never surprise me.

For that same birthday, we were talking and she was talking aloud to me, wondering how somebody was going to make it to my surprise birthday dinner at a restaurant called Javier’s. I reminded her that she was speaking out loud, and she got upset again about not being able to surprise me. I told her to pick a new restaurant and surprise me. The next day, I cleaned up all the files on the desktop on my computer. I took Benjamin to the park and when I came back, there was a menu downloaded to the desktop of a different restaurant. I told her to do that kind of stuff under her user account!

So a week later, it’s my birthday, and I’m hanging out at home by myself, watching Michigan-Ohio State. The phone rings and the caller ID says it’s that second restaurant, so I just let the call go. Somebody leaves a message confirming the party of 16 for 6:30 p.m. Oops, she did it again!

2004: OK, She Snuck One By Me
I was expecting a surprise party for my 30th birthday party, which fell on a Monday. The Friday before, right when I was on my way out the door from work, my dad called me up with a ridiculous request for computer help. I called up Tiff and she was way more willing than normal to let me go over there and help.

He stalled me with stupid questions for a good two hours. Finally, Tiff called over there and asked me to come home, and my dad dropped everything and ushered me out the door. My stomach was in knots. I thought I was going home to a party and I was on edge when I opened up the door.

Benjamin, who was 3 at the time, was sitting on the couch as I opened the door. He had a noisemaker and yelled, “Surprise Daddy!” as I walked in. Tiff was sitting there cracking up, because the house was calm and quiet.

She got me. The party ended up being the next night.

2005: Her 30th Birthday
For her 30th birthday, we had it all planned out. We were going to drive down to San Diego and have a nice night, sans kids. We had babysitting all lined up and were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, all three kids were sick.

So we changed that to dinner out. We went to Fleming’s, a nice steak restaurant. We had never been to a nice restaurant like that. Those kind of things are way too expensive for us, but the food was great and we had a great time talking with each other for about three hours that night. It was the best meal we had ever enjoyed together, and to this day, it still probably is.

2006: I Was Hard On Myself Back Then, Too
I’ll always remember June 4, 2006, the day I ran my first marathon. It was in San Diego and Tiff and the kids came down to see me finish. I really wanted to run a sub-4, and Tiff knew that was my goal, but I knew by about mile 21 that it wasn’t going to happen. I got upset and just about started crying, because I felt like I was letting them down.

But then I pulled out a strip of pictures Tiff gave me to carry and started thinking about how fortunate I was to have them, because if I would have been paralyzed when I broke my neck when I was 16, I would have never met Tiff and there would be no Ben, Jack and Ava. I bucked up because I realized I didn’t let them down.

2007: One Proud Husband!
She trained for a 5K on July 4 and wanted to run it in 27 minutes, but paced it poorly and ran a 29. She wanted revenge two weeks later and ran another 5K, aiming for that 27-minute mark again. I hung out at the finish line with the kids, and hoped to see her reach her goal.

I saw her come around more than a minute early and go 25:40. I’ll never forget seeing her come around the corner right before the finish, her face red as she obviously labored through a tough run. I don’t really care how fast she runs. But to see her go out and reach for a goal and kill it with authority? I was so proud of her and I’ll never forget that feeling.

2008: A Tough Year
She’ll probably kill me for saying this, but 2008 was our toughest year ever. And I’m to blame. But we went out to dinner two years ago tonight and permanently resolved every issue we had. I feel like we’ve never been stronger than we’ve been the past two years. That dinner was the turning point. We’ve always been madly in love, but our relationship reached new levels for strength at that dinner.

We have plenty of memories, and that dinner is another one I’ll never forget.

2009: Long Beach Marathon
Best date ever! We went for 26.2 together! I trained her for her first marathon, and it was so wonderful to do that with her. As a marathon runner, I’d say that there’s nothing quite as enjoyable as running a marathon with your spouse. It was an awesome experience. She’s battled a lot of injuries, so I’m hopeful we can do that again. Maybe even just a half-marathon. I don’t care. I love running with her.

2010: We are BROKE!
For our wedding anniversary this year, she bought me a coffee mug that she was able to write her own message on. The message is “It’s our 11-year anniversary and all I could afford is this mug!” It’s my favorite coffee mug — I used it this morning. I love it, and someday we’re going to look back on it and laugh. I don’t care that we can’t afford anything. I have her, she has me, and we get to ride this roller coaster together.


My mug!

Tiff, I know you packed that pasta for me today, but I can eat that for lunch tomorrow and meet you at Chipotle in the Spectrum at about 11:45 so you can get back to the Ranch on time! I love you!

Oh, and for everybody else, if you read all the way to here, that means you must have liked what I wrote. If so, can you do me a favor? Click to my St. Jude Children’s Hospital page and donate a dollar to help me reach my goal?

That’s all! Have a great September 22 everybody!

Random Stuff For Tuesday

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Happy Tuesday everybody! I wrote my blog, then went back to write an intro, but I don’t have time and need to get this posted. So I have stuff in here about a great race in Memphis, Jack, football, prescription costs and a killer cheeseburger. Keep reading!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, 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 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a great charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on target, through 43 with a couple of ultramarathons. 18 to go!

I Need Your Help!
OK, so I added Memphis St. Jude’s onto the schedule as my 61st race and I was really looking forward to running this race. It benefits such a great cause — the St. Jude Chidren’s Research Hospital, which does an amazing job with pediatric cancer research and treatment.

Well, last week I got a text from Operation Jack supporter Laura Sullivan letting me know that registration was full. And I hadn’t registered! I was so bummed. I contacted the race and explained to them what I was doing and asked if they had any extra entries allocated for exceptions that they’d sell me — I’ve lucked out that way a couple of times.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have any. But, they have a program called Heroes and if I participated in that and guaranteed to raise $500, then I could purchase an entry. I thought about it for about 60 seconds and decided to do it. I registered for the race and personally guaranteed that I’d raise the $500. In a way, I feel like it’s meant to be.

Autism is my cause. It still is, and it always will be. But now I take a tiny hiatus and use this base I’ve built to raise some money for pediatric cancer research and treatment. There are a lot of terrible things in this world that harm innocent kids. I’m really excited to be able to help this cause.

So, I’m going to push a little bit towards this until I reach my goal. I have a fundraising page that you can reach at operationjack.org/stjude. The sooner we hit this, the sooner I’ll stop begging you with every blog! Let’s get this done!

Quick Jack Update
Tiff is taking Jack to the DAN doctor today. Poor little guy has no idea what’s in store for him. He has to get blood drawn for testing, which I’m pretty angry about, because we went through this ordeal in June and it was miserable for him. For whatever reason, though, the lab couldn’t use the sample and we need to have blood drawn again. We had to restrain him and he was withdrawn the rest of the day. I’m pretty sure he’ll be that way again today, which kills me, because this was so avoidable. How does a lab ruin a sample?

On a side note, one of his prescriptions was ready yesterday. The co-pay through our insurance was $122. But if we just paid out of pocket for it (which we did), it was $109. I don’t talk about politics here, and I’m not going to say anything about either party, but I think that’s a pretty good indictment of the health care system. I don’t know what the solution is, but with those numbers, there’s certainly something wrong.

Maybe I Should Stick To Running, Not Football
We have an NFL pick-em pool for Operation Jack and of the people who have made their picks both weeks, I’m in last place. It’s terrible. I’m going to rewind 11 years with a quick anecdote.

I have a Super Bowl bet every year with my grandma and she dictates the terms. In 1999, when Denver beat Atlanta, she won the bet. At the time, I was working for The Associated Press and I had to get her a custom-made shirt that said, “I proved I know more about football than my grandson, and he’s a professional sportswriter!” I might need to get a shirt made for my 4 1/2-year-old daughter Ava, too.

I only picked five winners through Sunday’s games. I wanted to see how I would have done if I would have let her pick for me. So, I went down the list of games, reading the visiting team and then the home team, telling her to pick one. Sure enough, she picked seven. I tried it again, going with the home team first and then the visiting team, and she picked nine right. I said the winning team first the third time through, and she picked six. Then I went with the losers first and she picked 11.

Four different attempts, four times she beat me. Oh well.

Great Call Gaye Beckman!
I wanted to meet up with Operation Jack supporter Gaye Beckman on Sunday, so I threw out Five Guys as a suggestion. It’s good stuff and there’s no In-N-Out in Denver. She recommended a place called Smashburger instead, though. I trusted her judgment, plus I like trying places I can’t get to anywhere else.

This was dinner:


I should have taken a picture of my empty plate afterwards.

This was some kind of barbecue bacon cheeseburger with onion strings, plus an order of fried pickles. I was looking down the options for fries and saw fried pickles and it was a no-brainer. Good stuff. Good call.

For the record, I know it seems like I live on cheeseburgers, but last night for dinner, I had baked salmon, cous cous and squash. For lunch I had a turkey sandwich, banana, apple and some soy energy blend trail mix stuff that Tiff picked up at Costco.

That’s All For Today
Have a great Tuesday, everybody. See you back here tomorrow!

Weekend Decisions

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It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve really written a weekend recap on Monday. I’ve had one sort of excuse or another, but today, I actually have a weekend recap! This weekend was defined by decisions I made, and it turned out pretty well, except for when I lost fair and square to my 4-year-old daughter at Uno.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for an autism-related charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 43. And I hurt! I named the endeavor after my little guy, calling it Operation Jack.

First Decision: Where To Run
I had originally scheduled Yonkers, N.Y. for this weekend, but three weeks ago I switched it to Boulder, Colo. because I thought it would be a more effective trip for Operation Jack. I booked my airfare to Denver, and sure enough, Boulder was postponed last Monday due to a fire. So four days before the weekend, I needed to find a race.

Fortunately, I found a race 225 miles southwest of Denver that started in a town called Crested Butte and finished in another town called Gunnison. It was a pretty challenging race, but I gave it my all, like always. If you want, you can read my recap here.

Next Decision: When To Leave
Mentally, I had written off the weekend when I had Yonkers on the schedule. To get to New York, I would have had to leave early Saturday morning and I would have gotten back late Saturday night. So when I booked Boulder, I mindlessly scheduled an early-morning flight to Denver. I say mindlessly, because I didn’t even think about checking my oldest son Benjamin’s soccer schedule.

When I did, I saw that his game was at 9 a.m., about the same time I was scheduled to land in Denver. I looked into changing the flight and the net cost (lower rental car cost) was going to be about $60. Worth $60 for a 9-year-old’s soccer game? I don’t like wasting money, but there’s only one other game I’ll be seeing this season. So yeah, it was worth $60.

Benjamin will be the first to tell you he’s not very good at soccer. And when I go out and watch him play, he’s just about the worst player on the field. It’s been two years since he scored a goal. But he has a ton of fun playing, and I like to coach him on things like sportsmanship and effort. It’s also a pure joy to sit out there at the field in my chair while it’s overcast, chatting with the parents, watching the kids have fun.

Skip to the third quarter. It’s 0-0 and one of the better players on Ben’s team had a scoring opportunity, but the opposing goalie came out a bit to cut off the angle and made a save on a shot. The ball bounced back out towards Benjamin, who was about 25 yards out. He saw the goalie was too far out, so he boomed it high and far. One bounce, and IN! He scored a goal! He was on top of the world and all of his teammates mobbed him. I was so excited!

The game ended in a 1-1 tie, so as I reminded Ben about 20 times, he made the difference between a tie and a loss! I always tell Ben that even though he might not be the best player, he’s a part of the team and he needs to work hard and contribute. Every little bit helps and you never know when something you do is going to make a difference.

He’s not going to be a professional athlete, but I know he’s going to be a good person. He’s honest to a fault. After the game, he asked me if I saw all his teammates get excited after his goal, and I told him I did. He asked me why they got so excited and I told him it was because that gave them a 1-0 lead.

With an ear-to-ear smile, he told me, “I think it’s because they didn’t expect it from me because I’m so bad!” Ah, Benjamin. He can do his little things to misbehave, but he’s a good kid and I love that little guy!

And yeah, that was worth $60.


That’s him on the left. The picture didn’t turn out too well, but the smile did.

He’s supposed to grow past 6-4, but he’ll always be my little guy.

Next Decision: To Turn Back Or Not To Turn Back?
I was on my way to Chipotle for lunch on Friday, about to turn in the parking lot, when my wife Tiffany called me up hysterical. Apparently, Jack slipped and fell and hit his chin on a chair and it was bleeding. She wanted me to come home immediately to help, so I turned the car around, but I was a good 20-25 minutes away.

When I was about 10 minutes away from getting home, she told me the bleeding had stopped and she was thinking he’d be OK. She was indecisive about whether or not I should head all the way home at that point. I made the decision to go check it out. Good call.

He had a decent gash and I wanted to take him to the doctor as a precaution. We went and they immediately said he’d need stitches. He’s difficult to treat at a doctor’s office, because he doesn’t communicate or understand what’s going on. The doctor wanted to send him to the emergency room so he could be put under to have the stitches put in. No way did we allow that, although if it had just been Tiff at the doctor’s office, she would have had no choice.

After spending 20 minutes numbing up his chin, we had to put him in a papoose, which is something that restricts him from moving his arms and legs. Tiff held him steady and I held his face in place. He didn’t like that and resisted quite a bit because he didn’t know what was happening. It was pretty tough to see him so upset. The stitches went in and he got some McDonald’s fries as a treat afterwards.

But I think it was more traumatic for me. I was in a haze the rest of the day. That was absolutely miserable. But I’m glad I was there.

Next Decision: How Long To Hold On To The Draw Four Card?
On Friday night, I played Uno with Ben and Ava. I had two draw four cards, but I chose to hold on to them for too long. I was wanting to hang on to them and use them as I was getting close to going out. I passed up on good opportunities to use them earlier in the game, and Ava quietly whittled down her hand.

I dropped one on her after she called Uno, but after a reversal, I had to use one on Benjamin. Soon enough, I was powerless with my hand, she called Uno again, and when it came to be my turn, there was nothing I could do. She outplayed me and Ben and won the game.

Yeah, I got beat at Uno, fair and square, by my 4-year-old daughter, because I did a poor job playing my draw four cards.

Bad decision.

Will He Or Won’t He?
Last night a big guy named Bert sitting next to me on the plane said he was going to come to the site, read the blog and leave a comment. He stored operationjack.org in his iPad and we talked for a little while, so I think there’s a fighting good chance. We’ll see!

Wow, This Ran Longer Than I Thought It Would
I like that, though … I have a ton of leftover material for tomorrow. Should make that blog easy to write. Y’all enjoy your Monday and celebrate the fact that my Kansas State Wildcats are 3-0!

Race Report: Mountain Air Marathon

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It’s taken 43 marathons this year, but I think I’ve finally gotten to the point that I’m not stressing about my finishing times. I know at this point that I’m banged up and I can’t run like I’m fresh. If all I can do is go out and beat myself up and go as hard as I can, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Sunday’s Mountain Air Marathon in Colorado was a perfect example. I expected to be slow, I was two minutes slower than I thought I’d be, and I’m totally fine with that.

This race was a last-minute addition to the schedule. I originally planned to run in Yonkers, N.Y., Sunday, but I switched that to Boulder, Colo., about three weeks ago, because it was going to be a lot more effective for Operation Jack.

However, the race in Boulder was postponed six days in advance, which left me scrambling to find something to run. Fortunately, I found the Mountain Air Marathon, which was 225 miles southwest of Denver, starting in Crested Butte and finishing in Gunnison, and didn’t force me to change my airline tickets. It just added 450 miles of driving to the weekend.

Boulder was going to be a challenging race, because it had lots of rolling hills and the elevation varied from 5,200 feet to 5,600 feet — serious oxygen deprivation for a sea-level guy like me. The Mountain Air Marathon, appropriately named, started at 8,955 feet and ended at 7,850 feet. The highest elevation I had previously hit was in the 7,200-foot range at the peak of the Park City Marathon four weeks ago.

The elevation, combined with the fact that I was coming off of back-to-back weekends with ultramarathons, didn’t give me much hope of a great day. Regardless, I knew I’d go out and give it my all. I wasn’t hoping for much better than a 3:40, though.

Once we took off, I took it fairly easy, taking my time to get my heart rate up. Breathing was a little tough and it was chilly. I knew I was in for a long day and I did my best to make sure it wasn’t any longer than necessary. I was feeling fairly winded by about 3-4 miles in, but I comfortably locked into a groove of about a 7:30 pace. By about mile 5, my hamstrings started feeling pretty tight, which hasn’t happened yet this year. It made sense to me, though. I normally stretch my hamstrings pretty well after my training runs, but I’ve only been riding the bike at the gym for the past two weeks, so I haven’t stretched at all. I didn’t stretch after my 54-miler last weekend, because I was cramping pretty badly.

Although my hamstrings hurt, that didn’t really slow me down. I kept knocking off miles in that 7:30 range and went through the half in 1:42 and change. I felt better than I thought I would and was hoping to have enough to hang on to a sub-3:30. I kept an eye on the elevation, hoping we were dropping at a consistent pace. If the race ever leveled off, I knew I’d be toast. Everything seemed fine and I was encouraged about the second half.

However, out of nowhere, both of my legs got extremely stiff at about mile 15. I didn’t hit the wall. I was just in a ton of pain. I’m getting used to running through pain, and while I don’t like it, I deal with it. The only bummer is that it slows you down and the miles seem to drag on forever. I started running in the 9:00 – 9:30 range, just trying to hang on and breathe. I got passed by a few people and didn’t really care. It was me against myself and that’s all I could focus on.

The course seemed to be running a bit long — I know what kind of tangents I’m running and I truly believe they measured it about 2/10 of a mile long. It wasn’t a huge concern to me, though. If you’re going to run 26.4 instead of 26.2, you might as well see what I saw. It was nature at its finest. It was exactly what you think of when you think of Colorado. Mountains, plenty of trees, leaves turning gold, rivers, open fields — it was a beautiful course, definitely in the upper tier of courses I’ve run this year. Probably not a destination race, because it’s difficult to get to and it’s a small race, but it’s a great course.

Anyways, at mile 22.5, we were at about 7,800 feet. And then at mile 23.5, we were at about 7,950 feet. It was a brutal mile that seemed to leave a lot of us for dead out there. By mile 25, I saw three guys a few hundred yards up. I don’t have much speed right now, but I have endurance and I decided to kick for the last mile and try to pass them. I caught two of them at about 25.4 and I could tell they weren’t going to catch me. The third guy had passed me at about mile 22 and was moving pretty well, but I felt good and went by him with about a 1/2 mile to go. I kept pounding because I didn’t want to give him any hope of passing me back.

As luck would have it, there was final climb at about 25.9 before we headed into the football stadium on the campus of Western State College to finish with 300 meters on the track. I was limping a little bit but kept going as hard as I could. The WSC track team was there volunteering and cheering us on, which was a bit of a boost. I went somewhere right around 3:42 flat, good for 9th overall. They had an ice tub, which was nice to sit in for a little bit. I also stretched afterwards this time!

All in all, a tough day, but really, I can’t complain about running a 3:42 at that altitude in my 43rd marathon of the year after running ultras each of the previous two weekends.

So there you have it, 43 down, two ultramarathons in the books, 18 to go! Next weekend, the Tahoe Triple.


If I looked like I was on top of the world, that’s because I was. This race finished at about 7,850 feet above sea level.