Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

A Super-Easy Way To Help Operation Jack A Lot!

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Normally I write 10 random things on Tuesday, but I’m going with one not-very-random thing for today instead. This is going to be the shortest blog I’ve ever written, and it will be the easiest way for you to help us out. Chase Community Giving is having a contest again, and 200 charities will receive at least $20,000 each. PLEASE help Operation Jack make the cut! It will take about 30 seconds of your time and it’s a one-time voting thing.

NOTE: Just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to run 60 full marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 29 of the 60.

All I need you to do is two things.

1. Click here and vote!

2. Post this on your Facebook wall!

I have a new page here on this site that is what you’ll be posting on your wall when you click the link in #2. It gives a brief explanation of what we’re doing, just in case you’re referring somebody new here.

And that’s it! Simple enough, right? If you dig what I’m doing, please show your support by voting and spreading the word. 30 seconds and you’re done!

Thanks for your help … see you tomorrow!

Weekend Recap: I Wish They Were All Like This!

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What a weekend! The race, the course, the people I met, and the spare time I had to spend with my family. If every weekend was like this, Operation Jack would be a piece of cake! Well, aside from the downhills I ran on Saturday that have my quads feeling like trash right now. By the way, you’re never going to guess who I caught wearing a snuggie on Saturday!

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. Because of what he goes through, fighting autism is my cause and I wanted to try to make a difference. So, what I’m doing is trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism.

So far, so good. I’m reaching people, raising money and I’ve run 29 of my 60 scheduled marathons so far. On Saturday, I was the official 3:40 pacer for the Utah Valley Marathon. You can read my recap here. A picture of my Garmin from after the race should give you a pretty good indication of how I did:


I’d say I hit my goal.

So anyways, on with the weekend …

The First Thing I Did On My Weekend Was … Work!
I had to leave work a couple of hours early to catch my flight to Salt Lake City, but the plane had wifi. I always check in my browser to see if there’s any kind of promo, and sure enough, there was — by watching a 30-second FedEx commercial, I got free wifi for the flight! So I got to debug some code, upload some changes, telnet into my server and send some shell commands … I was in geek heaven and I got two parts of a project done that I’m working on. It was awesome!

Nothing Beats Meeting Great People
This whole Operation Jack thing is totally exhausting, but it’s certainly a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. One of the greatest benefits is that I get to meet great people on a weekly basis. On Friday and Saturday in Utah, I got to meet Alicia Verburg. I came in contact with her through the blogging community and we’ve talked a bit over the past few months.

She started up a chapter of Train 4 Autism in Utah and is very enthusiastic about the cause. My goal with Operation Jack, in addition to raising money, is to bring a lot of good people into the charity. When I see people start chapters and get involved, it’s the ultimate confirmation that what I’m doing is working. Alicia is a lot like me. She’s very passionate in the cause, she strongly believes in the Train 4 Autism model, and she wants to do whatever she can to make a difference.

Also, like me, she’s not exactly sure how to do that, but she’s going to try her best. On Friday night, I went straight from the airport to the expo, where she was manning the Train 4 Autism table. We spent a good 30-40 minutes talking and brainstorming ideas. I also talked to her some more after the race on Saturday at the Train 4 Autism booth.

When I talked to her afterwards, she said she had been excited about Train 4 Autism, but meeting me was exciting because it made everything “come to life.” Well, it’s the same way for me when I meet people like Alicia. I sit on my couch and write my blogs, then travel to races and travel back home. But when I meet people like her who are going to do a great job building a good chapter, I get excited because that’s how I see things come to life.

She’s talking about running the Utah Valley Marathon next year, and we talked about some ways to get a big team formed. If we can make that happen, I’m going to do everything I can to get back out there.

I’m running 60 marathons this year. If I bring 20 Alicias into Train 4 Autism by the time the year is over, it will all be worth it.


I felt really bad when we took this picture because I was still sweaty.

But Wait … There’s More!
I also got to meet somebody named Ryan Sullivan. I started talking to him through Twitter. We’ve conversed through Twitter and e-mail. He’s lost a ton of weight recently … I asked him, but my memory is kind of hazy, so I’m not sure how much. Maybe 100 pounds? He really digs what I’m doing and I told him to come out and say hello since he was in my neck of the woods.

I saw him after the race and he said hi, but I wasn’t putting 2 and 2 together when he said hi. I just gave him a generic “hey!” and he identified himself by his ID on Twitter (@nomorebacon). 10 years ago, that kind of a thing would probably qualify you as a geek, but in 2010, that’s how the world works. I’d seen pictures of him, so I knew there was a reason he looked familiar.

He has a son who has autism and he’s also pretty excited about Train 4 Autism. He wouldn’t have heard about us if not for my 60-marathon stunt, which is why I’m doing this. I still have some emails to send, but I’m going to put him in touch with Alicia so they can really get rolling.

I got to spend a fair amount of time talking to him and his wife Jackie and I got to see his two little boys. He had all sorts of nice things to say, but as always, I deflected the praise. As I told him, I’m not the one who gave myself the ability to recover well after marathons. I’ve been given a gift, and all I’m doing is taking advantage of it. I truly believe that and I’ll tell that to anybody who will listen.

Later on, he emailed me and told me, “Thank you for sacrificing your body for my son.” If my running can somehow make a difference for his son, for my son, or for children who haven’t even been born yet but will have autism, then it’s all worth it. I don’t like to take credit, but it’s nice to get confirmation that I’m doing the right thing.

It was nice to meet Ryan. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again.


Me and Ryan after the race.

I Didn’t Run Hard This Weekend, But My Friends Did!
Two of my friends, Ryan Gillia and Rachel Boyd, ran the San Diego 100 this weekend. My friend Lori Liu ran a big chunk of that with Ryan, and my friend Billy Yang ran a big chunk of that with Rachel. It was Ryan’s second 100 and Rachel’s first, although Rachel won a 100K in February.

I followed along with what they were doing through Billy on Twitter and I know it’s just a bunch of names to most of you, but it’s my blog and I’m super proud of them. I feel like a proud papa, even though they’re not my kids and I think they’re CRAZY! They’re all great people I’ve met through running and I’m so excited for all of them. I’m sure they all had an amazing time and I’m really excited about this, so I figured I’d put a couple of paragraphs in here about them.

The Pros And Cons Of An Early Flight Home
I was going to have Cracker Barrel, one of my favorites, for lunch on Saturday after the race, but I ran out of time because I had a fairly early flight home. I ended up making a quick stop at In-N-Out instead. As much as I love In-N-Out, I’m going to call that a bummer, because I can get that any time I want. I live about a mile from the nearest one. I get to eat at Cracker Barrel about once a year.

However, I touched down in Orange County at 4:20 on Saturday and walked through my front door at 4:58 p.m. Yes, I was at home and “on weekend” before 5 p.m. on Saturday. I like that. It’s worth missing Cracker Barrel for.

I’ll Just Suck Up My Pride And Admit This
You know how at the top of this blog I said you’re never going to guess who I caught wearing a snuggie on Saturday? Well, it was me. They gave them out at an Angels game I went to in April, and it was a touch chilly in my house on Saturday night, so I grabbed it and put it on. At the time, we were watching the movie It’s Complicated.

So yes, I’ll admit it. On Saturday night, I was wearing a snuggie and watching a chick flick. Burn my Man Card.

This Made Me Happy
On Saturday night, for a little while, all three of the kids were having what we call a “sleepover” in the playroom. Jack willingly climbed into the sleeping bag for the first time. It was so awesome. Me and Tiff were whispering about how cool it would be if all three of them had fun together the way three typical siblings normally do.

Jack was more interested in his Leapster than in the movie, but it was still pretty exciting for us. It only lasted for about 30 minutes, though. He got up out of the sleeping bag and eventually wanted to go to sleep in his bed. And later, Ava got in trouble for irritating Benjamin by faking snore noises while she was awake. After one-too-many warnings, she had to go sleep in her room.

But it was fun while it lasted!


They’re so cute when they’re in still pics and not getting in trouble!

Kids Say The Darndest Things
Last night at dinner, my soon-to-be-9-year-old Benjamin ordered a Red Robin Kids Burger. The only problem with that is we were at Chili’s.

That’s All For Today
That’s more than enough reading information for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow with 10 random things for Tuesday!

Race Report: Utah Valley Marathon

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For Saturday’s Utah Valley Marathon, I served as the official 3:40 pacer. That’s 40 minutes slower than the fastest marathon I’ve run, so it’s not tremendously challenging. But I put more pressure on myself when I pace than when I go all-out. The reason? If I blow my own race, that’s my problem. But if I bomb while pacing, I ruin it for other people. I don’t worry about being able to run a 3:40, but I’m human, so nothing is guaranteed.

My goal when pacing is to run as consistently as possible. If I’m pacing a 3:40, I could easily run a 1:35 first half and then a 2:05 second half and finish in 3:40. But That doesn’t do any good for the people I’m leading. The bulk of the people I’m pacing are women between the ages of 18 and 34 trying to qualify for Boston and I want to get them there.

I keep an eye on my Garmin and try to keep my average pace based on how far I think I’m going to run. A marathon is 26.2 miles, but with all the tangents you run, you typically end up with anywhere from 26.3 to 26.5 miles on the Garmin. I assume 26.4, which requires an 8:20 average pace. 26.3 would be 8:21 and 26.5 would be 8:18.

I assume I need 8:20s, I try to keep my current and average pace at that rate, and aim for miles between 8:15 and 8:25. I don’t want to go too fast and burn people out, nor do I want to go too slow and make it tougher for folks to kick it into gear. I had paced twice before Utah Valley, both times leading the 3:30 group. In 2009,, I went 3:29:54. This year, I went 3:29:39. I wasn’t thrilled about this year, but I was less than one second per mile off.

For me, perfect would be either 3:39:59 (getting there at the right time and still make it in sub-3:40) or 3:40.00 — how can you argue with that?

I normally need a mile or two to settle into the right groove because I’m running at a pace I’m not used to. But today, I locked in right off the bat and felt comfortable. Utah Valley is a beautiful downhill course. The scenery is about as good as I’ve seen anywhere. Charlottesville, Va. and Catalina are my favorites, and this one is definitely right up there with those, except it’s a faster course. I really think I would have challenged for sub-3 if I was going all-out today.

I had to be careful at times, because on some of the downhill portions, I’d accidentally speed up to a 7:45 pace. That’s a good minute or so slower than I would have been running, so it felt very easy. I was never disappointed with the miles I was running — I got my group from one mile to the next with consistency. I personally struggled at some points going up hills at elevation (the race started at 5600 feet and there were some decent climbs that left me sucking for air). My heart rate actually got up to 179 at one point, about what I’d run a 10K at.

We hit the half in 1:49:46, 14 seconds too fast. I was a little disappointed with that, but I knew there were some flatter parts of the race where we’d slow down a touch. I had a group of about 20 people who stayed with me through at least mile 20 or so. They ran just behind me for the most part, but they took turns running with me and talking with me. They all wanted to know about my running experience and how I became the pacer. The subject of Operation Jack came up, because in the course of what I’m doing, the race directors offered me a complimentary entry if I was willing to pace.

For me, it was an opportunity to take an easy week, and it’s always fun to pace, so I accepted the invitation. At least four or five of the people in my group were directly impacted by autism. One man is a caretaker for a 22-year-old who has autism. Another has a son with autism. Somebody had a nephew with autism. That’s why I’m doing this — you can’t throw a stone without hitting somebody impacted by it. I told them all to check out my site. If you ran with me, leave a comment and say hi!

Anyways, the group thinned out a tiny bit at mile 20. I held consistent, but for people running at the edge of their limits, that last 10K is pretty tough. Some people were running strong and I encouraged them to kick late. Others needed motivation and I told them not to let 24 or 25 miles of hard work go to waste with one poor mile. Some just couldn’t hold on, but there’s nothing I can do about that — I have to keep moving my 3:40 sign from the start line to the finish line.

With about two miles to go, I knew I was going to be pretty close to dead-on. It’s so tough for me not to get excited and turn it on late, but I didn’t. It’s important that I stay right on target so people trailing behind and trying to catch up don’t lose hope.

There’s not a whole lot more to say, I guess. My Garmin can tell you what I thought about my finish.


Pretty much dead-on.

I think my official time was actually 3:39:58. I get excited about fast times, but it’s also exciting to go out, chase a goal and nail it. When I run, I’m competitive and I want to do my best. While running a 3:40 is much slower than what I’m capable of, I still had to run a marathon and execute the race as perfectly as possible. It was a physical challenge and I was pretty happy with how I did. I got a lot of people from my group thanking me afterwards, which was pretty rewarding.

So, I got to enjoy a run through a very scenic course, I helped a fair amount of people qualify for Boston and I spread the word about Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism. All-in-all, I’d call that a pretty good day. Race 29 is history. Only 31 to go!


I had a 220-minute courtship with this sign. We broke up shortly after the race.

Here are the splits in case you’re curious about my consistency:
1: 8:19
2: 8:18
3: 8:23
4: 8:35
5: 8:20

6: 8:20
7: 8:26
8: 8:19
9: 8:15
10: 8:13

11: 8:24
12: 8:08
13: 8:12
14: 8:31
15: 8:38

16: 8:07
17: 8:23
18: 8:17
19: 8:23
20: 8:16

21: 8:21
22: 8:25
23: 8:25
24: 8:17
25: 8:24

26: 8:28
.31 2:38 (8:30 pace)

Weekend Preview: Utah Valley

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Time flies when I skip a day on the blog, as I did yesterday. It’s Thursday (except in Australia, where it’s already Friday), which means it’s time for my weekend preview and contest. Since I skipped my What’s Up With Operation Jack Wednesday this week, I have a few things I want to mention.

First, the standard intro, in case you’ve never been here before. I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. Super long story short, I’m trying to run 60 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 28 of the 60.

Moving right along, every week I have a weekly contest where you guys try to guess my time based on feedback I give you. You make a small donation ($3.09 if you think I’m going to run a 3:09) and whoever comes closest without bidding under is the winner and gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt.

Last week’s winner was Emily Yantis of San Antonio. I thought I would go 3:07 or so I think and I went 3:25. She was smart enough to know how stupid I am. Well, she still thought I’d do fairly well, but I never pass up an opportunity to put myself down.

This week’s contest will be a little different. I’ll explain why in a bit.

My Job Is Easier Than My Wife’s
My wife Tiffany stays home and takes care of the kids. Really, there’s no other way we could do it, especially with Jack’s demands. But just because she doesn’t have an employer doesn’t mean she doesn’t work. Quite the contrary, she works WAY harder than I do. If you’ve been following along with my blog, you know we just saw a DAN doctor last week and we have a new routine for Jack.

Aside from everything else she does, here’s Jack’s supplement board:


I don’t know how she does it.

Yeah, I’d much rather write code.

Chase Community Giving Contest
Last fall, there was a contest sponsored by Chase Community Giving on Facebook and I think something like 100 charities won $25,000 or something like that. It was a voting contest. Well, they’re doing it again, starting June 15. That’s next Monday. 195 charities will earn $20,000, four will get $100,000 and one will get $250,000.

I still have work to do on the Operation Jack Autism Foundation page at Chase Community Giving on Facebook, but it will be ready and I’m going to beg you guys over and over again for a month. You can only vote once, but you can be sure I’ll remind you!

Anyways, I’m going to beg you to help and spread it through your Facebook and Twitter. I created a page on this site, operationjack.org/chase that is easy to remember and will redirect you there. Starting Monday, post it on your wall, encourage your friends and send it out on Twitter. Some charities are going to get a very nice bonus from Chase for sending this viral. Why not us?

OJ Gear!
I don’t push it as often as I should, but we have Operation Jack clothing available for sale as one of our key fundraisers. Our donation levels are $26.20 for a t-shirt, $60 for a t-shirt and a tech shirt and $100 for a t-shirt, tech shirt and hooded sweatshirt. We’ll also list you on our Sponsors page.

Those are our standard donation rates. But we’ll also just sell them to you. We won’t list you as a sponsor, but we’ll send you out the gear. T-shirts are $15, tech shirts are $25 and sweatshirts are $30. You need to tack on $5 for shipping for those.

Everybody really seems to love these things, especially the sweatshirts. I’d love to put you in these for a couple of reasons. One, obviously, they’re a fundraiser for us. But also, when you wear the clothing, you’re spreading the word.

So click on the Donate Now! link on any page on the site and order up some gear!

This Week’s Race & Contest
This weekend, I’m running the Utah Valley Marathon in the Provo, Utah area. There’s really not a lot to say about this one. It’s going to be a beautiful, scenic run. It’s on a big downhill course that’s very, very fast. And I’m the 3:40 pacer. Guessing my time shouldn’t be too tricky. 3:40 is the Boston qualifying time for women between 18 and 34. So, I guess for one time in my life, I can get away with telling my wife I have to get on a plane and go take a bunch of women to Boston.

Now, while I’m not worried about running a 3:40, I am a human being, not a robot. Nothing is guaranteed. Heck, I ran a 3:57 two weeks ago. Of course, there was pretty severe heat (87 degrees) and it was humid. But really, I’m not concerned about Saturday. And I take my pacing pretty serious. If I mess up my own race, that’s one thing. But if I ruin somebody else’s, that’s a different story.

I’ve paced twice, both times the 3:30 group at the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, Calif. In my book, 3:29:59 would be a perfect job pacing. I absolutely don’t want to come in any slower than the goal time, and one second fast means we hit the sub-3:30 goal without truly going too fast. I aim to keep consistent miles … it’s not like I’m going to run a 3:10 pace for the first 25 miles and the crawl on my knees to the finish to slow it up. I like to stay within about a 15-second range unless elevation changes dictate otherwise.

Anyways, in 2009, I paced 3:30 on only one hour of sleep, because I had a work emergency the night before. I always thought I could run a 3:30 in my sleep and I went 3:29:54. Five seconds off! This year, I ran a marathon the day before I paced 3:30, which freaked out my group when they found that out before the race, but I ran consistent miles and went 3:29:39 — less than one second per mile off.

So, that brings us to …

This Week’s Contest
Marathons aren’t easy, even if I’m running them more than 30 minutes slower than I’m capable of. But I would be truly surprised if I didn’t run a 3:39 on Saturday. I’d also be extremely disappointed in myself. So the contest is to guess the number of seconds past 3:39 I’m going to go and attach that as the cents to the typical $3. So, if you think I’m going to run a 3:39:42, you’ll donate $3.42. If you think I’m going 3:39:50, it’s $3.50. If I was betting, I’d probably say 3:39:46. But I’m not betting. I already have my gear. Plus, I’d be one heck of a jerk to win my own contest!

To participate, just click on the Donate Now! link on any page. Come on, it’s three bucks … less than a coffee at Starbucks!

Video Of The Day
I saw this online yesterday and thought it was hilarious. Check out the drummer. Please don’t watch this while you’re drinking your coffee. You might spit it out.

That’s All For Today
Have a great weekend, everybody! I’ll post a recap on Saturday. I have a vision of a 3:39!

10 Random Things For Tuesday

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What do Facebook, bowling, a dented car and Jack’s photography have in common? They’re all part of my 10 Random Things For Tuesday blog.

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I came up with this idea (and my wife made the decision that I’d do this) to try to run 60 full marathons in 2010 all over the country in attempt to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism/.

So far we have new chapters in several states, I’ve raised a fair amount of money and I’m on schedule with the races, through 28 of the 60 marathons. And with that, I’ll dive into my 10 random things.

1. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when somebody hit my wife’s car while she was inside the dentist’s office with the kids, then left before she came out. I was pleasantly surprised because the person left a note with her contact information and insurance information. Who does that nowadays?

2. Speaking of that dentist visit, Jack was with Tiff, but was just along for the ride. He remembered his visit to the DAN doctor last week and was apprehensive walking through the hallway. Poor little dude thought he was going to get stuck with needles again. He notices and remembers a lot more than you’d think he does.

3. I’m having some pretty nice pain in the IT band in my right leg. It’s been bothering me for about a month and I finally figured out what it is. Running 60 marathons in a year is a challenge. Getting over an IT band problem while running a marathon every weekend should be tricky, too. I took yesterday and today off and I’m spending some quality time with my foam roller.

4. On May 2 at the Orange County Marathon, Jack was hanging out in the stroller, playing with Tiff’s iPhone. He likes to take pictures, and he snapped one. If you’ve wondered how Jack views the world, now you know.


This is how Jack sees things.

5. Tiff posted the following Facebook status yesterday:

Well, aside from getting lost on the way to the pharmacy, listening to kids fight in the back seat (causing Jack to cry), a way too long dentist visit for Ben which caused us to be late to Jack’s therapy, and walking out of the dentist to find a note on my car from the person who backed into it, leaving a huge dent in the back, I’d say I’ve had a pretty awesome day! Cheers! 🙂

She replied immediately to herself with

Oh, forgot too add that when I arrived at the pharmacy, my prescription was never called in.

I’m a sensitive, caring husband. So I posted

What’s for dinner?

And she told me

Steak, salad and couscous.

And I’m very appreciative, so I told her

Don’t burn the steak or I’ll be angry.

6. My ice cream/frozen yogurt streak is at 128 consecutive days now. I had cookies and cream frozen yogurt with crushed Butterfinger as a topping. Kind of an odd combo, but I liked it.

7. I’m really liking the way this baseball season is shaping up. Tampa Bay is the class of the AL, the Padres are in first place, the Braves and Nationals could make some noise and the Cardinals and Reds are locked in a battle. This is not what the experts expected. It’s looking like it’s going to be a fun summer (well, aside from all these warm-weather marathons I’m running).

8. Who are my bowlers in SoCal? I’m really trying to get a team together to represent Operation Jack on July 17 at Lucky Strike Bowling Alley at The Block in Orange. I only need four people, but I’d love to have eight. Heck, I’d love to have more, but I’ll start with eight. Here’s the info. If you’re interested, send me an email!

9. Last night, I was at a frozen yogurt place with Benjamin and Ava. The place was loud and very family friendly. Benjamin was starting to get a little wild at one point and ran around the table a couple of times with his friends. I looked at him and he made eye contact with me. He had a big smile on his face, but I wasn’t smiling. So he tried to hide the grin but he couldn’t. I looked him in the eyes, then shifted my eyes to look at his chair, then looked back in his eyes. I didn’t say a word and he sat down in his chair. I thought to myself, “Wow, I’m a DAD!”

10. You want a feel-good story for your Tuesday? Check out this blog from Asia Renning. Asia has autism and is a runner. On Saturday, she ran her 100th race! Asia and her parents Adair and Jerry are members of Train 4 Autism and good friends of Operation Jack. Go check out her blog and give her some congratulations!

OK, I’m no accountant, but I know that’s 10 random things. So I’m checking out for today. See you tomorrow!