Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Weekend Preview: It's All About The Pancakes

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I got back from Fargo last Saturday, blinked twice, and all of a sudden it’s Thursday. These weeks fly by and it’s already time for another weekend preview. I’m not going to spend a lot of time analyzing how fast I’m going to run, though. It’s all about how much I’m going to eat.

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. Last year, after lots of brainstorming, I talked with my wife and we decided I’d attempt to run 60 marathons 2010 to try to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism.

So far, so good. I’ve run 26 full marathons since New Year’s Day. Only 34 to go. Maybe. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Jack Update
I haven’t talked a lot about Jack lately. It’s so weird for me to talk about what he’s going through, because due to his struggles, I feel like that’s something I just want to keep private. But if I wanted privacy, I shouldn’t have signed up for this. Plus, I know you guys are excited to hear about his progress and there’s nothing wrong with sharing.

We just got word late last week that he’s showing a lot of improvements with his behaviors. I mean, we knew this, but quantifiable data backs this up. So that’s good, right? Well, it’s a double-edged sword. There’s a very good chance that we’re going to see a reduction in services as a result of this. Our state is in a budget crisis and they look for ways to cut costs any time they can.

His behaviors are actually pretty mild — it’s his speech that’s the biggest problem. Once that comes through, we’re going to notice huge improvements. The behavioral therapy is really helping to bring out speech, so while it’s possibly justifiable to reduce services in that area, the reality is it’s probably going to impact his speech development.

Our therapists are going to help us with this fight, but it’s very possibly going to be a fight. So we’ll see what happens. Ahh, the joys of being a special-needs parent. In California.

Weekly Contest
Every week, I have a contest where you try to guess my time. If you think I’m going to run a 3:10, you make a donation of $3.10 as your entry. The person who comes the closest without underbidding wins their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Last week’s winner was Melissa Gillespie, an Operation Jack supporter from Washington State. This week, we’re going to have a variation on the contest and it’s going to involve a pancake-eating contest. I’ll explain that a little further down in this blog.

A Contest I Can Enter!
If there was ever a contest that was made for me, it’s THIS ONE! I am SO entering this. I need to figure out a way to make this help Operation Jack. I’ll think of an idea, but I need a little time. I just found out about this yesterday.


How could I not do this?

I’m In Numbers Heaven!
When I hit 5.2 miles on Sunday, I’ll be at 26.2 marathons for the year! Yeah! I’m such a geek — this is the kind of stuff I live for. Pretty sad, huh?

Thank You, Wendy!
One of my wife’s best friends, Wendy Goetschel, surprised the heck out of me with a really nice wall post she made on Facebook, so I wanted to use my space to publicly thank her! This is what she wrote:
Friends – I AM ASKING FOR YOUR HELP! My close friend has a son, who is severly autistic. What I see Jack and the rest of the family go through breaks my heart. To raise money and awareness for Autism, her husband is running a marathan EVERY WEEK for a year (that’s 60 marathons), across the united states, the name of their non-profit is “Operation Jack”. If each friend could just donate $5.00 – it would make a HUGE difference. This family and cause is so dear to me. WHO is IN? Here’s the link:
Her friends listened! Thank you for your help, Wendy!


Thank you, Wendy!

Feel Free To Say Hi!
I’ve known for a while that it’s a pain in the butt to leave a comment here. I built this site last summer and at the time, I didn’t know a thing about blogs. I’ve learned as I’ve gone along, and one thing I’ve learned is that my setup is extremely user unfriendly. I required user registration when I built this to prevent spam — comments don’t post until an account is verified. I get tons of spam that doesn’t make it to the site, but if there’s one thing I know I’ve prevented, it was getting people to leave comments. Who wants to register just to post? I wouldn’t!

I was working on integrating WordPress, but I wanted to do that inside of the system I built, and that was going to take a lot more time and energy than I have nowadays. So, I put in a captcha (you can see it at the bottom if you don’t know what that is), which only requires you to enter in the squiggly words in the picture. I uploaded it Tuesday night, and I didn’t get a single piece of spam on Wednesday. I’m not at all surprised.

So anyways, it should be a little more user-friendly here now. If you’ve been here but never left a comment, say hi and let me know you were here! No registration required!

This Week’s Contest
As I mentioned, I have a weekly contest. This week, though, it’s going to be a pancake-eating contest and you guys need to pick a winner. It’s going to be Sunday after the race in Rochester. I’m going head-to-head with an Operation Jack supporter named Lonnie Butler. Like me, Lonnie has a son named Jack who struggles with autism. Also, like me, he’s running the marathon in Rochester on Sunday. I’m looking forward to meeting Lonnie, his wife, and his Jack on Saturday night, and then seeing him finish his FIRST MARATHON on Sunday!

But after the race, it’s gonna be on like Donkey Kong. Lonnie’s a recovering big boy like me. I maxed out at 261 pounds and I’m in the 203 neighborhood nowadays. He dropped from 300+ to about 210. Some of my proudest food moments including eating 100 fried shrimp at Sizzler when I was 14, eating 11 pancakes at IHOP after the Country Music Marathon in April, out-eating three large men at my last job when we went for 4x4s at In-N-Out and then ice cream, and a barbecue at my fraternity house back in the day when beer induced me into eating eight hamburgers (some with buns, some without).

Lonnie has a pretty impressive resume too, though. Lonnie once had a meal where he ate a two-pound porterhouse steak, a banked potato, sourdough bread and salad with pop. He typically ate four to six servings of the all-you-can-eat pasta at Olive Garden, can easily put away a large or extra large pizza and once drank six cans of Mountain Dew in less than three minutes.

I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I want to win. So, here’s the contest. Pick who you think is going to win. If you think it’s going to be Lonnie, click here or on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any of the pages on this site and donate $3. If you think it’s going to be me, same deal, but I’m $4. I’ll randomly draw somebody who bets on the right person and the winner will receive their choice of Operation Jack apparel.

So, that’s the contest for this week. We’re going to tweet from the restaurant. I’m @operationjack and Lonnie is at @LonnieRuns. Now c’mon, enter the contest! It’s for a great cause!

60 or 61?
As of now, I’m planning on running 60 marathons this year. But I’m willing to make that 61 and run Memphis on December 4 if Lance Haney hits his fundraising goal. We’re going to work it this summer and try to get that thermometer moving. 60? 61?

Where Should I Go?
Speaking of Lance, last week he told me that the Atlanta Marathon scheduled for Thanksgiving Day has been cancelled. So now, I have a hole in my schedule. I’m looking at three possible races: Seattle on Saturday the 27th or Waveland, Miss. or Cocoa, Fla. on Sunday the 28th.

I guess this is a cheesy fundraising attempt, but what the heck … raising money for Train 4 Autism is the name of my game this year. If anybody wants to pick my schedule, first person to make a $100 donation can tell me where to go. Or something like that.

Race Preview
The course actually looks fairly quick for the way I run. I usually get a lot out of the early miles without wrecking my heart rate. It starts with a big downhill and then a gradual uphill from 1 to 3. After that, it’s a gradual downhill net with some rollers and what looks to be a screaming-fast, yet manageable, downhill from 7.5 until about 8.8 or so. From there, a very, very slight gradual uphill in the middle third of the race and then a gradual as I kick to the finish.

On paper, the course looks fast. The temps could be warm, but they might not be too bad. I’d call this a quick course for the way I run. If I was betting, I’d peg myself at 3:10 for this one, but it wouldn’t surprise me to be several minutes quicker. If I’m feeling good, I like my chances for a quick run in this one.

That’s All For Today
Please, please, please enter the contest! And leave me a comment to let me know you were here! I’ll get a race report up at some point on Sunday. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, everybody!

Ten Random Things For Tuesday

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It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for my weekly 10 random things blog. I wrote the blog and then I wrote this first paragraph. And in looking at what I have in here, I realized … I sure do like to talk about food. Oh well — I’m not going to change who I am.

Just a quick intro in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and to try to make a difference in his honor, I’m attempting to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. I’m through 26 marathons and I’ve raised quite a bit of awareness. So who wants to help with that money part?

Anyways, I’m doing the best I can and this blog is where I ramble frequently so y’all can go on this journey with me. And with that, I’ll get on to my randomness.

1. OK, so I’ve talked about how I was unathletic when I was a kid, and I had a flashback to something that happened at summer camp one year. It was a sports camp on the beach and we had teams based on the hall we were staying in. There was a relay race at the end of the camp session. Everybody had different roles in the relay based on their strengths. One person would have to swim several laps in the pool, another would have to shoot a certain amount of free throws in the gym and some and somebody else would have to surf a wave in at the beach.

My role? I had to eat two peanut butter sandwiches, drink a glass of milk and whistle. They made those things thick with that peanut butter. It was tough. And I’m not kidding at all. That was my role in the relay.

2. Here’s my secret recipe of the day. Make pizza with ranch dressing instead of marinara. It has to be good ranch dressing, though, like Hidden Valley. Not the gross Kraft stuff in the plastic bottle.

3. I snapped this picture at 8 p.m. on Friday night. It didn’t get dark until about 9:30 p.m. or so!


This might not be extremely unusual brightness for 8 p.m. depending on where you live. If this is typical, you clearly don’t live anywhere near me.

4. When I hit mile 5.2 in the Med City Marathon in Rochester, Minn., this Sunday, I’ll be through 26.2 marathons this year. I’m a numbers junkie and I get excited about stuff like that.

5. For my contest this week, it’s not going to be a “guess Sam’s time” deal. I’m going to have a post-race pancake eating contest with a man named Lonnie Butler, who’s running his first-ever marathon in that race. I can eat, but Lonnie is also a one-time big boy. He’s at about 210 pounds, down from more than 300 at one point.

6. I accidentally walked into the girls locker room on my first day of high school. Somebody gave me directions from the gym to the office and I apparently walked into the wrong door. I scooted out of there before anybody noticed.

7. I’m weird about spending pennies. Weird as in, I don’t spend them. I have a big five-gallon water bottle full of them in the garage, and there are pennies all over the place in my house.

8. My great invention is three-legged pantyhose. That way, if you get a run in one leg, you just go switch to the spare leg. But apparently, it’s not as easy as wrapping the spare leg around your waist. I think it’s a brilliant idea, but I’ve never met a woman who agrees with me.

9. Tiffany loves this song. So when I hear it, I smile. I’m putting it in here today and I think I’ll keep this page open at work today and play it over and over.

10. If you’ve never had frozen peanut M&Ms, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a yellow bag. Leave them in the freezer for a couple of hours and then after you eat them, don’t forget to thank me.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Weekend Recap: Lots Of Randomness

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I normally write a weekend recap on Mondays and 10 random things on Tuesdays, and that’s still going to be the case this week. But my weekend recap is about a million words and six pictures of randomness. So, if you like my random things blogs, you’re going to like my weekend recap today.

Real quick, I ran my 26th marathon of the year on Saturday in Fargo. I had a pretty nice run, going 3:10:00. If you want, you can read my race report here.

Also, a TV station up in Fargo did a nice piece on Operation Jack. But it’s not online yet. Hopefully I can get a link to it tomorrow.

Only In Fargo
Yeah, that’s an earthmover by the baggage claim. I told the guy at the rental car counter that I needed to take a picture of it, because you don’t see things like that in California. He was surprised at my assumption and said they probably have them at smaller airports. Really?


United thinks they need this to move my carry-on bag.

Post-Race Burger Review
I was starving after the race on Saturday, but nothing appealed to me. I saw Arby’s, Subway, Burger King and McDonald’s and none of them looked good. I tweeted that I didn’t know what to have for lunch. I was about to have Taco Bell, but somebody recommended a place called Culver’s for a good burger. Good burgers are always so satisfying on race days, so I gave it a shot.

I thought it was OK, but it was no In-N-Out or Five Guys. I had a mushroom swiss burger and fries. I killed it in about 30 seconds. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great. One awesome thing was that they had Diet Mountain Dew on tap. I love that stuff. I got pretty wired. And then I wrote this blog.


Certainly a better choice than a Big Mac.

Why I Raced On Saturday
Yesterday was my 11-year wedding anniversary with my wife, so I wanted to make sure I’d be home on Saturday night to spend yesterday with my best friend and my babies. I always gush about Tiff in here, but I won’t waste a whole lot of time doing that today. You all know happy she makes me and how lucky I am to have her. By the way, she made one heck of a homemade carrot cake for us as a surprise (that was the flavor of our wedding cake)! 🙂

What I will do is tell a little story about my wedding weekend. I was living in Kansas and we got married in California, so we had to do everything in one weekend, and that includes the bachelor party two nights before the wedding. I lost 40 pounds in the three months before the wedding so I would look good for the pictures (245 to 203!). Unfortunately, I, um, needed my friends to carry me in to my dad’s house at the end of the night. My eye accidentally got knocked into a doorknob during that process.

Can you guess where this one’s going? It was pretty swollen the next day, and it was black on the morning of my wedding. The makeup took care of the discoloration, but there was swelling. So much for those pictures … I looked like I was squinting in one of my eyes.

Moral of the story is obviously to not have your bachelor party two nights before the wedding. And if you do, make sure my friends Ben and Kevin don’t carry you in at the end of the night.

Video of the day:

I listened to this song on my iPod on my flight home and it made me think of my family. So I’m playing it today.

What I Didn’t Get My Wife For An Anniversary Present
This t-shirt I saw in a mall in Fargo:


Chicks dig gifts, but not gifts like this.

I Made History!
I surpassed my previous record of 110 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt when I got a peanut butter waffle cone while I was switching planes in Denver on Friday. Actually, I broke my record moments earlier when I took a sample of white chocolate mousse flavored frozen yogurt at TCBY. But I took a picture of my cone instead. How dumb would a picture of a sample cup look?


This was the cone! I need to send this picture to the Smithsonian!

I’m at 112 days now and 215 out of the past 216. Speaking of ice cream, Team Maine emailed this picture to me on Saturday. What a beautiful t-shirt!


My wife could have bought this for me for an anniversary present.

I always say there is no I in team, but there’s one in “win” and two in “championship”. I’m an ice cream champion.

Gas Theory
OK, so I had Taco Bell on Friday after I picked up my race packet. Wait, that’s not it. If you read last Wednesday’s blog, you know that the price I’m paying for gasoline lately closely correlates with the times I’m running. I paid $3.06 right before I ran a 3:06, the I paid $3.18 right before I ran a 3:19 and then I think 3:05 before a $3.08. Or something like that.

Well, here’s what was at the gas station next to my motel in Fargo:


My motel was actually in Moorhead, Minn., but you get the point.

So, by my math, that’s basically a 3:10. Because two hours and 70 minutes is three hours and 10 minutes. And as you know, my time on Saturday was 3:10:00. You know what would have been even radder? If I was one stinkin’ second faster, because $2.699 is the tiniest amount you can possibly be under $2.700 and 3:09:59 is the tiniest amount you can possibly be under 3:10. Yeah, I know radder isn’t really a word, but this is my blog and I make the rules here.

I’ve been told that gas in Rochester, where I’m going this weekend, is $2.599. Hmmmm …

That’s All For Today, Folks
Thanks for making me your time-waster of choice! See you back here tomorrow!

Race Report: Fargo Marathon

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I’ve run more marathons than most people — Saturday’s Fargo Marathon was my 54th (26th of the year). But the more I run them, the more I realize how difficult and unpredictable they are. Saturday was no exception.

I dreaded this race this week, because the weather was supposed to be pretty rough. A few days before the race, the forecast was for temps in the 80s with thunderstorms possible. The day before, it was looking like mid-70s with 25 mph winds. Whatever it was going to be, I was mentally prepared to go out and suffer for 26.2 miles. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is.

Well, I caught a break. At the start, it was about 60 degrees with wind about 5-10 mph and rain. Not optimal conditions, but better than what I was expecting. I never even looked at a course profile, because I’d heard from a friend of mine named Chris who’s run the race that it’s incredibly flat. He was right.

I took off, taking whatever I could get out of my body and the course. As has been the norm for me lately, I went out by heart rate and didn’t worry about pace. I met a guy right before the start who asked me what I was gunning for, and as is the case nowadays, I told him, “Whatever my body will give me.” I knew I was putting time in the bank early, which isn’t the greatest strategy in the world, but it’s working for me with the way my body is adapting to my race schedule, so that’s what I did.

I stayed under a 7:00 pace for probably about 5 or 6 miles and then held steady below 7:05 for a little while. I had no idea when the weather was going to get bad, so my attitude was basically that the longer I went on and stayed in a groove, the more I could minimize the bad-weather curse I was expecting.

I started feeling the pain I’ve been feeling in my right hip and piriformis at about mile 8. By mile 10 or so, I knew that I was facing a tough second half because I was starting to hurt quite a bit. The miles were flying by quickly, but I was definitely not comfortable.

I hit the half in 1:32:55 on my Garmin. It was still in the low 60s, and while it wasn’t raining, it felt a little bit humid. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to the course, because I was paying a lot of attention to my body. I was feeling a fair amount of pain and my turnover was slowing a little bit, but I could tell my stride was good.

I started to slip a little bit and turn miles in the 7:30 range. 7:15 is what I need for sub-3:10, which is what I started seriously thinking about by 16 or so. I knew a huge chunk of the day was gone and what I had been expecting didn’t matter any more. I was in a legitimate fight with the clock and I suspected it was going to be pretty close.

When I hit six miles to go, I did the math and realized I needed to average about 7:25s in to stay sub-3:10. I was hoping to catch a groove like I did last week in Cleveland from 21 to the finish, but I didn’t. I went about as hard as I could, and the best my stiff legs could crank out were 7:30s or so. The sun came out when I hit 20 or so, which made the final 10K pretty tough.

By the time I hit 24, I needed to average about 7:20s. I knew I couldn’t afford a bad mile, so I cranked it up and got my heart rate into the high 170s (my marathon HR is 170, 10K is about 182 or so). When I hit 25, it still looked like I was going to need about a 7:15 to make it. I got up into the 180s and gave it everything I had. I couldn’t smile at the spectators or even turn my head, because I was so locked in.

I spent most of the mile right between a 6:30 and 7:00 pace and really thought I had it. I knew I was going to be within 10 seconds either way. We made the final turn and headed straight into the Fargodome for the finish. It was about 200 yards up and I took a glance at my watch and knew it was going to be way too close for comfort. My max heart rate for the run was 186 and I know it was in that last 100 yards. I didn’t leave anything to chance.

I went through the finish line hard, then stopped my watch, and I saw 3:10:01. Garmin times are always a little tiny bit off from the official time. I went and checked my results, and there it was: 3:10:00. So incredibly close to a sub-3:10. But I’m ecstatic with the run. I didn’t think I’d do much better than 3:20 in Fargo.

I’d call it a pretty good run. Painful, but that will go away and I’ll still be able to look back fondly on my effort. The course was pretty nice. I don’t know how to describe Fargo. It has the small-town feel. Not rural, but it seemed pretty laid back. We didn’t run through anything glamorous, but the entire course made for a pretty relaxing (mentally) run. I’d love a course like that for my long runs. The residents came out and were pretty enthusiastic and the support on the course was good.

And that’s pretty much it, marathon No. 26 of the year. Only 34 to go!


At the finish inside the Fargodome.

The back of the medal came inscribed with, “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. — Hebrews 12:1”

Weekend Preview: Race #26, Fargo Marathon

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It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for my formulaic weekend preview blog. Can you tell I’m not feeling very creative with my writing? I’d better get creative with my running, though, because I’m facing a tough marathon this weekend and I have no idea how I’m going to pull off a good run.

Just in case this is your first time here, welcome! And here’s my standard introduction: I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. To try to make a difference in the autism community, I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. Saturday will be No. 26.

Heading into the weekend, I give a little bit of a forecast of the weekend’s race. I have a contest — you guess my time, and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. The way to make your guess is to make a small contribution of what you think my time is going to be. So, if you think my time is going to be 3:10, you make a donation of $3.10. To make a donation, just click here or click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site.

Last week’s winner was Dana Hansen of Long Beach, Calif. I used to work with Dana and she’s a runner and a triathlete. I was pleasantly surprised when I was walking through the parking lot at the airport on my way to Cleveland last weekend and I saw her guess come across on my BlackBerry. I know I get quite a few hits, but I never know who’s reading. I didn’t expect that Dana was following along, so it put a big smile on my face!

If you’re out there reading and I don’t know you’re out there reading, make a guess and give me the pat-on-the-back I crave! But first, keep reading, because I’ll give you some analysis on how I think I’ll do.

Bowling For OJ!
I take Jack to a facility called Advanced Hyperbarics for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. We’ve been going for six or seven months and we’ve noticed a lot of improvements in that time period. They’ve been really good to us and I really appreciate everything they’ve done.

Anyways, they’re having a bowling fundraiser to help benefit Generation Rescue and it’s actually pretty affordable for a fundraiser. It’s going to be on July 17 at Lucky Strike bowling alley at the Block of Orange — if you’re in Orange County out here near me, you know where that is. I’d love to get a team going for that. If you’re interested, let me know! Click here to download a PDF with information about the event.

I Earn A Medal On Saturday, She Deserves A Medal On Sunday
On Sunday, I’m celebrating 11 years of marriage to my best friend. Don’t tell my wife! Ha ha … we got married on May 23, 1999. I look back at that day and think about how we had no idea what we were getting into. We’re two peas in a pod and marrying her was the best decision I ever made.

Fargo Forecast
I honestly don’t know a lot about the course in Fargo. I’ve heard it’s a fast, flat course and I haven’t really looked at the course description yet. I know we finish in a dome, but that’s about it. I’m confidently attacking this as a course without any significant elevation changes.

BUT, the forecast is not good running weather. Last night, the forecast for Saturday sits at a high of 80, low of 68, 30 percent chance of showers. The race starts at 8 a.m., so I’ll be running until after 11 a.m. The best I’m really hoping for is low 70s with a fair amount of humidity. I head into every race gunning for a smoking time, and I’ll run this one by heart rate, but I know there’s no way I’m going to run a time that makes me excited.

If I’m a betting man, which I’m not (but I hope you are!), I’d go with about a 3:20. I’m thinking back to Miami, which was 70 degrees with 96 percent humidity, and I went 3:20:03. And there was Nashville, which was in the 70s and humid with showers at the end and I went 3:34 (although in all fairness, the race started early and I was late, so I had to start in the second wave and spend 11 miles dodging and weaving through slower runners).

So, my guess is 3:20. But I hope that’s high! If you’ve been following along, let this be the week that you finally bid!

Have A Great Weekend!
That’s all I have for today. Nothing much. Have a great weekend, everybody. I’ll post my race recap at some point on Saturday!