Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Race Report: Charlottesville Marathon

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My month-long slowdown continued Saturday in the Charlottesville Marathon in Charlottesville, Virginia, although fortunately, so did my ability to shake it off and not really worry about it. I know that all I can really do is go out and give it my all. Today, my all was worth a 3:21 marathon.

The course was probably the most scenic I’ve ever run, and that includes the incredible Catalina Marathon I ran last month. We ran through the University of Virginia, which has a beautiful campus. We went out into the plush countryside and passed ranch and after ranch bordered by white wooden fences. We ran several miles on roads tunneled by bright green trees. We spent four of the miles running along a path that was also tunneled by trees and bordered a pretty wide river. Even when we spent a little bit of time running through some unsavory parts of town, it was pretty scenic.

I know it sounds like I’m gushing, and that’s because I am. I HIGHLY recommend this course, even if you don’t live nearby. There’s one downside (well, more like 8-10 downsides). There are quite a few challenging hills to climb. Nothing like Catalina, but still, I wouldn’t call this course easy at all. It’s worth it, though.

I decided to push by heart rate today instead of trying to hold a pace. Monday in Boston will be completely by heart rate, so no sense not doing that today. I caught little glimpses of how I’m doing, and I feel pretty comfortable with my ability right now. I just don’t feel comfortable with my ability to maximize my ability, or something like that.

I felt pretty good early on, staying on track early and maintaining an average pace in the low 7s. I wasn’t scared to push the pace quicker than 6:30 when the declines allowed, and I took what the course gave me. Of course, just as quick as the course gave me, it took away.

I train on hills every day, but for some reason, I just can’t race on them. We went through a pretty nice gradual downhill about 5 or 6 miles in, but we went up a pretty tough uphill right after that, and that was the beginning of the end for me. I struggled and never got it back. We did a turnaround, and I didn’t move as fast as I’d have liked to coming back down. And when we went back up that gradual downhill, I was pretty much done.

I hit the half right around 1:35:30, which I was OK with, but I knew I was moving in the wrong direction. There were plenty of hills in the second half that continued to wreck me, but that’s what marathons will do to you, I guess. The weather was fine — mid 60s and not sunny. But I just couldn’t hang on over the final six miles. My back started to hurt a little bit and my legs were pretty stiff. I was certainly enjoying the run, though.

I barely had any kick at the end, but I guess I can’t really do much more than I’m capable of, which is what I feel like I did today. I think my time was 3:21:24 or something like that. It’s not really about me, though. It’s about reaching people for Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism. Today, I had a guy come up to me during the race and tell me he’s been following along and he really digs what I do, which was cool. Also, after the race, a local TV crew interviewed me for a little bit for their show today, so hopefully that reaches people, too.


After the race.

So, I guess, 19 down, 41 to go. Time to go to Boston.

Weekend Preview: Races #19, 20

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I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. I just got back from Dallas and it’s already time to go to Virginia. This is a tough stretch right now, because I have to be away from my family so much, but it will make next month (and next year) seem so easy. Anyways, another weekend is on the horizon and a pair of marathons are on the schedule. I guess that means it’s time for my weekend preview.

Weekly Pick Sam’s Time Contest
Each week, I have a contest where you guys try to guess what my time will be by making a super-easy donation. Basically, if you think my time is going to be a 3:04, you donate $3.04 by clicking the “Donate Now!” link at the top. If you guess 3:04, I thank you for your confidence. But anyways, that’s the contest. Winner is the person who comes the closest without under-bidding.

The prize is your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Two weeks ago, the winner was Katey Williamson. I think she chose a sweatshirt. Maybe it was a tech shirt. Not sure. Anyways, she said she was going to keep playing until she won one of each. Sure enough, she won again this past week. She apparently knew I was going to struggle miserably in Dallas. Thanks Katey! I need a lot of you to compete against her so that she doesn’t win again. If she does, that’ll be $3 and change less coming to Operation Jack!

To help you play the game, I give you my insight on the course. In weeks like this one where I have two marathons, we go with the second race for the contest. This week, that’s Boston. I’ll be honest, though. I have no idea how that one’s going to go. No clue. I’ll get to that in a minute, though.

The Glamorous Life Of A Traveling Marathon Runner
So, I know I blog about some of the fun and interesting things involving Operation Jack, but this weekend is going to be pretty exhausting. Here’s what I’m looking at:
– Red-eye flight to Virginia.
– Working on my laptop in the airport in Virginia for two hours after I arrive, then for at least three hours before my flight before I leave to avoid an extra day on the rental-car charge (29-hour stay … bummer!)
– Friday night, there’s a pasta dinner with a group of students at the University of Virginia who are members of the same fraternity I was in at Kansas State (Phi Delta Theta). A lot of them are participating in a 5K Saturday morning that benefits the Virginia Institute for Autism. Awesome!
– Renting a car in Boston Saturday night and driving to the outskirts of town. Hotel rooms are ridiculously overpriced in the city for the race, and I’m not there for vacation.
– Driving to the T (subway station) Sunday morning to take that into town. I have a breakfast, lunch and dinner scheduled with different groups of people at each meal. Plus a stop to get my stuff and visit some people at the expo. In between those meals, I’ll find a Starbucks to plug in my laptop and get some work done.
– Monday morning, I’ll have to check out of my hotel before the race because it doesn’t start until 10:30 a.m. I’m also flying home that night, probably getting not much more than six hours of sleep before work on Tuesday.
– Oh, and I’m getting my car serviced today, and since that includes warranty work (2007 Camry!), they’re giving me a rental car from Enterprise at the dealer. So yeah, I’m picking up three rental cars in three different states in three days. Fun.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it. I always say the running is the easiest part of this. If you notice, in that list I didn’t include running a pair of marathons. But that’s definitely on the agenda, Nos. 19 and 20 of the year.

Race Previews
I haven’t looked at the Charlottesville course yet. I know that I’ve gone 3:20, 3:20, 3:23, 3:19 and 3:24 in my last five races, but I still truly believe that on a good day, even right now with my fatigue, there’s no reason I can’t go 3:10. Period. And that’s what I’m going to aim for. I’ll head out, trying to get into a 7:15/mile rhythm and I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve been back on some anti-inflammatory supplements this week that I hadn’t taken in three weeks, plus I had a visit to the hyperbaric chamber last night, plus I’m planning on taking at least one ice bath before Saturday’s race and hopefully three before the race in Boston. The optimist in me is running sub-3:10 on Saturday. The realist is going sub-3:20.

So on Monday, I have Boston. This will be my third time running this course. I went 3:03:29 the first time and 3:01:31 last year — two of my fastest three times ever. I’ve trained and tapered both times. The course has a little bit of a downhill net and you can start out and get into a pretty quick groove early based on the layout of the course. I knew my mistakes in 2008 and I ran it stronger last year.

I’m very confident that I know how to get the most out of myself in Boston. I feel very strong on that course. I’ll be taking ice baths on Saturday night and Sunday night and I suspect I’ll get at least 15 hours of sleep between those two nights. But I have no idea what to expect out of myself. I go all-out every time, but there’s almost a different gear in Boston. I love that race — I always call it my reward for all the training I do.

Nothing will surprise me on Monday, not a time starting with a 2 or a time with a 3:2X. If I had to bet, I’d probably go with a 3:12. But that could swing 13 minutes either way. I have no idea what to expect, other than four big hills in Newton.

But make a guess anyways. Show Operation Jack some support! It only costs about $3 and it’ll give me a boost when I see your donation come across! Either click here or click on the “Donate Now!” link on the top of any page on this site!

One Last Thing
My daughter Ava, who’s 4, told me Tuesday night that she knows she’s a troublemaker. She’s not a bad kid, but she can get into a little bit of mischief and she knows it. Nothing out of the ordinary for a kid her age. Last night, when I tucked her into bed, she told me, “Daddy, I was a goodmaker today!” And that is why she owns me.

I Lied — One More Last Thing
I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month. So, I’m running a campaign to try to collect $7 donations to help Operation Jack. If you haven’t seen the update I sent to the Facebook group, please check it out!

OK, That’s All For Today
Have a great weekend, everybody! Hope it’s less exhausting than mine! I’ll be posting race reports on Saturday and Monday.

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

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This might be the wrong way for my wife to find this out, but in June, I’m bringing bunch of women to Boston. And they’re all her age or younger. Yep, I’m pacing the 3:40 group at the Utah Valley Marathon on June 12 and I’m looking forward to it.

That’s one of the things going on with Operation Jack. On Wednesdays, I write a “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” blog. It’s an easy excuse for me to be lazy and re-use a headline, plus the alliteration is catchy. I think.

In case you’re new here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I really hate that. I wanted to find a purpose for his struggles, plus I wanted to use my running to make something good happen, so I came up with this idea of running 60 marathons in 2010 to try to raise awareness and money for a great charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism. The idea looked great on paper, but now that I’m through 18 of the marathons, my body isn’t thoroughly convinced! But we’re creating new chapters all over the country, so it looks like it’s working!

I’ll get to Utah in just a minute (well, actually I’ll get to Utah on June 11). I’ll give a quick update on Jack, though.

He’s struggled a little bit lately, waking up several times in the middle of the night and battling what appears to be internal pain. One major problem with Jack is his inability to effectively communicate. So, if he has a tummy ache, he can’t tell us, but he’ll be upset and hit himself in the head instead. At that point, he has a headache in addition to his tummy ache.

We’ve been convinced for a while that he has internal problems, and we’ve tried gluten-free and casein-free diets. Tiff and I definitely keep him on the casein-free, but we haven’t noticed improvements with the gluten-free diet so he’s not on that. We’ve taken him to a DAN doctor, basically a biomedical doctor. We went to one before, but weren’t thrilled with the treatment. But we have an appointment on May 11 with a new one who comes very highly recommended from an extremely knowledgeable and trustworthy source.

Also, we’ve discovered that he likes weighted blankets and we have one of those herbal neck pillows that you heat up and that calms him down big-time when he’s upset. He’s still got a ways to go before he truly talks, but we’re seeing a lot of progress over the past several months. He’s MUCH more lively than he was last summer. Thank you, everybody, for all of your prayers.


This was Jack last night. He knows where I’m running on Monday!

Back To Utah
I’m pacing the 3:40 group on June 12 and I’m really excited about it. It’s supposed to be a very beautiful course, and I’ll be able to look around and enjoy myself a little more than normal. Take a look at the course profile. It looks like a pretty fast course. I’ll be aiming for a 3:39:59, though.

I’ve paced twice before, each of the past two years leading the 3:30 group at Surf City. I went 3:29:54 and 3:29:39 in those efforts and really enjoyed helping people reach their goals. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. 3:40 is the Boston qualifying time for women between 18 and 34, so any ladies who stick with me from start to finish will earn their way to my favorite race.

If you’ve been looking for a June race that’s fast and scenic but you didn’t have a running partner who would tell you bad jokes for 220 minutes, this might be a good one for you!

Orange County Marathon Pasta Dinner
If you’re in Orange County or running the Orange County Marathon, we’re going to have a pasta dinner at Buca di Beppo in Irvine (Tustin Marketplace) on May 1, the night before the race, at 5:30 p.m. It should be a good time. I know everybody seemed to enjoy the pasta dinner prior to Surf City on February 6, and I’m really excited about this one, because I don’t have to do so much busy work like I did last time.

I’ll probably have to get up and do a poor job speaking like I did last time, but I’m cool with that. I have more information here if you’re interested … please be interested! If you have any questions about anything, please let me know!

Also During The OC Marathon Weekend, …
We’re going to have a Silpada party. When I say we, I mean my wife and my mother-in-law. I’ll probably be home hanging out with the kids. But we’re going to have a Silpada party that’s going to be a fundraiser for Operation Jack. Silpada sells jewelry that my wife really likes. I don’t know how to describe it … it’s not like diamonds or anything like that. It’s decent stuff without the fancy stones.

Anyways, we’re going to have a party and we’d love for you to be there! It’ll be a good time and you can grab some finger foods and a quick Mother’s Day gift. Here is the Evite Tiff created for the event. If you’re an out-of-towner, there’s information on there about ordering if you want to.

My April Promotion
In April, I’m running seven marathons in seven states. So far, I’m through three and three. Since 7 is the number of the month, I’m trying to collect as many $7 pledges as possible. If you haven’t already done so, please check out the update I sent out at the beginning of the month.

That’s All For Today, Folks
I absolutely can’t believe I’m already carb loading again starting today. These weeks are flying by way too fast. See you tomorrow!

Ten Random Things For Tuesday

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I’m going with 10 random things for my blog today. I’m kind of random, so this works out well.

1. I have to give mad props to Zensah. They gave me a pair of compression pants to wear on flights and those pants my new best friend. My calves twitch a lot (sometimes pretty badly cramping) and my legs feel pretty torn up after I run 26.2, but I throw those things on and my legs feel a whole lot better. They’re still sore, but I don’t cramp with them on and the tightness on my sore legs feels awesome. It’s almost like a massage. I go from feeling pain to feeling sore. I love, love, love those pants and I highly recommend them.

2. I also highly recommend Wheaties Fuel. It’s some new cereal, I guess. I got a sample box after the race on Sunday and I wish I would have grabbed six of them. I had the box as a snack on the plane on Sunday and that stuff was delicious. I don’t remember what I really liked about it, but I remember eating it thinking, “Dang, I need to get me some of this as a snack!” Tiff, if you see it on sale at the grocery store, pick some up. I’ll totally eat it as a snack. I love it!

3. Speaking of the grocery store, I went on a field trip last night with Ava. Tiff needed a few things (actually, Jack needed a few things), so I took my little princess with me. We had a fun time. She bagged the apples and bananas, picked a lot of the stuff off the shelf and pushed around a little kiddie cart with everything we were buying.


My super shopper!

My wife’s super shopper!

4. You’ll notice there’s flowers in the cart. I got those for Tiff, just because. I don’t believe in buying flowers when I’m in trouble. “Hey babe, I’m sorry … so I shelled out some of our cash … ” Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. I have to think that wouldn’t be sufficient for Tiff, either. So yeah, flowers, and no, I wasn’t in trouble.

5. I only buy flowers from the grocery store. $10 for a dozen longstem roses. Sometimes $12. They’re flowers, Tiff likes them, so why waste money at a florist? Maybe I’m cheap.

6. On the subject of me being cheap, on Sunday night in the Denver airport, I was looking around the food courts, and I saw a fast food place where I could get a fairly decent looking chicken philly, fries and a pop for about $12. I don’t know. I know it’s an airport, but I thought that was pricey for fast food. Next door there was a Domino’s, and it was something like $10 for a mini. Or, there was McDonald’s, and to go large with my fries and drink (living large is how I roll), it would have been about $9. So I just decided to skip dinner, even though I was kind of hungry. I’m kind of cheap like that, and I couldn’t justify spending $9 on McD’s.

7. My ice cream/frozen yogurt streak is up to 72 consecutive days now. I’m almost getting close to my personal best of 110 days. If I can make it to May 21, I’ll break my record. May 21 will also be the 11-year anniversary of my bachelor party. I ended up with a black eye. Too bad my wedding was two days later. I’ll save that for another blog.

8. I can’t stand almost all of the reality shows my wife watches, but she watches one called Millionaire Matchmaker that I like for some reason. I don’t know what the reason is, but I like it. I hope I don’t lose my Man Card for that.

9. My wife cried over a Folgers commercial last night. She’s such a girl. She definitely has no Man Card.

10. I’m running the Orange County Marathon May 2, and my dad and stepmom are running the half marathon at that same event. I’m not so certain that he’s going to beat me to the finish, even though only has to go half as far as me. I want to come up with some kind of bet or something to help the charity. Any ideas anybody?

That’s all for today, folks. Rest in peace, Brother Sloan.

Weekend Recap: I Left Home To Go Home

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Kansas is the anti-Vegas. It’s a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there. Well, of course, unless you’re me. I moved away 10 1/2 years ago, but my heart is still there. I was fortunate enough to be able to head there this weekend. Oh, and I ran a couple of marathons and went to Dallas, too.

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’m trying to do something to make a difference in his honor, so on top of working full-time and doing the best job I can as a parent and a husband, I’m trying to run 60 marathons in 2010 to raise awareness and money for a charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism.

I’m on target so far, having completed the first 18. If you want to read about what pain feels like, you can check out my race reports from Saturday’s Olathe (Kan.) Marathon and yesterday’s Big D Texas Marathon.

The Running Is The Easiest Part
The logistics are tricky, and I’m really reaching a point where it’s tough to be away from my wife and kids. When I’m gone, I call up several times a day to say hi and see how things are going, and it’s really getting tough. It’s fun to see new places and meet new people, but it’s a lot more fun to play handball with Benjamin at his school than to get a text from Tiff telling me she played handball with Benjamin at his school. I’m the one who teaches him how to play that game well. I want to be there.

I guess Tiff and I knew what we were getting into, and we still believe very strongly in what we’re trying to accomplish. I talk about a lot of the positives of Operation Jack and the fun experiences I have, but in case you’re wondering if this is difficult and if it kills me to be away from the family so much — yes and yes.

If I Must Travel, It Might As Well Be To Kansas
I went to Kansas State University and lived in Kansas City after I graduated. I really love that part of the country and feel like I’m a Kansan at heart living in California. That was my first stop of the weekend, since I ran Olathe (a Kansas City suburb on the Kansas side of state line) on Saturday. In my book, it just doesn’t get any better than Kansas. I felt more at home than I do in California. It was wonderful.

I got to catch up with a good friend/mentor, have lunch with some good friends from college, see the places I used to shop at with Tiff when we first got married and visit with some of my pledge brothers and see one of their farms. Throw in a marathon, playtime with a pit bull and lunch at a GREAT barbecue restaurant named Oklahoma Joe’s and I’d call it a pretty solid 22 hours.

I got to hang out with another old college friend in Dallas and spend some time catching up, which was also fun. I get homesick when I’m gone, but if I’m going to be gone, it’s nice to last spend quality time with quality people.


You can’t do this in Orange County, Calif.

I don’t think they have any of these stores within running distance of my home, and I can run a pretty long ways!

I Hate United Airlines
I had a lousy experience flying to Virginia three weeks ago on United. They made me check my carry-on even though there was space in the overheads just because I was in seating group No. 4. I really, really hate them, but I think the feeling is mutual, because they seem to hate all of their passengers. They don’t even give out peanuts!

I swore I wouldn’t fly them unless I really had to, but I really had to this weekend (American’s rates from Dallas were ridiculous). I had a repeat of my incident being in seating group No. 4 flying back from Dallas yesterday. I had to check my bag, and when I got on the plane, half of the overheads were empty. I asked the flight attendant when I got on the plane if I could hold on to my bag, be the last person on the plane and put it in one of the empty spots if there was one. She said no problem.

Of course, by that point, the guy who took my bag already put my bag on the ramp down. I asked him if I could walk the eight steps down to grab it and he told me no. I’m sure it would have been way too much for him to walk down those steps, too. So I got to wait at the baggage claim last night when I got in instead of heading straight to my car. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wasn’t tired or anything. I only flew three times this weekend, I only ran two marathons, plus I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday night! I was only 19 hours into my Sunday when we landed.

My United Airlines Crew On Friday Was Not Smooth
So on my flight to Kansas City Friday, I went on (oops) United and switched planes in Denver. On our way in, we encountered some fairly rocky turbulence. Normally, they’ll tell us that we’re beginning our descent and we need to discontinue use of our portable electronic devices. Well, we were way above the 10,000-foot level they typically tell us to power down at, yet they abruptly told us to shut down right while we were going through that turbulence with no explanation. Not very comforting.

A little bit later, we were coming close to landing so the pilot told the flight crew to cross check and prepare for “an excellent” landing. In all the flights I’ve taken, I’ve NEVER heard that announcement as anything other than to “cross check and prepare for landing.” The “excellent” adjective seemed pretty odd, and even if you’re used to flying, you probably don’t want to hear anything out of the ordinary, especially during rough patches. This, too, was not very comforting.

But the part that was smooth as sandpaper came about five minutes before landing. There was no announcement necessary, but for whatever reason, the flight attendant came on and announced to us, “in the event of an emergency landing and evacuation, please leave your carry-on items behind.” ARE YOU KIDDING? They tell you that at the beginning of the flight when they go through the emergency card, but five minutes before landing? Again, I’ve NEVER heard that at the end of flight. And again, that was not very comforting.

We didn’t have an emergency landing or evacuation. I’m pretty happy about that, because I didn’t want to leave my carry-on bags behind.

Sometimes Small Gestures Mean A Lot
On the rental car shuttle in Dallas, the driver saw my Olathe Marathon shirt, so he asked he if I had run a full marathon, and I told him I had. He asked me if it was my first, and once he did that, the cat was out of the bag and Operation Jack came up in the conversation fairly quickly. He was impressed and asked my name so he could track my results, so I gave him an Operation Jack flyer.

He read it and later asked me about Jack and how he was doing and what our routine is like. I answered all of his questions and we chatted during the ride. When we got to the rental car area, he was unloading bags for passengers and collected a few dollars from some people. We were chatting and I was about to go, and he pulled out his wallet and gave me a $5 bill. “Normally, customers tip me, but I want to tip the customer this time. I think it’s great what you’re doing.” I graciously accepted it and was beaming on the inside. $5 isn’t going to make or break Operation Jack, but it sure did make my day.

Quick Housekeeping Items
Two quick things:
1. I’m making a gentle fundraising push in April to try to raise money in a painless way. I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month, so I figure that 7 is the lucky number (well, it’s been the painful number so far, but that’s a different story). So, I’m trying to raise $7 donations. Take a look at the April update I sent to the Facebook group if you haven’t already seen it.

2. We’re going to have a pasta dinner on May 1, the night before the Orange County Marathon, at Buca di Beppo in Irvine. I’d love to have as many of you there as possible. For more information, follow this link!

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough. Have a great Monday, everybody. See you tomorrow!