Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Weekend Recap: Burgers, Cats and Technology

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15 down, 45 to go. Another exhausting weekend is in the books. It’s fun to see new places and meet new people, but wow is this tiring!

First things first, I ran the Knoxville Marathon yesterday. It wasn’t a particularly easy run for me, but are they ever? You can read my race report here. Also, I got write-ups today in Knoxville News Sentinel and also in the Knoxville Shopper-News, although I don’t have a link to that second article yet.

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a marathon runner and a father of three. My middle child, 6-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m attempting to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m accomplishing my goals and I’ve completed 15 of the 60 races.

Mess With The Calf And You Get The Bull
My weekend started a little earlier than I would have liked on Friday. We had an incident with Benjamin at school and I had an issue with how the school was managing his safety. I’m pretty big on protecting Ava, 4, my only daughter, and Jack, 6 1/2, my special-needs child. But nobody messes with Benjamin, 8 1/2, either.

I was in a pretty grumpy mood when I got to his school, but he was pretty happy to see me there, knowing I have his back. As a dad, it was a pretty cool feeling. I didn’t make any friends Friday afternoon, but I wasn’t trying to make any friends. Nobody hits my son and gets away with it. The end.

Proud To Be A Kansas State Wildcat
Most of you probably already know that I’m a K-State grad. We always say “It’s a great day to be a Wildcat!” after big wins, and then we often correct ourselves and say, “Win or lose, it’s always a great day to be a Wildcat!”

Last Thursday, we had an epic game against Xavier in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. I had a blast watching that game, but the double-overtime thriller probably took about 10 years off my life! We lost to Butler Saturday and narrowly missed advancing to the Final Four, but I’m still proud to be a Wildcat. I love my school and I’m glad I chose it.

This season was an unexpected surprise. If you would have told me in October we would have won three times as many Tourney games as rival Kansas, I would have never believed it.

As for the Final Four, I think I’m like about 90 percent of this country, pulling for Butler. I’d love to see a mid-major, with a coach who looks like he still gets carded for beer, win the whole thing. Plus, if the Cats are going to lose, let them lose to the eventual champs!

Good thing college basketball isn’t like college football. Otherwise, we’d be sitting around waiting for Kansas and Syracuse to play in about a month.

I’m Officially Settling Any Five Guys Vs. In-N-Out Debate
I ate Five Guys yesterday after the race. It was absolutely delicious. It was enough for lunch AND dinner.


This was very, very good.

One thing I really liked about Five Guys was that you can get mushrooms on the burger, a huge plus. The fries are pretty tasty, too. I got the cajun variety and they’re super salty, which I dig. They have Coke Zero on the fountain, another huge plus in my book.

The burger tasted like it came straight from my grill, and I was absolutely full afterwards. That says a lot, because I eat a ton, and I rarely get full on race days. All in all, it was a great meal.

That being said, In-N-Out is better. The portions aren’t as big, but bite-for-bite, it holds a slight edge. It’s kind of like a Ferrari beating a Viper in a race. They’re both fast. But one has to be faster. And In-N-Out is better than Five Guys. It’s just a solid burger, with slightly better quality and better vegetables. It’s also easier to eat. And as a tiebreaker, you get a better value for your dollar with In-N-Out. A meal costs about $6 there, vs. about $9 at Five Guys.

I know you were dying to get my analysis on the subject. So, you’re welcome.

Minor Details
I flew home through Atlanta last night. My plane was there on time for the 8:40 p.m. departure. The only thing missing was the pilot. We waited, and waited, and waited. Our on-time arrival time was scheduled for 10:41 and Orange County has an 11 p.m. curfew, so if you miss it, you get re-routed to Los Angeles and then bused down. It makes for a pretty late night, especially when you woke up at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time to get ready to run a marathon in the Eastern time zone.

By 8:40, we hadn’t even started boarding. We started getting on a little before 9 p.m., but then sat there on the tarmac for what seemed like forever. We FINALLY took off at 9:36 p.m. and once we were in the air, they told us we would land at 10:56. We touched down with a nice, rough landing at 10:45 p.m., and we didn’t have to go to LA, but it was a little closer than I would have liked.

The Joys of Technology
I told Tiff to text me or email me if she went to bed so I’d know not to call when we landed. When I powered on my phone, there was no text or email from her, so I sent her a note to let her know we landed safely. I waited a few minutes and didn’t hear from her, so I called her cell (I didn’t want to call the home phone and wake anybody up). About 10 minutes went by, and then I saw … a Facebook status update from her? So I changed my Facebook status to the following:

Sam is mad that Tiff won’t return his texts or calls, but is playing on Facebook. Maybe she’ll reply here? Hey babe, I landed safe, be home in 30!

Well apparently, her cell phone died, and she was just getting it charged back up when she responded to my text at about the same time I posted my status. So, I pulled it down. Only in 2010, huh?

The Joys of Technology, Pt. II
I don’t think I posted this last week, but this was pretty cool, so I figured I’d mention it. On my flight home from Virginia last week, I had a code for a free wi-fi session, so I was able to do all sorts of things — post a race report, update some code on the Operation Jack site, send emails and play around on Twitter and Facebook. But the coolest thing I did was do a video chat with my wife, Benjamin and Ava on iChat. Nothing like saying hi from 35,000 feet!


How cool is this?

Thank You Orler Family!
I met Bob Orler of Knoxville through Operation Jack and Twitter and he offered to put me up at his house over the weekend. I had a nice time hanging out with him, his wife and kids, his brother-in-law and his in-laws. We chatted for a while and watched a fair amount of basketball.

Bob ran his first marathon yesterday and couldn’t have picked a tougher course! We celebrated with Five Guys afterwards and then watched some more basketball. Not only does staying with a host family increase the amount that goes to Train 4 Autism — it makes the time away from my own family a little less lonesome. So thank you Bob and Jennifer!

By the time I’m through with my first 18 races of Operation Jack, I’ll have spent only five nights in motel rooms and nine nights in hosts’ homes.

That’s All For Today
Have a great Monday everybody! I know I say that every Monday, but that’s better than wishing you a lousy Monday right?

Race Report: Knoxville Marathon

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Run enough marathons and you’ll have some pretty good days. On the flip side of that, though, you’ll have some pretty tough days, too, like I did Sunday in the Knoxville Marathon. With full respect to the 26.2-mile distance, every one of my 43 marathons have been tough. Sunday was just a little bit tougher.

I headed into the race feeling pretty good. I’d been running hard during my training runs this week and I was ready for a good day. The course profile indicated a hilly, challenging course, but I wasn’t at all concerned. I had a ton of confidence heading in and I thought I’d be able to handle the hills pretty well. Boy, was I wrong. I might need a few days to fully reflect on this one, but I really think this was the toughest road course I’ve ever run.

The course itself was really nice. Very scenic (keyword for hilly?) and it wasn’t too crowded. The volunteers did a great job. I guess you’d probably expect that in the hometown of the University of Tennessee Volunteers, huh? I felt unusually tired this morning, despite getting 6 1/2 hours of sleep last night and 7 1/2 the night before (probably a record for me this year in the two nights prior to a marathon). I never really woke up too well before the 7:30 a.m. start (Eastern time), but I figured I’d snap into it once the gun went off.

We shot off straight up a hill, not a great way to get rolling in a marathon. I’ve been tinkering with my racing strategy, mixing it up between going by pace and heart rate. Early on this year, I went pretty fast by heart rate early, but struggled late in the races. I switched it up by trying to get myself into a groove during the first three miles and then monitoring by pace and heart rate, adjusting on the fly depending on how I felt.

Well, the reason I think this course was the toughest road course I’ve ever run is because with the mix of the climbs and the descents in the first half, it was absolutely impossible to get into a groove. The course really chewed me pretty nicely while I failed to find any kind of consistency.

Early on, the course was nice, running through the campus of the University of Tennessee, then through the town a little bit before turning into a very nice neighborhood. I really love seeing different communities during my races, and today was no different. Physically, I felt a little bit of a burn in my calves early, but that’s standard. Normally, I’m pretty warm by about four miles in and I lock into a zone.

I felt fine early enough, but since I couldn’t get any momentum, the race turned into a battle way earlier than I wanted it too. I knew there were some climbs late. I was mentally prepared to rough it out over the last hour. But not for the last 2 1/2 hours. To complicate things, I started to feel sick about five miles in. I really thought I was going to throw up. I have a Powerbar 15 minutes before the start of each race, but today, it wasn’t sitting well. I battled nausea until about mile 12.

I hit the half in about 1:38, knowing I was already off pace for a BQ. I figured I might be able to negative split the course, but I was starting to feel pretty beat up by then. My nausea went away, which allowed me to really notice the fatigue.

Still, at least the run was really nice. We spent about three miles in a wooded park, ran near a river, then headed through some parts of town that weren’t too nice. They weren’t totally ghetto, but I always like seeing all types of living on my runs. I think it’s interesting to see different lifestyles, and it makes me pretty grateful for everything I have.

As we started to creep up in the high teens, I knew I was probably looking at a 3:20 or so. My miles were creeping up a lot closer towards 8:00 and I didn’t have a whole lot. I was fatiguing pretty nicely and was really looking forward to the race ending. I don’t normally get like that until 4 or 5 miles later in the race.

We ran over a bridge, alongside a river, through a neighborhood, then back towards the campus. We ran through the downtown area, which was one of the coolest downtowns I’ve ever seen. It was big enough that you could tell there was plenty of activity there, but at the same time, it had a little bit of a small-town feel to it. Knoxville was a great city to run through. I really enjoyed it.

Heading for home, I was looking pretty closely at my watch, because I thought I needed about a 6:45 final mile to come in sub-3:20. I’d been watching my Garmin and it looked like I was going to end up running 26.35 with the tangents. I hit a pretty good pace at the end and probably covered that last mile in that time (mile 26 was 6:52 and the last bit to the finish was at a 6:18 pace), but I ended up running 26.4 and I had 3:20:27 on my Garmin.

The finish was pretty cool — it was the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium, where the Volunteers play! The stadium seats 107,000 people, although only a few hundred were in there. Maybe a thousand? It was pretty sweet to look around and think about all the big-time players who have played in there. Peyton Manning … that’s enough, huh?

So, it was a tough course. I didn’t feel totally up to par (I don’t feel up to par at all this year, but I was even worse than normal) and I went 3:20. I guess nothing to really complain about. Thrilled about my time? No. But it’s not going to bug me on my flight home. And of course, I get another crack at it next weekend!

I’m actually 25 percent done with Operation Jack now. I guess that means I’m 75 percent not done! 15 down, 45 to go!


Here I am in the stadium, ducking out of the rain.

Weekend Preview: Race #15, Knoxville Marathon

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These weeks are flying by way too fast. I feel like I just got back from Virginia and it’s already time to carb load. That means it’s time for another weekend forecast, plus a few new things about Operation Jack I have for you.

Weekly “Guess Sam’s Time” Contest
I’m having a weekly contest now where you can guess my time in my race and win your choice of a free Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Here’s how you do it: Try to guess my time (a little lower in this blog, I’ll give my analysis of the course and make my own prediction) and to enter, make a donation corresponding to your guess. So for instance, if you think I’m going to run a 3:15, donate $3.15. The winner is the person who guesses the closest without going under. In the case of a tie, I’ll draw a random winner.

It’s an easy contest, and costs about the same as an ice cream cone, which is fitting, because I’m now up to 52 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. And of course, this helps us nickel-and-dime our way to our goals!

To enter, click here or click the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site.

Quick Announcement About A Race Add
I’m about 98 percent sure I’m going to add the Olathe Marathon to my schedule on April 10. I’ll actually probably have that finalized by the time you read this, but I’m posting that here because the race is coming up in two weeks. I’m not expecting a lot of you to add the marathon with just two weeks’ notice (that’s something I would do, but I’m not exactly normal), but for the record, there’s also a 5K and a half-marathon. I know I have a chunk of you in the Kansas City area and I’d love to see you at the race or at least while I’m out there.

This race will actually make my April pretty challenging. I already have Dallas on the 11th, Charlottesville, Va. on the 17th, Boston on the 19th, Nashville on the 24th and Oklahoma City on the 25th (plus my Train 4 Autism race here on the 3rd). That’s seven for the month, but six in six states over a 16-day span. Forget the running … that’s a lot of race reports to write!

Oh, by the way, this isn’t going to boost the total to 61. I have another race that’s part of a double I’m planning on dropping.

Hyperbaric Chamber Update
Jenn Fellrath, a loyal supporter of Operation Jack, has asked me a few times recently about how Jack is doing at the hyperbaric chamber, so I figured I’d give an update in here for everybody. Last night, we went to Advanced Hyperbarics for another session and he did pretty well. When we first started going, it was a chore to handle him in there. He squirmed, he resisted holding the oxygen mask up to his face and it was really challenging to spend an hour in there with him.

He’s gotten a lot better with it, though. He knows the routine and hops right in. Last night, he held the mask to his face by himself for a good 80 percent of the session. For the majority of the remaining 20 percent, he didn’t resist me holding it. There’s a hood you can wear instead of holding the mask, which makes it easier and more effective, but he’s refusing that right now. We’re working on it, though, and I’m really looking forward to the day when he wears that. Part of it is a plastic collar that holds on the clear, plastic hood, and last night he was willing to at least try the collar on. That’s progress in my book.

All of that isn’t what Jenn is really asking about, though. She wants to know how he’s improving as a result of the treatment. Well, it’s really tough to say. We’ve been going for about five months now, and he’s shown incredible progress in that time. This isn’t a controlled scientific experiment, so numerous factors could be contributing to his improvements. But I really believe that the oxygen is helping. The speech is really starting to come out better in bits in pieces. He’s much more attentive and alert. It’s kind of like we’re buffing out a car and we’re seeing some shiny parts now.

He’s a different child than he was when I first launched this site and I suspect he’ll be vastly improved by the time the year is over. Exactly what is causing that, I can’t say. But we like the routine we’re in right now.

Jenn, let me know if that’s sufficient.

Race Forecast
OK, this is not a PR course. I’m sure it’s a beautiful course, since it runs through Knoxville, Tenn. But it looks incredibly hilly on the course profile. The first nice climb starts at about mile 2, there are about five solid climbs total, including a long, gradual uphill from 22 to 25 and what looks like a hill at about 25.5. This contest is going to cost you an extra dime, because I just don’t see it being a fast day.

One cool thing about the course is that it ends up on the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium, the 107,000-seat facility where the University of Tennessee plays football. I like to kick for the last mile in a marathon, but a good friend of mine suggested I kick at the 10-yard line so I can get a 40 time in there. I’ll probably go with the last mile, but not if I’m out of gas, which I suspect is possible.

Physically, I feel a lot better than I did at this point last week. I’ve been running a little bit harder this week to mix it up and I’ve been enjoying that. I think I’ll feel fine on race day. I have a personal score to settle with the 26.2-mile distance, because it kicked my butt last week in Virginia Beach. I expect to be fired up and ready to go. But I’ll be limited by the course and my body.

I want to set a personal best for the year, which would be 3:07:20. I wouldn’t call that likely, but that’s what I want to do. If I was making a donation for the contest, I’d probably go with about $3.13 in this one. I’m not making a donation, though. I already have my t-shirt, tech shirt and sweatshirt. Plus, how wrong would that be if I won my own contest?

Catch Me At Dailymile.com
OK, so I’ve seen dailymile, and I think I had an account, but I never really did anything with it because I was using runningahead.com. But for what I’m doing, which is tracking my running and trying to meet runners, it’s become pretty obvious to me that I needed to get on dailymile. So, I did. I think some folks told me that word for there is “stalk” as opposed to “follow” (Twitter) or “friend” (Facebook), so come stalk me! How weird to say that! But you can find me here.

For my next step in social media correctness, I’m going to integrate WordPress into here, but not yet. I’m getting there and there are only 24 hours in a day.

That’s All For This Week!
Please, please, please — participate in the contest! It makes my day when I see your entries come across! It lets me know that I’m not alone and running myself into the ground for nothing. Beyond that, be well, eat your ice cream and pull for my Kansas State Wildcats against Xavier tonight!

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

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It’s Wednesday which means I’m having In-N-Out for lunch and I have to fly to a race (again) in three days. But it also means it’s time for What’s Up With OJ Wednesday, my weekly opportunity to use alliteration and give you a rundown of what’s going on here.

First things first, just in case this is your first time here, I’m a marathoner and a father of three. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic, so I’m doing something this year where I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to try to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. 14 down. I just don’t want to say how many there are to go, because it seems like so many. OK, 46. There, I did it.

Train 4 Autism Marathons
I can’t believe these races are going to start next weekend! With the help of Charlie Alewine, we’re going to have the Train 4 Autism Marathon Series, a set of three marathons and half-marathons starting on April 3 in Huntington Beach, Calif.

I’m pretty excited about the third race in the series, because it will be my 60th of the year. But I don’t think too much ahead, because I have enough on my plate. Really, I’m barely thinking about next week, because I need to run Knoxville this week. But I can’t just remind everybody just a few days in advance, so to you Southern California maniacs, I’d love to see you out there a week from this Saturday! We’ve got a half and a full and we even have prize money.

Help Wanted!
Please help me spread the word about Operation Jack! Tell your friends about the site, invite them to become fans on Facebook and follow me on Twitter! I haven’t thrown this out there in a while, so I figured I’d throw this out there.

When It Rains, It Pours
I hadn’t gotten Operation Jack in the paper much lately, but I hadn’t pushed much lately, either. I broke out of that slump this weekend when I contacted the daily paper in Virginia Beach and got a story in Monday’s paper. Well yesterday, I had three good interviews that should help the cause. I don’t want to name the publications here (I save some of that for my personal Facebook page and I’ll wait until the stories run to go into more detail about them here).

I had a quick 15-minute interview during the day, then two for about 30 minutes each after work. I was a journalism grad in college and my first job after I graduated was working for the AP, so it’s kind of fun being on this side of things. I know to try to use complete sentences and avoid saying um too many times. I also know that I have no clue who reads this blog, but if you’re a member of the media, or if you know anybody who’s a member of the media, I’d be happy to talk to you (them)!

Guess Who Won My Weekly Contest Last Week?
Every week, I have my contest where you guess my finishing time in the form of an easy donation. So, if you’re expecting me to run a 3:11, you donate $3.11. The winner gets their pick of an Operation Jack t-shirt, sweatshirt or tech shirt. One of my loyal followers out in Florida, Jen Morgan, gave me the idea for the contest. And sure enough, she won. I thought I’d go quicker than 3:10, and when I saw her guess of 3:18 come across, I told her I hoped she lost and she told me she was just trying to put a chip on my shoulder and motivate me. Well, she had the slowest guess and I couldn’t even pull that off, going 3:20. Grrrrrr …

I’ll forecast this weekend’s race tomorrow and y’all can take another stab at it.

Silpada Anybody?
There’s a company called Silpada that makes jewelry and we’re going to have a party to benefit Operation Jack on April 30. It’s a network marketing company that sells jewelry and I don’t know a ton about it, but I know my wife likes it and I’ve bought her a few things from there. It’s not expensive diamond stuff, it’s decent and fairly inexpensive. You’ll have to forgive me for not giving a very good description, because I’m a guy, and this really isn’t my thing. Anyways, some friends of ours hosted a Silpada party last fall with a distributor who’s a friend of theirs and all of the proceeds from the party were donated to a local shelter for abused women. I talked to that distributor and she’s going to do the same thing for Operation Jack.

So if you’re on here and you’re in Orange County, keep that date in the back of your mind. That’s the Friday before the Orange County Marathon, nine days before Mother’s Day. We haven’t set a location yet, but I’ll let you know the when and where as soon as we do. It’ll be a fun little opportunity to go to a party, pick up something for yourself or your mom, snack on some finger foods and help Operation Jack in the process. If you’re not nearby but want to see their stuff, I’ll put a link up and you’ll still be able to look and participate if you want to.

Ice Cream Update
I haven’t talked about my ie cream much lately, but I’m up to 52 days in a row now eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. I had butter pecan last night and it was fantastic. Too bad I just about fell asleep with my face in the bowl. But I kept the streak alive. Just 58 more days until I tie my all-time record!

That’s All For Today!
Thanks for stopping by! I feel like I didn’t have anything to say. Maybe that’s because I’m starting to get into a rhythm and it almost feels routine. But I do appreciate your support and I’m glad you’re here. Have a great Wednesday! I’ll see you tomorrow with my weekend forecast!

Carrying The Flag

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Do you ever feel like you’re trying to make a difference, but you keep banging your head into a wall and nothing good comes of it? I have days where I could feel that way, but fortunately, I have Chris Fales to look to for inspiration. If you don’t know who Chris is, he literally carries the flag for Train 4 Autism. If you ever feel like you’re trying to make something good happen, but all your efforts might be for nothing, you can draw inspiration from Chris, too.

Chris, like me, is an autism parent and a proud member of Train 4 Autism. He runs marathons and ultramarathons carrying a big Train 4 Autism flag. I don’t know what goes through his mind, but sometimes, there must be smaller races where he wonders if it’s worth it.

As an example, there was a 50K (31 miles) on March 8, 2009 that he ran and carried the flag. The race wasn’t huge, maybe a few hundred participants max, and in a race like this, the field spreads out and you’re running by yourself for the most part. The course has miserable hills. Aside from elite trail runners, nobody can maintain a run up those hills. They have to be walked. So, he walked up those hills, carrying that flag.


Chris and the flag.

The day got hot and it was dusty and exhausting. But he finished the race, carrying the flag. Maybe his mindset is similar to mine, that it doesn’t matter if he sees immediate results — he’ll run his body into the ground if it there’s a chance it could help in the fight against autism.

Well, when Chris crossed the finish line that day, he was pretty spent. It was not an easy race. I should know — that’s where I saw him for the first time. I’m kind of shy and didn’t talk to him. I was pretty spent, too, and I wasn’t even carrying a flag! I don’t know who he talked to that day, and it’s very possible he made the long drive home thinking he didn’t reach anybody.

But I saw the flag, even though I didn’t tell him at the time. Later that week, I contacted the race director to find out who he was. She gave me his info, I dropped him a line, and the next week, I met up with Ben Fesaigaga, the founder of Train 4 Autism. I had Operation Jack in mind, but I thought I was going to have to start a charity. Train 4 Autism already existed, so all I had to do was run 60 marathons in a year! I ran the idea by Ben when I met with him, and he was on board.

From there, the rest is history. I don’t carry a flag, but if you didn’t already know, I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to help raise awareness for Train 4 Autism. I’m doing my best to grind it out and raise awareness for Train 4 Autism. Some days, I feel like I’m running myself into the ground and getting nowhere. Other times, I see progress seemingly come from out of nowhere and I know I made a difference. But I’m not having any long-term doubts about my efforts like I have in the past. I can just look to Chris as a role model and have an increased sense of faith and confidence in what I’m doing.

If Operation Jack works, then Chris accomplished a ton for Train 4 Autism by carrying the flag in Malibu. Even if it doesn’t, there’s no telling how things will play out in the future. I know I found Train 4 Autism through Chris and I’m definitely in it for the long haul. Operation Jack is the flag I’m carrying. There’s no telling exactly how it will benefit Train 4 Autism. But even if I don’t get the feedback I’m looking for, I’ll keep pressing on. I am dedicated to the cause and I believe in Train 4 Autism. I’ll proudly keep fighting the fight in my son’s honor.