Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Using My Health To Make A Difference

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As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be writing about different things each day of the week to break it up a little bit and to help me come up with topics to help you waste your time at work with. Since today is Tuesday, I’m going to talk about either an issue that’s important to me, or I’m going to tell an anecdote about something from my past. Today, it’s an issue that’s important to me — donating blood. I’m writing about it today because that’s what I’ll be doing at 5 p.m.

I’m actually donating platelets, and I can’t really give you a good scientific explanation of what that means. I know that it takes a little longer than whole blood (90 minutes instead of 20 minutes) and it grabs a different part of the blood. Whole blood is just straight-up blood. Platelets are something else, and I’m not exactly sure what, but I know they go to help leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy.

I’m going to back up a little bit and explain how I got started doing this. I hate needles and I hate blood. I get queasy talking about either. My dad donated platelets for years, but I never did, because I couldn’t imagine the thought of the needles.

Last year, though, I decided I would change that. I have an uncle who died of leukemia on July 27, 2004, and I figured I’d donate blood on July 27 last year in his honor. So I did. I was a big ol’ baby about the needles, but it was mission accomplished. I went back agin in September (you can only go every eight weeks or so) and donated again.

I had to switch over to platelets this year, though. It takes your body about five weeks to be fully recovered from whole blood, which would be fine if I was training. But not when I’m racing. Platelets only take about 48 hours until you’re back to full strength. Either way, you have to take 24 hours off from exercising, so I’ll take a rest day tomorrow. But I’ll be 100 percent for Pasadena on Sunday. And my donation will go to somebody like my Uncle Bob, who inspired me to do this. I figure that’s appropriate.

My dad doesn’t get to donate any more because he’s had cancer twice since 2004, so they won’t take him in. I’m sure he’s probably glad I’ve picked up the torch from him. I think it’s pretty obvious with what I’m doing with Operation Jack, that I have a body that works fairly well and I’m really starting to like making small, temporary sacrifices to use it to help others.

I guess the point I’m making is that if any of you don’t donate blood and have ever thought of it, or even if you haven’t thought of it, please give it one try! It’s not as bad as you think (believe me, nobody could possibly hate needles any more than me) and it’s really a wonderful feeling to selflessly help somebody else. Plus, there’s the free cookies when you’re done!

If you’ve been meaning to schedule an appointment, please do so! If you’re going to try this for the first time, please let me know.

Take care and have a great Tuesday, everybody!

Weekend Recap: Sam Delivers!

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OK, so I was thinking (which is how I always get myself into trouble) that I’m going to take a new weekly approach to my blogs. I’m always grasping for ideas, and I think this will help. Mondays will be a weekend recap, because that’s always going to involve a race trip and my accompanying antics. I’ll let you know about Tuesdays tomorrow. I guess that means I’d better write a weekend recap. But it’ll be easy. It was certainly a memorable weekend.

First real quick, I ran the Austin Marathon yesterday. I’m fairly pleased, but you know me — I’m never satisified.

I Deliver!
On Twitter, folks do something called “Follow Friday,” where they suggest somebody new for you to follow and they tell you why. Well, San Antonio resident Lisa Hernandez suggested me, because I’m running 60 marathons this year, because I love ice cream (15 days in row now, by the way) and because I was bringing her In-N-Out. She threw in a little 😉, as if I’d respond. Oh wait, I did.

I had never met Lisa, and I had never talked about bringing her In-N-Out. So, when I confirmed with her that she was going to be in Austin, she was pretty surprised when I asked her for her order. On Friday night on my way home from work, I picked up a cheeseburger with mustard and pickles, then went home, wrapped it in foil and put it in Jack’s insulated lunch pail. I carried it with me, heated it up at my hotel and met her with it at the expo. Not only did she get the cheeseburger, it was delivered in Jack’s lunch pail!


Check out that SWEET sweatshirt I’m wearing!

While she was eating her cheeseburger (and loving it), a woman came up to her and asked her where she got the In-N-Out. Was there a new In-N-Out in town? Nope, Lisa had it personally flown in. She’s big-time like that. And I’m just a guy who hand-delivers cheeseburgers to people across the country.

Anyways, there’s a cool Operation Jack ending to this story. On Friday, I asked Lisa if she’d try a 10×10 for Operation Jack. I told her that I’d bring her the cheeseburger regardless, because I said I would and I’d keep my word. But if she was willing to try, I’d be even more grateful than she was for the food. And … she said yes!

So, let that be a lesson to you, everybody else. Do a 10×10, ask me to bring you a cheeseburger, and you might get lucky!

I Knew This Was Going In The Blog The Minute It Happened
It’s tough to fall asleep sometimes when I’m on the road, because it’s pretty early for my body time. Saturday night, I needed to get to sleep early, because I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. Texas time, which was 2:30 a.m. according to my body. I’m getting used to this, but that doesn’t make it very enjoyable.

I sat in bed trying to fall asleep at about 9:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. back home) and I think I was finally out at about 9:50. Five minutes later, my grandma called. She’s 85 and my grandpa is 86, so I always have a little bit of a worry when the phone rings.

She called to remind me to wish my dad a happy birthday yesterday. She must not have read my blog on Friday, but good to hear her voice! She then wanted to know if this Sunday (February 21) when we met for lunch if we would be meeting first at her house or at the restaurant. No good answer on that one yet, either, but I’ll let her know when I can.

So she asked me what the kids were doing. Well, I didn’t know, because I was asleep in Texas and they were back home, probably getting ready for bed.

Sam: “I don’t know Grandma, I’m in Texas.”
Grandma Bea: “What?”
S: “I’m in Texas.”
G: “I couldn’t hear you. What did you say?”
S: “I’M IN TEXAS.” (I’m sure the people in the room next to me were thrilled to know that)
G: “You’re eating custard?”
S: “No Grandma, I’m not eating custard. I’m in Texas.”
G: “It sounded like you said you’re eating custard. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
S: “I’m … in … Texas.”
G: “It still sounds like you’re saying you’re eating custard.”
I paused. It was like trying to convey something to somebody who doesn’t speak the language.
G: “Are you OK? You’re not talking. Is everything OK?”
S: “Everything is OK. I’m … not … home.”
G: “Oh! You’re not home! You’re off somewhere running a race! Where are you?”
S: “I’m in Texas.”
G: “Oh! You’re in Texas! That’s wonderful! Let me get your grandpa so he can say hi.”
S: “Uh, OK.”
G: “Milt! (pause) … I think he just walked over to the bathroom. I bet he’ll be in there for two hours. I’ll let you go. Good night, I love you!”
S: “I love you too, Grandma.”

That. Was. Amazing.

Worst $25 Picture Ever
I was in Austin, so I figured I’d go find the football stadium at the University of Texas and take a picture. I found it, and circled and circled for about 15 minutes trying to find the right spot to park. It was Saturday afternoon, about 5:30 p.m. Nothing doing on campus, that’s for sure.

There were a bunch of cars parked in spots about 50 yards away and the sign I saw said that you needed one type of permit at one time of the day from Monday through Friday and another type of permit a little later in the day from Monday through Friday. Well, it was Saturday, so I parked. I walked over, took a lousy picture because I couldn’t get anywhere to get a good view and I was back to the car in less than 5 minutes. And sure enough, there was a parking ticket for $25. How funny … I thought it was Saturday! That worked out to about $375/hour to park there. I wasn’t very happy, because the sign said Monday – Friday, but realistically, what am I going to do to fight this?

Well, yesterday, the last mile of the race ran right by where I parked. There were no cars there this time because they blocked off the road. And beneath the signs about the permits, there was a sign that said “UT Permit Required All Other Times”. Great, I guess I was in the wrong. I still think it’s a joke that they have three different signs to tell you the parking policy, and they were a good 25 spots or so from where I parked. And I also think it’s a joke that they have nothing better to do there than nab me within five minutes of the time I parked. Really? That slow?


Would you pay $25 for this picture? Yeah, well, I did.

I Made It Home In Time For Dinner!
Sure, I woke up and ran a marathon in Austin, and had a late lunch in Austin, but I was still home in time to take my beautiful wife out for a Valentine’s dinner! She’s gonna hate this picture, because she looks a whole lot better than she does in this, but it’s all we have. I wanted to take a picture at the restaurant, but it was Outback, and she thought we’d look like idiots. Yeah, um, I wore an In-N-Out hat at a marathon expo in Texas. I’m not really concerned with looking like an idiot.


On the way out the door to dinner last night. What is she doing with him?

That’s All For Today
I’ll be back tomorrow with my Tuesday blog approach. On a weekly basis, it’s going to be either an issue I have a strong opinion about, or it’s going to be an anecdote about something from my past. I already know what it’s going to be this time — something I feel pretty strongly about.

Have a great Monday! See you tomorrow!

Race Report: Austin Marathon

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I headed into the Austin Marathon today knowing it was going to be a tough day. I’m coming off of a two-marathon weekend, I’ve had a hectic week behind the scenes, and the course is far from easy. But I did what I always do — I went out and ran as fast as I could.

My gameplan was the same as it always is. Go out, try to keep the heart rate between 170 and 172 and keep on rolling. I know not to worry too much about my time, because I’ll max it out if I run my race correctly. I was concerned about how strong I’d be. My legs felt a little heavy, which I expected. I ran two marathons last weekend, and the last time I came off a double, I had the same problem from about mile 2 (Arizona Rock ‘N Roll, January 17) and I struggled through a long, painful run.

The course looks very challenging on the profile view. Some quick stuff early, but then a long, slow death from miles 6 through 18. Afterwards, it’s a big, gradual downhill finish. In a way, it reminded me of Boston. You have those four hills in Boston late that will chew you up, but if you can make it through, you can fly the last five miles. With that 12-mile stretch in Austin, though, I wasn’t expecting an easy day.


This doesn’t look like fun!

I felt kind of OK early, moving at a fairly good pace through those first few miles that had some uphill. My legs didn’t feel like they had any spring, but they were turning fairly well. I think my pace early on was averaging somewhere around 7:10/mile. Coming down the fast part of the course early into mile 6, I was moving quicker and staying within my heart rate target. I don’t remember my miles, but I remember one at 6:36 that I was happy about.

By the 6-mile mark, my pace for the race was about 7:01 and I was feeling fairly well. But I knew the long uphill was coming. Well, mile 7 was a breeze, probably something in the 7:10 range, and I started getting (gasp!) a little bit of confidence. I ran a few miles in that 7:15 range and then I consistently start turning miles right around 7:30 through the bulk of that uphill stretch.

All day long when you’re running, you can kind of guess where you’re going to finish, and the way my pace was slipping, but the way I was taking the downhills, I really though I had a chance to push for a 3:06 or so. It looked like I was going to come out of 18 at about a 3:08 pace, but I figured I’d turn it on.

Well, something happened. I’m not sure what, but I totally ran out of gas by about 19. In that first downhill mile, when I thought I’d run in the 6:40s, I went 7:05 (I think). Right when we crossed the 20-mile mark, I could feel that I was totally out of gas. I couldn’t pound the legs hard enough to get my heart rate up to 170. I started ticking off miles at 7:47, 7:51 and another 7:47. I knew I was slipping, but I didn’t know how far. That 3:10 was disappearing pretty quick and I was doing the math and thinking I was going to get my third 3:13 out of nine races this year.

A tiny bit past 25, I turned it on and went for broke. I hate doing that, because that means maybe I left something out on the course earlier, but I was really stiff and I think I would have really struggled if I tried to push it harder earlier in the 20s. There was nothing there. But for that last mile, I got my ticker going past 180 and picked off quite a few people. I hit the finish strong, which is fun, but also an indicator that maybe I left a little bit out there.

Whatever the case, I went 3:12:38. I’m totally content with this run individually, because it was a tough course and I’m not 100 percent right now. And now that I’m 35, it’s a Boston qualifier! Not the sub-3:10 I like to run, but I’m content with how I’m doing. And of course, I’ll get another shot next week in Pasadena!


Time to eat!

Valentine's Weekend: Three Things I Love!

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I wish there was a holiday every weekend. That would make it a lot easier to come up with blog topics. Sunday is Valentine’s Day, so naturally, I’m going to talk about three things I love. Well actually, two people and one thing. But you know what I’m saying.

1. Tiffany
Tiffany, in case you didn’t know, is my wife of the past 10 1/2 years (shoot, almost 11 … this year is flying by!). I figure that since Valentine’s Day is the holiday to celebrate love, I’m going to talk about how we started dating and all that yucky-vomit stuff. We started dating on September 22, 1994 because of a newspaper article — one I saw last night for the first time in years.

I was the sports editor on the college newspaper in 1994 and she was a freshman. Wait, I take that back. She was a hot freshman. I wanted to get to know her better, so I tricked her into taking a women’s volleyball season preview story. She took the bait, and about 10 seconds later, she started worrying about what kind of mess she had gotten herself into. She knew nothing about sports.

Lucky for her, I was there to help. A few days later, I knew when she had scheduled her interview with the coach, and I made sure I was around the newsroom when it was time for her to go down to his office. Sure enough, Tiff freaked and I was there and offered to go with her. I handled the interview for her while she sat there petrified.

Afterwards, we spent a lot of time working on that 300-word story that nobody other than the athletes and their mothers read. I even showed off a little bit by letting her borrow my laptop (not everybody had a laptop back then). We worked up a little bit of a friendship and eventually, the story ran on September 15, 1994. The only reason I know the date is because I actually saw the article last night while she was looking at her old stringbook.

Anyways, on September 21, I worked up the courage to ask her out on a date (after 30 minutes of her teasing me and daring me to and another 15 minutes of me nervously stalling). She said yes, I took her out for dinner the next night, and even though I spilled my salad on my lap and then brushed it on the floor, she was willing to go on a second date. There was a third, then a fourth, and at this point, I’m pretty confident we’ll be together for a long, long time.

I have to run a race in Austin on Sunday morning, but I’ll be home in time to take her out to dinner that night for Valentine’s Day. We have babysitting squared away (big thank you to my mother-in-law!) and we’re going to a simple dinner at Outback. So there, I said I’ll talk about three things I love, and just like with everything else in this world, in this blog Tiff is No. 1 on my list!

2. Jack
It’s Operation Jack, so I might as well have a Jack update, right? Jack continues to amaze us with his progress. Last week, he gave us a hug for the first time ever after calling me and Tiff by name (well, “Mommy” and “Daddy”).

This Monday, Benjamin had some tomato soup waiting for him when Jack came downstairs for dinner. Jack had never eaten soup in his life. But he picked up the spoon, scooped some of the soup, blew it off to cool it down and then ate it! Tiff was floored, as was I when I heard about it. He’s showing progress on almost a daily or weekly basis nowadays and it’s totally amazing.

He had some tomato soup with his dinner again last night, and was having a blast playing along with Benajamin’s new “Deal Or No Deal” Nintendo DS game last night, calling out the numbers of the cases to pick. Words can’t really explain what all his progress is like to us. It’s so cliché to say, but I’m just expecting the unexpected nowadays, and that’s what I’m getting. He still has a long ways to go, but he’s certainly come a long, long ways since I started blogging last summer.

3. Running
I certainly do love to run, which is a good thing, because if I didn’t, it would be a really long year! Well let’s be realistic — it’s going to be a really long year anyways.

This weekend, my marathon is in Austin, Texas. I don’t know a whole lot about the course. I presume I should check out the profile. But I’m not tremendously concerned about it. The weather forecast looks like it’s going to be chilly, in the high 30s or low 40s. That’s easy weather to run in. Shorts, long sleeves (or maybe a sleeveless tank — probably a gametime decision) and gloves.

My legs are feeling pretty fresh and I’m feeling pretty strong. I just don’t feel a lot of spring in my step. I’m not sure how quick I’ll feel since I ran two marathons last weekend, but I’m pretty confident in how I’m running right now. If I had to set an over/under line in Vegas on my finishing time on Sunday, I’d say about 3:11. We’ll see how it goes.

PS: My Dad
It’s his birthday on Sunday … 62! I’m grateful for each birthday he has nowadays, because he’s had cancer twice in the past six years. But thankfully, he’s doing great now. And man is he old!

That’s All He Wrote, Folks
I write my blogs the night before I post them and I fell asleep at my laptop finishing this one up. I think that’s an indicator that I’m done. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Weekend Recap

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I don’t get a lot of weekends where I don’t have to travel, so lucky for me, I had a nice, relaxing weekend. Well, aside from the two marathons and the pasta dinner that had me stressed to the max. I think flying to Miami last weekend was easier than this.

But it’s over and done with. I ran a couple of marathons this weekend, Diamond Valley Lake on Saturday (recap here) and Surf City yesterday (recap here). Saturday’s race had the worst weather of any of the 36 marathons I’ve run. Yesterday’s was fun, because I was the official 3:30 pacer.

The pasta dinner … wow, that was a lot more work than I thought it would be!

Pasta Dinner Recap
We had the Operation Jack pasta dinner on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun. Well, it was for me. There were probably 40-50 people there and everybody seemed to have a good time hanging out. There was way too much pasta, which is a whole lot better than not enough.

I stressed out big-time about this, because I didn’t want to let people down. But it seems like everybody had a good time and I got one of these events under my belt. Next time, it won’t be so bad.

It was great to look around the room, see the Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism banners on the wall and people talking and having a good time. The support there was overwhelming to me. It’s crazy to be on this end of it all. It’s just a surreal feeling, something I don’t feel I really deserve just because I’m running a lot of races. But it was cool to see it all come to life. Lucky me, to be able to experience this.

I had to get up and give an impromptu speech, and I hate speaking. This blogging thing is fine, because I can do it from the laptop on my couch. When I’m speaking at a pasta dinner, people could be looking at the pasta sauce on my chin for all I know. Tiff got up and was talking a little bit about Jack’s progress and we started to banter a little bit. It was just us being us, but it was fun and everybody was laughing. We were totally Abbott and Costello. I’m pretty sure that will be my lasting memory of the event.

My One Line Of Super Bowl Commentary
If I was an athlete, I think the one thing I’d want to do in any sport would be a pick-six to seal a Super Bowl win. How awesome was that last night? CRAZY!

Oh, and I won my bet with my grandma. She’s taking me and the family out to Souplantation. They have ice cream there.

Thank You Shelly Overton
So I pledged that I’m going to thank one person for something in every blog where I tackle a few different topics. So today, it’s Shelly Overton. Shelly is a fellow Train 4 Autism parent and she did a great job helping out with the pasta dinner on Saturday night. From securing the location to working on the planning to helping with the setup to cleaning up afterwards and helping out the whole time, she certainly went above and beyond to help get this done.

I’m running myself into the ground to make Operation Jack happen, but that doesn’t mean I can do it by myself. There’s no way we would have been able to pull off the dinner without her, so thank you Shelly!

That’s All For Today!
I have no idea if I’ll blog tomorrow or Wednesday, but I’m done for today. Have a great Monday everybody (there’s no such thing as a great Monday)!