Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Race Report: ING Miami Marathon

by 3 Comments

With 60 marathons on the schedule for this year, there’s no question I’m going to have challenging days that aren’t a whole lot of fun. Today was definitely one of those days. Running a marathon in Miami today seemed like a job, although I’m not complaining. It’s a pretty good job.

I knew heading into this race that it was going to be a challenging day. I didn’t sleep much Friday night (5 1/2 hours), flew cross country Saturday, didn’t sleep a whole lot Saturday night (4 1/2 hours) and woke up at 3:30 a.m. for the 6:15 start. That’s 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning my body time with 10 hours of sleep the two nights before!

I actually felt decent, but the weather was not at all conducive to running a marathon. It was about 70 degrees with 96 percent humidity at the start. It was really muggy and people around me were sweating before the start. I was convinced it would be a long, miserable day, but I didn’t fear it. My plan was to run by heart rate, keep my body under control.

I got rolling and I felt OK to start, but I felt really warm. There was nothing at comfortable about the run, but my legs were moving OK. I started to warm up pretty quickly and knew my suspicions were coming true. It was quickly turning into a difficult day and I knew I would have to take really good care of myself to not wreck myself.

I feel like I did a fairly good job of that. I knew I wouldn’t run a 3:07 like I did last week, but I wanted to at least get as much out of myself as I could. I was consistently running in about the 7:30 range. That’s all I had. I was feeling really warm and didn’t want to blow up.

The course was pretty nice. It started going through busier parts of Miami. We ran past a row of 8-10 cruise ships in port, then went through South Beach, and I think we hit downtown before the half. I’m not certain on my Miami geography, but it’s always fun to take a foot tour of a new city and see things I wouldn’t ordinarily see. I hit the half in 1:38, but didn’t feel bad. I wasn’t fatiguing too bad and I was maintaining pretty well.

The second half of the race went mostly through more residential areas, which I enjoyed. I like seeing neighborhoods in new cities. I started to slow a tiny bit in the high teens. 7:28s were turning into 7:34s. I thought I was looking at a 3:17 or 3:18, but I really started to struggle starting at about 22. My miles were pretty close to 8 minutes or so and I was giving it all I had.


Me and my friend/host Tim McDuffee after the race. He went 2:53 in that humidity … now that’s fast!

I could feel a sub-3:20 slipping away, but I had nothing. By 24, I knew I was cooked and I was going to be close to that 3:20. I pushed and pushed, and felt very confident that I was giving it everything I had. It’s very important to me to give 100 percent in all of my races.

I tried to go a little harder at 25, but my body had nothing for me. I kept pushing and pushing and knew I’d be close. I saw the finish line about 1/4 mile in advance and gave it another try, and didn’t have much of an answer. I crossed the line 3:20:03 after I went through the start.

I don’t like the time a whole lot, but I’m completely comfortable with my effort. I stayed with a friend of mine who went 2:45 on the same course last year, but went 2:53 today and thinks he ran better. I know it was a tough day and I know I gave it my all. I think I finished about 145th and there were somewhere around 5,000 starters in the marathon. Not horrible, I guess. But the weather was.

So, that’s 6 out of 60 for Operation Jack. Next up, Diamond Valley and Surf City next weekend.

Who Can Answer A One-Word Question For Me?

by 15 Comments

I’m doing my thing here, writing my blog and eating my ice cream and running my races. And at the same time, a lot of you are out there pounding the pavement, spreading the word and raising money and awareness for Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism. I appreciate it tremendously, but I have one question that I hope you can answer. Why?

Don’t get me wrong — I’m very, very glad you’re here. But I want to know why you’re here. Do you have expectations? Hopes? Is it for you? Me? Somebody else? I’m doing the carnival trick, running (well, at least attempting to run) 60 marathons this year. But nothing is possible without the grassroots support y’all are providing. So I want to provide you with what you’re looking for. Maybe it’s just jokes in a blog. Maybe it’s running advice. Maybe it’s some kind of inspiration if you’re a parent of a child with autism. Maybe you need help training for your first marathon.

Whatever it is, I want to give it to you. Even if you just come by to read the blog, I’d love to know that. Please, please, please help me out today and let me know. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a comment publicly on the blog, please just fill out the Contact Us form or drop me an email. Let me know why you’re here! That’s not too much to ask, right?

EDIT: I think what I’m really asking is what you expect/hope for when you support or follow Operation Jack. That’ll teach me to write a blog when I’m fall-asleep tired!

Weekend Forecast
This weekend, I’m running the ING Miami Marathon. It should be an extremely exhausting weekend. Fly out Saturday, fly back Sunday. From California, that’s quite a haul. I don’t know if I’d call it a quick weekend or a long weekend, but I’m thinking it’s going to be a combination of both and Monday morning I’ll be tired.

From what I’ve seen, it’ll be a little warmer in Miami than the rest of the races I’ve run this year. I don’t think I’ve been in temps above 45 degrees at the start and it should be in the 60s Sunday. That’s getting to the point of warm, and mixed in with the humidity, it might not be an incredibly comfortable day. But the race is supposed to be pretty flat and it’s at sea level, so that should help.

I have no idea what kind of time to expect, but whatever it is will be the best I can do. Maybe I’ll be too tired to feel any pain. The race goes off at 6 or 6:30 a.m., which is 3 (or 3:30) a.m. body time for me. I’m sure I’ll be sleeping on the plane.

Ice Cream Update
I hit triple digits last night! 100 days in a row now with ice cream or frozen yogurt, just 10 days shy of my personal best. Peanut butter fudge swirl, my personal favorite, was the flavor of the night.

Thank You Erin Ruff!
OK, so in my last blog, I said I’d thank somebody different in every blog where I discuss multiple topics. So today, I’m thanking Erin Ruff. Erin is a friend of mine and one of my biggest cheerleaders. She’s really supportive of what I’m doing and emails me here and there with positive feedback. You know how there are certain people you get emails from and you get excited to open them up? Yeah, Erin’s emails fall into that category.

Anyways, she is the one who suggested I contact the Orange County Register for their Morning Read feature. I did, then corresponded with an editor, then followed up a little later, and the next thing I knew, I heard from a reporter and this story ran on the front page of the paper last week! When it finally made it up, I dropped her a line and told her it was all her fault! That article worked out well, though, and was really nice to read. So Erin, thank you!

That’s All For Today
Have a great weekend everybody! I’ll try to get my race report posted before my flight on Sunday. If it’s not up by 4 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Pacific, I’ll have it up late that night (10 p.m. Pacific). Happy Friday!

This Marathon Is In Full Swing

by 6 Comments

After running the Carlsbad Marathon on Sunday, I’m five marathons into Operation Jack and I feel pretty comfortable that I’m settling into my Operation Jack routine. I’m just ignoring the fact that I have 55 to go. That kind of sounds like a lot.

But I’m starting to get the hang of taking care of my body on a weekly cycle and recovery isn’t too bad. And I’m finally starting to run a little bit better.

If you haven’t seen my race report from Carlsbad, take a look. You can see why I’m not tremendously thrilled when I run in the high 3:13s. I’m not going to declare myself 100 percent back, but I will say that I’m a lot more comfortable with how I’m running now.

Where’s The Money Going?
I have Operation Jack down to a science in my head, but that doesn’t do much good for those of you who aren’t mind readers. A lot of you have asked where the money is going, so I did a little bit of a write-up on that on the How It Works page. If you ever have any questions about anything, please e-mail me!

Also, PLEASE drop me a line if you have any suggestions. I’m learning daily as I go along, and really, I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m just trying to run my body into the ground in an attempt to help grow Train 4 Autism. So, if you have any ideas, please don’t keep them to yourself!

Surf City Pasta Dinner Reminder!
If you’re planning on running Surf City, or if you’re in the Orange County area, I’d love for you to come to our pre-race pasta dinner! It’s going to be from 5-7 p.m. on February 6, the night before the race. Cost is $20 per person, which includes two types of all-you-can eat pasta, salad, garlic bread and non-alcoholic beverages.

For more details, click here!

Would I Take Something From A Grandmother? Absolutely!
Especially if its my grandmother. I called her about two minutes after the Minnesota-New Orleans game ended Sunday night to set up our annual Super Bowl bet. Actually, I set up our 22nd annual Super Bowl bet. This dates back to my freshman year of high school, when the Niners beat the Bengals on a Montana-to-Taylor touchdown pass in the final minute of Super Bowl XXIII. I took the Niners in that one.

Our wagers have varied over the years. One year I had the Bills when they got smoked by the Cowboys and the bet was for the loser to bake one dozen cookies for every point the winner won by. It was a 35-point win by Dallas, so she called me up as time expired and told me I could stop at 10 dozen. One year, when I was in college out in Kansas (she lives in California), I won and she shipped me roughly 10 dozen homemade cookies to pay up.

In 1999, I was working for The Associated Press, primarily covering sports at the time, and she won. So, per our bet that year, I had a custom-made shirt that said “I proved I know more about football than my grandson, and he’s a professional sportswriter.” She wore that to my Super Bowl party the next few years.

Last year, I had the Cardinals and the points and covered. We decided in advance that me, my wife & kids and my grandparents would go to Souplantation (my kids’ favorite restaurant, it’s also known as Sweet Tomatoes depending on where you live) and the loser would pay. Even though it’s my grandma’s bet, there was no dipping into her slush fund. My grandpa took care of the bill, but still proclaimed himself the winner since we all got together for a visit.

I have no idea what the stakes are this year. I took New Orleans and we’re going to circle back later this week.

Thank You, Jake Rome
In some blogs, like race reports and write-ups where I tackle something that’s weighing heavily on my mind, I’m not going to discuss a multitude of subjects. But when I do one of these that covers various subjects, I’m going to take the time to thank somebody who’s helping Operation Jack.

So today, it’s Jake Rome. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until the end of the year: I get really awkward and shy about getting help from y’all. But I appreciate it. Jake is somebody I’ve “known” online through running message boards, and he’s the photographer behind my Facebook avatar, but I’d never really met him before Sunday. Nonetheless, he really digs what I’m doing and has gone all-out try to fundraise for Operation Jack. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s not all about how much money somebody raises that makes me appreciate them. And I’ll thank somebody next time who hasn’t raised any money for me.

But Jake’s enthusiasm for Operation Jack has been a big boost for me. For those of you who have followed along for a while, you know I go on my emotional roller coasters with Operation Jack because I’m so passionate about it. Well, when I come across people like Jake, I know I’m not going at it alone, and it helps give me the confidence I need to continue down this path.

So thank you, Jake!

That’s All For Taco Tuesday
Have a good day, everybody! See you tomorrow (or Thursday, or whenever I write again)!

Race Report: Carlsbad Marathon

by 7 Comments

Some of you read my race reports and wonder why I get disappointed with 3:13s, 3:18s and 3:21s. It’s because I know I’m capable of more, as I did today. I’ve been working for a while to shake some rust off, and for the first time in about nine months, I’m happy with the direction I’m going.

I headed into Carlsbad today feeling pretty fresh after running a 3:13:56 last Sunday in the Arizona Rock ‘N Roll Marathon. At the time, I was pretty happy with how I ran, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with my fitness. I really want to run consistently better than 3:10, and the reason is twofold. First, I feel like I’m capable of that. Also, I have a lot of you supportive of what I’m doing because it’s difficult, so I feel like I have a responsibility to bring y’all good times.

This was the fourth time I’ve run this course and it’s never been easy. The first time was when I was just getting going with running. It was just my fifth marathon and I ran a 3:54. The next two times I went 3:16 and 3:19, although I ran the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon the day before those two. Today, it had been an entire week since I had run a marathon, so I was fresh (relatively speaking). My legs felt great, although I didn’t know how heavy they’d be once I got going.

I got rolling and felt fairly good early on. I run by heart rate and do my best to get as much as I can out of my body. As has been the case in all of my marathons this year, I started out running in the very low 7:00s, but I wondered how long it would be until I faded.

Carlsbad is a series of rolling hills with one big uphill at about mile 9, and a screaming-fast downhill on the way back at about 11. I’m a little weak on the uphills right now, and rather than break the bank, I keep it conservative. I’m getting quite a bit out of downhills, though. I ran my own race and tried to take care of myself as well as I could. I really hoped I had 3:10 in me today, and I stayed ahead of the 3:10 group until the big uphill at 9.

They passed me up and gained about a minute on me, but on the way back down, I passed them back up and for the first time this year, I really felt like I had some of the speed and power back in my stride that I’ve been missing. I felt good and I felt fast. I kept cruising and at about 14, a woman named Julie Brekke pulled up alongside me and told me she liked my pace and wanted me to pace her.

I told her we were cruising along at about a 3:07 pace, but I thought I might fade later so she was at her own risk. She laughed and told me she wasn’t worried and we kept rolling. We chatted for a little while and she was super nice. She was also CRUISING. She entered the race with a PR of only 3:17, but she was knocking off miles at right around 7:00 like nothing.

I never felt the fade that I’ve been feeling lately. I think part of that had to do with a switch-up in my race morning fueling, which included UltraFuel at the suggestion of a running friend of mine, John Hill. He’s a sub-2:40 guy, so I figured I ought to give it a shot at least once. I never felt like I was going to fade and I never felt much more pain than the typical fatigue I get during a marathon. Safe to say, it’ll be UltraFuel again next week in Miami.

As I got up towards around 20, I knew I was in store for a good day. I was moving well, feeling great and in a zone. I don’t have all the speed I did, but I can tell I have a lot of it back. I guess 26.2 miles at marathon pace every Sunday will get you in shape?


Me after the race. Yes, that’s blood. No, don’t ask.

 

Anyways, Julie stayed strong the whole way and I started telling her that she was going to crush her PR. It was a no-brainer. She was moving way too well and she said she was feeling pretty well. I could tell she was money because she was killing me on the uphills. I can start narrowing down what my time is going to be when we get into the 20s and I knew we were looking at about a 3:07-3:08, maybe a 3:06 if we really turned and burned at the end.

I told her I wanted to try to push at 24, but I had nothing. I was able to keep rolling, but I couldn’t step it up. I tried again at 25, and I still had nothing. I was able to find a tiny little something at about 25.5 and finished hard. My final time was 3:07:21, my fastest of Operation Jack so far by 6:35, good for 27th overall. Julie went 3:07:28, good for 6th woman overall and 2nd in her age group. Oh, and a 10-minute PR!

I saw a great friend of mine right there at the finish. He had a great day, too, lowering his 1/2 marathon PR from 1:39 to 1:34. He was fired up that I finally put it together this year and ran a good race and gave me a big hug. I continued the hug-fest and gave Julie a hug. She really nailed her race, as did I, and we spent about half of the race together. Things like that warrant a hug!

All-in-all, I’d call it a great day. I’ll savor it for about four days and then start thinking about Miami!

Operation Jack Survives Hiccup No. 1!

by 4 Comments

Sometimes the glass is half empty. Sometimes it’s half full. Of course, if you’re me, it doesn’t really matter, because somebody always knocks it over. Yesterday was no exception, but fortunately the cup had a lid on it!

I got an email yesterday morning letting me know the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon, which I’m scheduled to run on Saturday, was postponed until February 6 because torrential rains have made the course (a dirt fire road) dangerous. For almost any other race on my schedule, this would probably be a pretty big problem.

If it was a race I was traveling out of state to, I’d be eating worthless airfare. If I didn’t have a double this weekend, I’d be scrambling to find a race. And if I was going out of town the weekend of February 6, I’d be looking for something else to keep me from dropping to 59 marathons this year.

Lucky for me, though, the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon is 70 miles from home, something I drive to on the morning of the race. And I’m running the Carlsbad Marathon on Sunday, so I still get a race in this weekend. And on February 7, I’m running the Surf City Marathon 25 miles from home. So Diamond Valley is no problem on February 6.

In fact, this almost works out better. I’ll be just as fresh for Diamond Valley on February 6 as I would have been this Saturday. But I’ll certainly be in better shape for Carlsbad this Sunday. For Surf City, I’m leading the 3:30 pace group, which won’t be any trouble for me, not even the day after a marathon. My legs are slowly but surely getting used to this week-in, week-out routine and they’ll handle a double a little better in a couple of weeks.

From a running standpoint, this really worked out well, and hopefully this gets one of the inevitable hiccups out of the way early and painlessly. But another cool thing about this is how this impacts me from a non-running standpoint.

I’m being recognized as one of the Carlsbad Marathon’s “Heroes of the Marathon” on Friday night at a dinner. I won’t see the kids Friday night. I would have had to get up on about six hours of sleep, run Diamond Valley without seeing them until Saturday afternoon, then run Carlsbad on six hours of sleep the next day.

Instead, I get to go to the dinner with my bride on Friday night, then sleep in (well, until the kids wake me up at 7) and catch up on some rest on Saturday. For what a race postponement could have done to Operation Jack, this actually worked out pretty well.

Coming Soon, Zensah Compression Pants!
My legs have gotten a little twitchy on my flights back, but I have help coming soon from the good folks at Zensah. They were nice enough to ship me some compression pants and I’m looking forward to wearing them underneath my basketball pants on the way back from Miami next weekend. I’ve heard from several people that compression pants will help me big-time if I wear them after a race.

I think they help your body keep all your blood from flowing to your legs, or something like that. I don’t know … I failed biology three times in junior high school and high school. Science isn’t my thing. But whatever the case, I’m really looking forward to giving them a try.

Anybody Running The Napa Valley Marathon March 7?
The Napa race director is very supportive of Operation Jack and is offering a rate of $85 for the full marathon (current rate is $130) for anybody I bring on the Operation Jack team. If you want to run Napa, and you haven’t registered, here’s all I ask: Try to do a 10×10. The way I see it, if he’s being supportive and offering a $45 discount to help Operation Jack, I want to respect his generosity and not just give away the discounts like candy. Try to support this cause, which he believes in, and run Napa at a discount! If you’re interested, send me an email!

Ice Cream Update
I’m now at 92 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt after my typical peanut butter fudge swirl last night. That’s just 18 days short of my personal best, a 110-day streak last June through October. I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch, but I have a pretty good feeling about setting a new personal record.

That’s All For Today!
And really, that’s all for this week. I’ll post a race report after Carlsbad on Sunday afternoon. I’m going all-out, as always, gunning for a Boston Qualifier (sub-3:16) and ideally I’m hoping my fitness is getting closer to the sub-3:10 neighborhood I like to live in.

Have a great weekend everybody!