Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Real Men Wear Pink

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Wow, I guess it took until late November, but I finally figured out what gets people excited — me wearing pink!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I want him to be able to make a difference in this world, so I’m attempting to run 61 marathons in his honor this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

So far, I’m through 54 of the 61. I wouldn’t have done this if not for him. So if this makes a difference, he made a difference.

Anyways, I’ve been fundraising for a charity called Hearts & Smiles for about a month now. It’s a great charity that helps the siblings of special needs children in low-income families in the Philadelphia area. It’s been tough, but through Tuesday, I gradually worked my way up to $210 in donations. On Tuesday, I went with a guest blog from the founder of the organization, Melissa Scarcelli.

That blog was really nice and told all about how she founded the organization, why she started it, plus the types of things they’ve been able to do. In two days, we went from $210 to something like $240. My goal was $1,000. Melissa was nice enough to make that an optional goal, so there was no penalty if I didn’t hit it, but I still wanted to get there.

So yesterday, I told y’all that if I hit that goal, I’d wear pink armwarmers in the race on Sunday. And sure enough, you came through! I wish I would have known that me wearing pink was the key to fundraising. I would have jumped on that train a long, long time ago! When I dropped off Jack at school this morning, I was talking about this to another dad, who told me I needed to wear all pink for a race.

As I told him, everything is for sale. But that would cost a LOT of money! The price tag on just the armwarmers was $1,000!

I called Melissa up to let her know we hit the goal and she was really excited. I’ve done a lot to help Train 4 Autism, and I’m still pushing forward. But it’s nice to do a little bit here and there for other good organizations, too. We’ve raised money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and now Hearts & Smiles. It’s nice to help and you’re the ones who have come up with the money. All I’m doing is running. So thank you for what you’ve done!

Can Somebody Do A Rain Dance?
My 9-year-old son Benjamin’s soccer team is playing in the championship game of the playoffs on Saturday. I’m going to be in Philadelphia. BUT, if it rains, the game will be played on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. And I’m going to be in California those days. The forecast for Saturday is for rain!

So, if you have the ability to do a rain dance, please do! I really, really, really want to see Ben’s soccer game!

Two Repeats From Yesterday
1. My wife had surgery Wednesday — an outpatient procedure on her leg. She’s totally fine. I was in there with her until they started the procedure. The doctor came in and asked me if I had any questions. Yeah, I did.

“Are you a real doctor?”

“No, I just play one on TV,” he told me. I told him that was good enough for me and I trusted him.

When he was done, he came out and got me and told me everything went fine and she was doing well. He told me didn’t have a lot of time to talk, though. He said he had to get back to the studio to finish the commercial shoot.

“That’s cool,” I told him. “That’s where the money’s at.”

I guess even when I’m grumpy, I still have my bad jokes.

2. Registration is open for the Operation Jack Marathon, the 61st and final marathon I’m going to be running this year. It’s a race we’re putting on and it should be a good time. If you’re not going to be in the area, check out the satellite run option we have.

Either register or tell me your excuse!

OK, that’s it for today. Have a great weekend, everybody! I’ll see you back here with a race report on Sunday!

I'm On My Way To Funkytown

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Normally, I have a pretty good idea of what I’m going to write about when I write up a blog. I have a few different things I’m going to cover or maybe a topic I’m going to attack. But today, I’m in a funk again, so I think I’m just going to ramble.

If you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to do something to make a difference in the world, especially in the autism community, so I came up with this idea to run 61 full marathons this year to raise awareness and money for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. I named the endeavor Operation Jack, after my son.

So far, I’m through 54 of the 61. Only seven of these things to go. The last one will be on December 26 and I just … can’t … wait. If you’ve been following along, you know I go through swings every here and there, and today is one of those days where I’m on a major downswing.

I had a terrible day yesterday and it’s all because of stupid stuff. I’m not naming names or placing blame here. But I have my own, real, personal life and sometimes things go poorly. I think that’s the case for everybody. It was Operation Jack-related and it started over my inaction on something.

I think a lot of you know that I drop the ball on a lot of stuff. It drives me crazy, because I feel like such a failure. I found out yesterday morning that I never sent shirts to somebody who donated about six months ago. I found out the day before that I hadn’t responded to an important request I’d received about two weeks ago. I have a bunch of people who made pledges for a a race I ran in September that I never followed up on. My issue that exploded yesterday was something different than all of those, but it’s something that’s a big problem now.

I’m the right person to run the marathons and maybe write the blogs, but I’m pretty bad at everything else. At this point, it’s like I’m seven races done from escaping from all of this and I’m pretty miserable. I’m overloaded, overstressed, and I’m not getting stuff done. I’m a one-man gang and I let people down left and right. It’s killing me, it’s upsetting me, and I’m totally over it. I feel like I’ve tried hard, but at the same time, I kind of feel like I just want to lay down on my couch and cry myself to sleep.

I look at where I’m at and I know things would be different right now if not for Operation Jack. It’s kind of tough in that regard. In the long run, I know I’ll be glad I did this. Today, I’m just not having a very good day.

Three quick things:

1. My wife had surgery yesterday — an outpatient procedure on her leg. She’s totally fine. I was in there with her until they started the procedure. The doctor came in and asked me if I had any questions. Yeah, I did.

“Are you a real doctor?”

“No, I just play one on TV,” he told me. I told him that was good enough for me and I trusted him.

When he was done, he came out and got me and told me everything went fine and she was doing well. He told me didn’t have a lot of time to talk, though. He said he had to get back to the studio to finish the commercial shoot.

“That’s cool,” I told him. “That’s where the money’s at.”

I guess even when I’m grumpy, I still have my bad jokes.

2. Registration is open for the satellite run option we have.

I’d write something funny and enthusiastic to get you to register, but it’s just not in me today. Sorry.

3. I’m trying to raise money for the Hearts & Smiles Foundation for the Philadelphia Marathon this year. I had a blog about it on Tuesday. I’m kind of bummed because I didn’t come close to hitting my goal. The race isn’t until Sunday, though. I’m kind of running out of things to do to raise money, so I’ll offer up this: If I reach my goal on my fundraising page, I’ll do one of two things: I’ll run the marathon on Sunday wearing pink arm warmers, or on Monday morning, which is the day after the marathon and four days before my next marathon and also my 36th birthday, I’ll run 36 miles. My wife is going to kill me for offering that up, but I want to raise this money. If we hit my goal, I’ll let the person with the highest donation there pick which one they want me to do.

And, that’s all for today. Have a great Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday, y’all. I’ll have a race report posted on Sunday at some point.

Guest Blog: Hearts & Smiles Foundation

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I’m running Philadelphia this weekend, and I’m doing it to help a charity there, so I figured it would be great to run a guest blog from the founder of that charity. It’s a cause that hits close to home for me and I’m glad to be helping.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on track and through 54 of the 61.

Philadelphia is marathon No. 55 of the year, but it almost didn’t happen for me. I book my travel and race registrations fairly late in the process. I never know my schedule, so I don’t book my airfare until I’m certain of when I need to be where. At the same time, though, I don’t book a race until I have the airfare. I have to make sure I have both ends covered.

When it came time for me to lock down this race, it was sold out. I contacted the race staff and explained to them my situation — they usually hold some entries for special-circumstance exceptions, and I typically make it through that way. But I had no luck with Philadelphia. There are people I had been planning on meeting up with there, so I was pretty bummed. I wanted to find a way in.

I looked through the charity partners and found one that stood out to me — the Hearts and Smiles Foundation, which is an organization that helps the siblings of special-needs kids in low-income families. It’s pretty easy for me to relate to this — two of my kids are siblings of a special-needs child. We’re not a low-income family, but Jack’s needs make things pretty tough at times for Benjamin and Ava. There’s things we can’t do as a family and there’s things they miss out on. The siblings are the forgotten ones in these challenging situations, and I can only imagine what it’s like for those kids in low-income families.

Hearts and Smiles seemed like a great charity to partner with, so I contacted the founder, Melissa Scarcelli, and asked her if she had room for another runner. She did, and now I’m ready to run Philadelphia this weekend. I asked Melissa to write a guest blog about her organization for today, so with that, here’s a little bit about Hearts and Smiles, in her words.

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I founded the Hearts and Smiles Foundation almost 5 years ago, after my third child was born with severe heart defects. She spent a great deal of time in the hospital during her first year of life. When she was home, she endured a lot of therapies and doctors appointments. She had a feeding tube and an oxygen tank for breathing support. Her schedule included medications and tube feedings around the clock. Through all of this, my 3- and 5-year-old sons were forced to watch their sister get all of their parents’ time and attention. She received cards and gifts and visitors; they had to spend time with a babysitter while we tended to her every need.

I was fortunate to have a tremendous support network of friends and family to help us through those difficult days. We all made a conscious effort to give the boys special attention and time away from their sick sibling. I saw many families at the hospital who were not so fortunate. I saw mothers who were so poor they could not take their sick babies to the homeless shelter with them. I saw siblings who had to spend hours at the hospital with their parents because they had nowhere else to go.

I learned that it is not only the sick child who suffers as a result of illness or injury. It is very easy to feel sympathy for a child who is sick. But we must not forget about the healthy children who are equally as important and as deserving of our love and affection.

I started Hearts and Smiles because I wanted to help. I knew the feeling of powerlessness that comes with having a sick child. I wanted to help other mothers with the material things they needed so they could focus more attention on both the sick and the healthy children in their families.

Our programs have helped families all over the Philadelphia area. We do not have an income threshold or a specific diagnosis that qualifies a family for our help. We work with social workers and case managers at area hospitals and agencies, who refer families to us when those families really need our help. In our short existence, we have helped more than 2,100 children in many different ways. We provided acting lessons for the teenage sister of a child with cerebral palsy. We provided clothing and toys for countless families suffering through various disorders. We sponsored a birthday party for the sibling of an autistic child. We provided a grant so that the brothers and sisters of transplant recipients could attend a week of summer camp. We have purchased beds, diapers, cribs, strollers, soccer lessons, air conditioners, Christmas gifts, and laptop computers. The list is endless. We even helped defray the cost of a handicapped-access ramp. Each case is treated individually; each family is helped in the way it is needed most.

Sometimes our assistance seems so insignificant considering the family’s dire circumstances. Yet, the following quote from a thank you letter we received illustrates that is not the case. “…Sometimes it seems like only a little can be done to help a family; it is so rewarding to see that to the family, what we might consider ‘little’ actually has a profound impact upon their lives.”

We are proud to be a part of the Philadelphia Marathon as an official charity. Events like this one bring awareness to our important cause and help us to raise money so we can continue providing help to all those families who need us.

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So, I’m asking you for one of two easy things (or both, if you can). First, click here to my donation page if you have an extra $5 you can contribute to a great cause. They’ve helped 2,100 kids in need and they’ve also helped Operation Jack. If you have $5 that won’t hurt your quality of life, just know that it will help somebody else’s quality of life.

Or, can you spread the word about my blog today and bring in just one new reader? That would help this cause, too.

Of course, you’re welcome to do both!

That’s all I have for today. Have a great day!

Weekend Recap: What I'm Eating & What Jack's Eating

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What I’m eating, what Jack’s eating, living on the edge and cracking bad jokes. Yep, that’s my weekend in a nutshell.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to do something to try to make a difference as one way of dealing with this and making sure he has an impact on the world. So, I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year in his honor to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism.

I named the endeavor Operation Jack, after my son, and this weekend I ran marathon No. 54 of the year in San Antonio (read my recap here). Seven more to go!

Don’t Try This At Home
Yesterday after the race, I went to lunch and had a nice time with a group of people I was with. I let time slip away from without realizing how tight my schedule was getting. After paying the bill, we went to the house I was staying at and I was able to shower, pack and get out the door within 15 minutes. We hit a little bit of traffic on the way to the airport, though, and I was convinced I was going to miss my flight.

There were 28 minutes until departure, and we were still a little ways away. So, I texted my wife Tiffany and told her I was probably going to miss my flight. I didn’t have my boarding pass, and airlines usually don’t let you reprint those with less than 30 minutes to go. For some reason, I was unusually calm about the situation. Normally, I’d be stressed, but I realized it was totally out of my control, so why worry?

I had a 3:05 departure and I got dropped outside of Southwest at 2:45. I went to the self-serve kiosk and with my luck, I had to stand behind the guy who couldn’t figure out how to retrieve his reservation. So, I did a power walk up towards the front by the agents and surprisingly, the system let me re-print my boarding pass.

Meanwhile, Tiff is texting me telling me not to worry, that if I missed my plane, she wouldn’t be mad. She didn’t want me stressing. I did a mad dash over to security, and I was going to ask to use the first-class line, because I had about 15 minutes until my flight, but there was no first-class line. So I waited and got through in about three minutes.

There were about five x-ray lines, so I picked what I thought was the shortest one. I was ready to fly through — I had everything in hand that needed to be out of my bag before I even walked in the terminal. There was a couple struggling to get everything into their bins, but they let a couple of guys go in front of them. I had my stuff ready to go and was about to go next and speed the process along, but they figured it out and I had to wait for 45 seconds that seemed like 45 minutes.

I got through security and ran through the terminal (always fun to do on marathon days) to get to the gate. I asked the agents if I missed the flight. They asked me my last name and I told them. They said I was good. I kept running to get in line, they took my boarding pass and I was in the jetway. I texted Tiff at 2:56 and told her I made the flight. She was pretty happy, to say the least.

So, in case you were wondering, yes, you can show up 20 minutes before your flight in San Antonio and still get on your plane. But take my word for it and don’t try it yourself!

I like to take pictures of food
I like to take pictures of food and I like cheeseburgers. If you’ve been here before, you know that. Several months ago, Lisa Hernandez told me that when I was in San Antonio, I had to go to a place called Chris Madrid’s for a cheeseburger. You might remember Lisa — I personally delivered In-N-Out to her in February in Austin. We’ve talked a little bit since then and she’s really nice. So, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to eat a cheeseburger recommended by somebody who has enough taste to have In-N-Out flown in.

So, I met up with a good group of people, including Lisa, and had a great cheeseburger. And of course, I took a picture of it.


I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a burger today.

Jack Update
Well, I talked about what I’ve been eating. More important than that is what Jack’s been eating. As you know, we changed up his routine after visiting a DAN doctor in the spring. We had him on a casein-free diet based on his reactions to various foods. We switched him to gluten-free, though — that’s what he needs. We also have him on a pretty tight supplement regimen. Between shots and creams and things we give him orally with a syringe and things we sneak into his drinks, he gets 27 different things.

It’s a huge job for Tiff, who leads the effort on this in our home. She has a ridiculous chart on the fridge so we know we don’t miss anything. She’s become close enough with the people at the compound pharmacy that she bakes them banana bread. We knew doing this for Jack would be a huge undertaking, but she committed to do this for at least a year to give him a chance.

So far, after a few months, his insides have really improved. He’s in a lot less pain, which has reduced the meltdowns and frustrations. All-in-all, he’s been a lot happier. That helps him in all aspects of his life. He sleeps better, he interacts with us better, he does better in his therapy. It’s been a great decision so far.

One thing that we’re really excited about right now is that he’s starting to be a little more willing to try various foods. Last week, he tried two new foods for the first time — brown rice and baked chicken breast. He’s a pretty picky eater and for years, we’ve watched him get just about all of his protein from pepperoni, salami and hot dogs. I talk about how I like to eat cheeseburgers, but all-in-all, Tiff and I eat pretty healthy and we hate seeing him eat such bad foods. This came as a wonderful surprise for us.

On a much less exciting note, we have an IEP for him this week. If you don’t know what an IEP is, be grateful. If you do know, let’s just say that we’re not going to be making any friends in there. I’m curious to see how it goes. I have some opinions I feel very strongly about and I’m pretty stubborn.


Jack eating chicken for the first time.

Am I Funny?
I went to Pei Wei for lunch on Friday. If you’ve never been, it’s a Chinese place that’s owned by P.F. Chang’s, but it’s a little bit quicker. You order up front, get a number for your table and they bring your food out. The soda fountain is self-serve, and there’s a big bucket of fortune cookies there for the taking.

I like to clown around, so when I got up to order, I had a really serious look on my face and asked the girl at the register, “Do I need to order off the menu, or is it cool if I just have 50 fortune cookies and a water?” I paused for a few seconds to let her wonder if I was being serious and she didn’t know how to respond. So I told her I was kidding and ordered the spicy Korean chicken.

Tiff doesn’t think I’m funny. I don’t think she’d know funny if she was married to it for 11 1/2 years.

Operation Jack Marathon
We’re having the Operation Jack Marathon on December 26 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. It’s going to be the 61st and final marathon of this endeavor and it should be a lot of fun. I’d love for all of you to be there. If you’re in Southern California, make it happen!

If you’re not local, though, we have another great option. We’re going to have satellite runs. Wherever you are, run 6.1 miles on December 26 — it’s one last opportunity to participate in Operation Jack and spread the word about Train 4 Autism. Participants will receive a t-shirt and the same race medal that Operation Jack Marathon participants will receive. The cost is $25, although if you set up a fundraising page and raise just $30, that fee will be waived.

– Information about the Operation Jack Marathon
– Information about the satellite runs

OK, That’s All For Today
Have a great Monday, everybody! I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Race Report: San Antonio Rock 'N Roll Marathon

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As I wind down Operation Jack, it’s easy to get excited and think, “I only have eight more marathons to go!” Well, except that eight more times this year, I still have to get up and run a marathon as fast as I can. I don’t care how many of them you run — they’re never easy. I stood at a marathon start line for the 54th time this year Sunday, knowing it was time to pound it as hard as I could for 26.2 miles. This time, it was the Rock ‘N Roll San Antonio Marathon.

Just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I decided I wanted to make a difference in the autism world. My strength is in running multiple moderately decent marathons without much recovery, so I figured I’d try to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

Anyways, San Antonio. I have to give a little background. I had an extremely difficult September. Seven races, including two ultras — one the day after a marathon and one in 85-degree heat with 70 percent humidity six days after the previous one. One double, one triple. The five that “only” went 26.2 had an average starting elevation of 7,050 feet. So, I was pretty beat up after that.

I headed into October and ran a string of races that were fairly poor for my standards. 3:28 in St. Charles on October 3. 3:29 in Chicago on the 10th. 3:29 in Kansas City on the 16th followed by a 3:28 in Denver the next day. I was a 3:40 pace leader the subsequent weekend and after that, I decided I wanted to train harder and start getting my speed back down to where it should be.

I went 3:23 in the Marine Corps Marathon on Halloween Day. Last weekend, I went 3:19:36 in Fresno, Calif. So, for San Antonio, I wanted to continue to move in the right direction. It’s kind of tough to try to make speed gains heading into your 54th marathon of the year, but I figured I’d try. I listened to my body during the week, cut runs short when I needed to, and had a fairly decent track workout on Friday morning. Would that be enough?

We got going and I felt fine early on. Part of me wanted to lock into a conservative pace and try to hold it, but that idea lasted less than a mile. I ran by heart rate, doing everything I could to keep it dialed up. I can tell when I run by heart rate that my fitness is pretty good. I just don’t have a lot in my legs right now. Mentally, it’s a little tough right now. As excited as I am about getting through this, there’s not a lot of fun in it. I have to get out there and run. It’s work. A lot of the joy has disappeared. But I’m still competitive and even if I’m not having a ton of fun, I want to do my best. I expect nothing less.

I was turning out miles in the 7:00 – 7:10 range and it didn’t feel too fast. It just felt like a nice, solid run. I knew it wouldn’t hold, but I felt stronger than I have in a while. I expected to go through the half at around 3:10 pace, then fade somewhere midway through the second half. I just don’t have enough right now to put together 26 solid miles. Banking time isn’t the way to run a race if you’re ready for it, but for me, running hard while I can is important. That’s all I can do.

I went through the half in 1:35:36, about a 3:11 pace. I knew it wouldn’t hold and I didn’t have any good feeling about how bad I’d drop off. I think I stayed on about 3:12 pace until mile 15 or 16. I was thinking I might have a chance to run a 3:15, which would have made me pretty happy. That’s my Boston qualifying time, and I haven’t run one of those since August 29.

At mile 17.5, the drop-off I was expecting happened. I could tell that I was cooked for the day. My 7:15s and 7:20s turned into 8:00s. Nothing I could do but keep pushing along as hard as I could. As I always tell people, the faster you run, the sooner you’re done. We ran into a bit of a headwind quite a bit over the last 6 or 7 miles, so that made it a little tough.

I normally start doing math in my head at around mile 22 to figure out what my time will be depending on what I average. I didn’t do that, but I had a pretty good feeling I was looking at somewhere between 3:17 and 3:19. I finally did the math with two miles to go. There was about 3:03:50 gone at that point, so I knew that if I could average a 7:00 pace over the last two miles, I’d end up with a 3:17. 7:30s would net me a 3:18 and 8:00s would at least get me a sub-3:20.

I don’t like kicking for two miles, but I did. I felt pretty strong and I knew I was moving well. I got a charge from flying by the half marathoners on the left and I was cruising past folks who had passed me in the previous six or seven miles. When I hit one mile to go, I needed about a 7:00 mile to get that 3:17. I really, really wanted it. I don’t know why, but I just did.

I kept booking stayed as focused as I could on running fast. I was moving at about a 6:50 pace, which for me at this point in mile 26 of a marathon is pretty good. We went up a slight incline that slowed us down, then made a sharp right turn and headed for home. I could see it, and I was watching my time, and I knew I had zero time to spare.

I gave it everything I had, dropping my pace as low as 4:27. I crossed the finish line, hit my Garmin and saw 3:18:00, but you usually get one or two seconds on your chip time. All I needed was one, and that’s what I got. My official time was 3:17:59. It’s another step in the right direction. I’m not giving up on my sub-3 quest this year, even though I’m struggling right now. I’ll keep pushing and doing what I can to get a little better each week.

As for the course, I thought it was OK, nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. We ran by the Alamo, went through some sections of town that weren’t too savory (which I always find interesting to see), we ran through a big cemetery, we hit some industrial sections and we went through what I think was the downtown section. The race went off well, the volunteers did a good job and I didn’t have any real complaints. Transportation from the parking area to and from the start/finish area went off very smoothly, which is unusual for a Rock ‘N Roll event. I’d consider it a decent race worth running.

And I guess that’s about it. 54 down, only SEVEN to go! Can you tell I’m excited?


Me, my brother Josh and his friend Lex after the race. They ran the half marathon and we all had a great time..