If you’ve never been here before, last year I ran 61 marathons and a couple of ultramarathons to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. My middle child, 7 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic so I did that in his honor and named it Operation Jack. Now four months into 2011, there are some things I kind of miss — the Biscoff cookies on Delta, meeting new people every weekend, having a slew of people tracking every step I run … there are some things I enjoyed. But one thing I don’t miss is not being around my family. I had to leave every weekend and while I got used to it, I sure don’t miss it.
I had an awesome weekend with my family and I was going to write a recap Sunday night for yesterday morning, but I was watching the news about Osama bin Laden and didn’t take the time to write anything. So, here goes.
Real quick, before I get rolling, we had a photo shoot for the kids on Friday evening and here’s one of the proofs we got back for Jack. LOVE IT!
Yay For Camera Phones!
10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to snap these two pictures. Fortunately, Saturday wasn’t 10 years ago! On Saturday morning, I met Tiff at Barnes & Noble. She had finished her workout at the gym and had Ben and Ava. I was home with Jack. Ben and Ava were interested in some new books. Jack … well, he had other plans.
On Saturday, we went to Costco, and I think we got out for under $100. Amazing! We got our samples in and picked up a few things. When it was time to check out, we split up. Tiff took Jack, I took Ben and Ava and we went to get pizza (and I got a polish sausage). Jack can’t have the pizza, so we didn’t let him see it. I got a frozen yogurt, because that’s how I roll, and I finished up the kids’ pizza, because that’s how I roll, and when they only finished half of their frozen yogurt, I finished that, too. Because that’s how I roll. I took. While we were there, we showed Jack the best teddy bear $30 can buy (we didn’t buy it, though … California houses are too small).
Later, I took a nap on the couch for about an hour that afternoon. I have a funny feeling that this is how everybody in America spends their weekends. Me, I still getting used to this again and I love it! Ahhh, the smaller things. In the early evening, I was hanging out in the front with Ben and Ava, who were riding their bikes and playing with a neighbor. Jack was inside with Tiff and his therapist, but he managed to sneak a quick peek out a window and I snapped a picture with my phone. Cutie pie!
Sunday morning was the Orange County Marathon, a race I’ve run every year since 2006 (well, I just ran the half marathon that first year). This year, I didn’t run it, and that was AWESOME! I manned the Train 4 Autism booth:
I can’t tell you how nice it is to not run a race! It was fun seeing runners and lots of people I knew and congratulating them on their races. But it was warm and windy and I was definitely glad I wasn’t running. It was lot of fun being on the other side. I’m still forcing myself into only running a race if there’s a purpose — either for charity, as a pacer or as a goal race I’ve trained for. This was none of those, so I had no reason to run it. I really enjoyed spectating and talking to people. We got about 25 or so people who might be interested in Train 4 Autism, and as I always say, I just like to throw a lot of darts because eventually, one of them will hit the board. Hopefully it was a productive day, but if not, we tried!
From the race, I raced straight over to church, where I hadn’t been with my wife in three weeks (last week she was home getting ready for Easter with the family, the weekend before I was in Boston). Sure was a nice way to continue my weekend. Probably standard stuff for all of you, but I’m still getting used to it all again and I loved it.
We went straight from there to a birthday party for the daughter of one of Tiff’s good friends from childhood. Tiff had asked me if I wanted to stay back with Jack and I said no, I wanted to bring him and if I had to chase him all day, that’s what I’d do. I wanted us to stick together as a family and I didn’t want to exclude Jack. We did a fair amount of chasing at the party, but there was a bounce house and he had a blast. All three of the kids had a blast. And they had really good food, so I was happy.
When we got home, I had to go get my car, which was 5 miles away, so I literally ran an errand, going on a 5-mile recovery slog to pick it up. The news about Bin Laden broke while I was out, so that will always be “where I was” when that happened. We watched the news for a while and went to bed. All-in-all, probably a typical weekend for any of you, but an awesome weekend for me.
Oh, I Ran, Too
So, I guess I’ll talk about my running a little bit, because that’s what I do. I went out for my long run on Saturday morning. I normally like to go 27 or 28, but I decided to push it to 30 just for the heck of it. I miscalculated my route and ended up doing 31. I was kind of curious to see how I’d hold up, if I could keep the pace under 8:00/mile. In 2009, I would have probably done this at 8:40/mile for a long run. But I know I’m faster now, so I wondered how it would go. It was pretty windy, which made it tough at times, but I was able to hang on and average 7:58/mile, which I was happy about. Three days later, though, I think I’m realizing my limit should be 28. Those last three were pretty tough and my legs are still pretty dead. Oh well, you live, you learn. One more week until I start my training for San Francisco. CAN’T WAIT!
So that’s all … hope your weekend and Monday went well, too!
katie says
good grief, 31 miles? you’re a rock star.
great pics of your kids! welcome back to your weekends!
Sarah R says
How fitting that you were running when the news broke. Love that first picture of Jack!
Ryan @NoMoreBacon says
So is Jack a ninja when it comes to the camera too? It’s pretty much impossible to get a decent photo of Collin. Kid is always moving (and obviously never looking right at the camera). We’ve talked about getting a DSLR to try and snap pics in a hurry but haven’t taken the plunge yet. That first one turned out awesome. Glad you could enjoy some time with the fam!
D. Scott Fritchen says
Congrats man! Sounds like a great weekend.
Alicia says
Love the Jack pic! So much joy in his face.
Morgan says
Loving the new look!!! Also love those pics! Gotta love technology and having the capabilities to capture moments like that on the fly.
I can’t believe you just decided to go 30 and ended up going 31. You’re an animal.