For the first time since last year, I went on a road trip for a marathon to benefit Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism. I ran Boston in April, but that was just for fun. I planned Utah Valley as one of two races I would focus on to help Train 4 Autism this year. We have a great new leader in Alicia Verburg and I wanted to go up to support her.
It was a fairly typical weekend compared to what I did last year. Actually, I’d argue it was easier than my weekends last year, because Salt Lake City isn’t very far to fly to and all I had to do running-wise was be the 3:40 pacer. By the time I got home on Saturday night, though, all I could think about was, “I can’t believe I did this every … single … weekend … for a YEAR!” I was exhausted. Wow.
Here’s the quick rundown and then I’ll expand on a few things.
Friday
– Fly to Utah in the morning.
– Drive straight to my hotel and check in.
– Speak at the expo for 30 minutes less than half an hour after I checked in.
– Straight to dinner with Alicia and her husband Will, where we spent some time brainstorming ideas for Train 4 Autism.
– Back to the hotel: Ice bath!
– Off to a meeting with the other pacers.
– Grocery store for some Gatorade for the morning.
– Straight back to the hotel, just in time 4 hours and 50 minutes of sleep.
Saturday
– Up and at it at 3:25 a.m. (yay, that’s 2:25 a.m. body time)
– Ran a marathon
– Hung out for a bit in the finishers area and ran out to run Alicia in for a PR!
– Back to the hotel: Ice bath, shower, check out.
– Lunch with friends/Operation Jack supporters Ryan & Jackie Sullivan.
– Killed two hours at a sports bar in Salt Lake City, drink refill after refill of Diet Coke (my first pop since Super Bowl Sunday!) and killing an OK blue cheese bacon burger.
– Fly home, drive home, and wow, it’s 10 p.m., about 20 hours into my day.
Nothing unusual, easy running, short flights. And I did this how many times last year? It’s surreal to me. Weird, too.
My First Speaking Gig
Well, it wasn’t really a gig — I didn’t get paid or anything like that. But I was asked to speak at the Utah Valley Marathon expo, I took that as an honor, and then I spent a few weeks mapping out the things I wanted to talk about. Yikes, that made me nervous! I think it went well. I warned them at the beginning that I hadn’t done public speaking since speech class in college. Nobody threw any tomatoes, and I offered some great soundbites.
Like, “OK, so what was I saying? Shoot, I practiced this so many times in the car. I can’t believe I forgot what I was going to say!” Or, when I saw them hold up the sign letting me know I only had five more minutes, “Oh, only five more minutes and then I have to stop. Phew!”
It actually went pretty well. Well, I think it did. I spoke about why I did what I did last year — I did it because I feel like when I think about Jack’s autism, plus how my legs were spared when I broke my neck, my purpose is to fight autism with running. 61 marathons was my first attempt.
Also, the one thing I mentioned that I wanted everybody to hear is that while I catch a lot of praise for the actual running I did last year, that wasn’t the big thing I did. I didn’t give myself the ability to run all those marathons, so I won’t give myself credit for it. All glory to God on that. But what I did, and what everybody can do, is I figured out what I’m good at, I worked hard, and I figured out a way to try to use my gift to make the world a better place.
I talked to a couple of people before the race on Saturday. They approached me and talked to me a little bit about my speech, telling me they thought I did a good job. That was such a relief. I was so nervous, because I’m pretty shy (really, I am), and I was representing Train 4 Autism. Next time, it’ll be easier and better.
I Lied
I said I was going to recap a bunch of stuff from the weekend, but this is getting way too long for a single post. That should make tomorrow easier to write, though.
Operation Jack Marathon
It’s baaaaaaaaaaack! We’re going to have the race and satellite runs on December 26. Registration starts Wednesday. Check it out!
OK, that’s all for today. See you back tomorrow (probably)! Have a great Monday!
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