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!

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.

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!