Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

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..

It's Veteran's Day: Meet A Hero

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It’s Veterans Day, and if you read my recap of the Marine Corps Marathon, you know what I think of our troops, both past and present. They’re my heroes — the ones who are willing to die so strangers can live comfortably in peace. It doesn’t get much more heroic than that.

I feel pretty guilty talking about anything other than Veteran’s Day today, but I do have a couple of things I need to go over. Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to benefit Train 4 Autism. So far, 53 down, eight to go.

The one quick bit of housekeeping I need to do: The 61st marathon of this will be the Operation Jack Marathon on December 26. If you can’t make it to the race, check out our satellite run option. It’s one last chance to participate with Operation Jack and help spread the word about Train 4 Autism! Plus, you get a medal out of the deal!

Yesterday I announced this and got quite a bit of feedback. I’m aiming for all 50 states, and it looks like I’m also going to have Afghanistan or Kuwait covered! I received the following reply on Twitter from John Atilano, which blew me away.

@operationjack count me in! I’ll either be in Kuwait or Afghanistan. I deploy Christmas Eve but I’ll make it happen for Jack!!

Wow, what do you even say to that? Well first, I said thank you and told him how exciting that was to me. I really can’t even put it into words. It’s just awesome and I’ll leave it at that. But I told him I wanted to feature him a bit in my blog today since it’s Veteran’s Day. He’s cool with that, so I sent him a few questions.

1. I saw on your site that you’re in the Army. What is your role?
1. I’m a Major in the United States Army. I’m a Combat Engineer Officer. For the past few years I’ve been doing mostly Strategic Planning jobs. First at the Pentagon and currently with the US Army Corps of Engineers. In between those two assignments, I did a combat tour in Iraq as a Team Commander for a Military Transition Team where myself and my 10 team members lived, trained and fought with an Iraqi Armor Battalion in Baghdad.

2. I also saw that you’ve been to Kuwait and Iraq. Were those during war times?
2. Several deployments. Kuwait in ’97; Bosnia in ’99; Korea ’00-’02; Iraq ’07-’08. Upcoming deployment to Afghanistan will be my second combat tour.

3. What made you decide to join the military?
3. My dad is a Vietnam vet as are my uncles. Grandad served in WWII. I was going to enlist after high school but my dad wanted me to got college first. I took his advice. I worked full-time for Bank of America while I went to college full-time at night. At 22, I was one of the youngest corporate officers at BofA. The problem was my heart just wasn’t in banking. Driving home from work one day I decided I was going to enlist in the Army. I didn’t want to be 40 years old and wish I had served. Now I’m 41 and have no regrets. Best decision I ever made. The Army sent me to Harvard for grad school. While I was there, I met my wife. We now have three beautiful children — two boys and a girl. That’s the short version.

4. Switching gears, how did you find out about Operation Jack?
4. I found out about Operation Jack through Twitter. Saw some retweets of your posts. Checked out your website and was amazed and inspired by what you were doing.

5. What made you decide to be willing to do the run on the 26th?
5. I started following you on twitter and reading your blog. As a father I totally understand your motivation. As a daddy we want to slay the dragons in our children’s lives. Unfortunately, a child’s illness cannot be healed with brute force, or a hug and a kiss. We have to find a way to help. I’ve been blessed with three healthy children but I wanted to help you and Jack, even if it was in a very small way. When I saw your post about the Operation Jack Finale I really wanted to participate. I just decided I was going to do this regardless of where I was. In all honestly, there is somewhat of a selfish secondary reason for doing it. I’ll be at the beginning of 6-month deployment. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and focusing inward, I can focus on helping you help your son. If you can do 61 marathons in a year (an incredible feat) surely I can knock out a 10K the day after Christmas.

Wow, so I don’t even know what to say. I’ll just say that I’m totally honored to have somebody like John following along. Normally I have something witty or clever to say, but I just don’t this time. Thank you for following along and participating with Operation Jack. But most important, thank you for doing what you do for our country.

I was teaching my 9-year-old son about respect last week and soldiers were the first example I used of people who deserved respect. Soldiers put their life on their line, far away from home, for people they don’t even know. That’s as admirable as it gets. And as I told Benjamin, you guys are the bravest, toughest people in the country. Again, thank you for what you do. Stay safe and get the heck back here.

I See This Every Year And I Love It
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he—is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another—or didn’t come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat—but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade—riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket—palsied now and aggravatingly slow—who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being—a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU.”

Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It
is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the
soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose
coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Operation Jack Finale In All 50 States?

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Last week, I finally announced the date and location of the Operation Jack Marathon, which will be the 61st and final marathon I run this year in my quest to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. Today, I have some information about how you can participate and earn a medal if you’re not going to be near the race site in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Real quick, in case you’re new here and wondering why I’m talking about 61 marathons this year, I’m a father of three and a distance runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m trying to do what I can to make a difference. I’m attempting to run 61 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 53 of the 61!

Anyways, the 61st race is going to be something I’m putting on with Train 4 Autism called the Operation Jack Marathon. It’s going to take place in Manhattan Beach and Marina Del Rey on December 26. That’s 46 days from today, not that I’m counting!

I know there are folks who would run the race if they could, but they can’t because they’re too far away. So, we’re creating remote options.

In the Portland area, Operation Jack supporters Steve Walters and Deb Bosilevac are putting on something called the Operation Jack Northwest Challenge. It’s going to be a 6.1-hour timed race with a 6.1-mile option (6.1 is a play on 61). They’re the same folks who put on the Operation Jack 7-Hour Challenge back in September. That race was a great success, so they’re putting this on, too. Participants will get medals and probably shirts. We’re finalizing the pricing and will announce that very soon.

For everybody not near L.A. or Portland, we’re doing something else. We’re going to have remote Operation Jack Marathon runs. You run 6.1 miles and we’re going to send a medal and a t-shirt. More important, it’s one last opportunity to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. I know a lot of you out there like what I’ve been doing and you’ve been lurking here for a while. A lot of you tell me I inspire you.

With these 61 marathons, are you at least inspired enough to go out for 6.1 miles on December 26 to support Train 4 Autism? Do it outside, do it inside on the treadmill, run it in 40 minutes or walk it in two hours. But do it.

I want folks to do this in all 50 states. I want you to do it, then help me find people in states where I don’t have anybody. Let’s do this. This is all I’m asking of you for the whole year. We’re still finalizing the pricing on this, but I’m thinking I’ll have this by tomorrow.

I’m going to get a state chart and I want you guys to help me fill it. So, who’s in? Who has questions? Leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll get back to you as soon as we’re ready to go. Let’s do this!

10 Songs That Will Take Me Back

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I have random taste in music. Most of the stuff I listen to is stuff that’s played on the radio, but it’s from all genres. When I drive, I listen to just about everything. When I fly, I go with a random shuffle through a ton of songs on my iPod. In the office, I listen to nothing but country.

I’d say country is definitely my favorite genre, but top 40 stuff works better to get me in an upbeat mood, so I listen to that, too. Nothing takes you back in time like music, and I felt like posting the videos for 10 songs that will always bring me back to Operation Jack.

1. This song was pretty popular pretty early in the year and it will always remind me of those early months when I was getting into a rhythm.

2. Same exact comments as the first song.

3. Tiff (my wife) likes this song and it makes me think of her. I have it on my iPod, but I wouldn’t listen to it on the way out on trips — it would make me miss her! But I listened to it on the way back and it put me in a good mood. Every time I heard this (when not in an airplane), I text her and told her, “Hey Soul Sister! :)”

4. In a weird way, being away from Tiff so much brought us closer together. We really realized that we are in all of this chaos together, and we took a pride knowing it’s us against the world. Somewhere around August or so, this became our song, and we’d text each other any time we heard it. The video isn’t really what the song is about, but it’s pretty funny.

5. This is another one of those songs that Tiff likes (and I like) that makes me think of her. I’d hear this and I didn’t really like the title, because I fly a lot, but it sounds real nice. And Tiff likes it. And it will always take be back to this year.

6. This song actually came out in 2009, but I bet I heard it at more than 30 marathons. Most recently, I heard it at Marine Corps Marathon at about mile 9, and it made me smile, because there I was in Washington, D.C., and that night I was going to be celebrating Halloween in California with my family!

7. Heard this in Chicago and it was at that moment I realized I had succeeded in my goals — raising money, increasing membership in Train 4 Autism … and destroying my body!

8. I must have heard this at expos and finish lines at just about every race from September on. That’s when I started sensing the end of the 61 marathons, so it’s a finish-line song for me.

9. Like that last song, I think I heard this at just about every race from August on.

10. This song actually makes me thing more of 2009 after I launched my site and started to get ready for this year. Tiff made me listen to it for the lyrics, and as much as Miley Cyrus isn’t my kind of singer, I think that if there was one song that really captured what Operation Jack was all about internally to me, it might have been this one.

That’s all. Go ahead and laugh about Miley Cyrus making the list!

Eat Like A Champion, Plus Other Weekend Stuff

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Well, it’s Monday. Normally, that means it’s time for a weekend recap. I don’t have a ton of stuff for a weekend recap, because it was fairly uneventful and there was no flying involved, but I do have a few random things to share, including me and Jack finally making into Runner’s World!

Real quick, if you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism.

This weekend, I ran marathon No. 53 of the year, the Eye Q Two Cities Marathon in Fresno and Clovis, Calif. Read my recap here.

The Trip Before My Trip
On Friday morning, I took Jack to school. He was a little late, so I had to walk him back to his classroom, which is in portables behind the main building. When I got there, I realized I had left his sippy cup in my car. I never do that. Never. Well, except on Friday.

He had been off most of his supplements for about three days, because we needed him to be three days removed before obtaining a stool sample for a test. So, I called Tiff at home and asked her if there was anything in his sippy cup (normally, his water is spiked). Indeed, there was. So, I ran back to the car to get it. It wasn’t an all-out sprint, but it was a decent effort, probably a 7:15 or so pace.

With my 200 pounds of body weight, I have a fair amount of velocity when I run. I rounded the corner of the main building and the sun was right in my eyes. I couldn’t see a thing. While I squinted to try to see, a brick planter jumped right out in front of me. I smacked into it in full stride, kicking with my right foot, then smacking into it with my right shin and flying over it like Superman. I swear I traveled more than 10 feet in mid air.

I twisted a bit to my let, stuck out my hands and most of the impact on the ground was absorbed by my left wrist and elbow. I got some sweet road rash on the edge of my wrist and a nice, deep cut on my left elbow. I couldn’t see what happened to my right leg, but it hurt. I could see I tore my jeans, though.

I spent about 10 seconds on the ground when a woman and her special-needs son walked up. He was distraught after seeing me fall and she wanted to make sure I was OK. I picked myself up and was a little bit dizzy. I was seeing stars all over the place, so I sat back down on that mean, mean planter. I got up about 30 seconds later, then went to my car to get Jack’s cup. On the way back to the classroom, I went to the nurse’s office.

I hadn’t been to an elementary school nurse’s office in about 25 years!

I cleaned up my elbow, bandaged my elbow and went on with my day. I felt pretty sore and banged up and was walking with a limp. At least I had nearly two full days until my marathon, right?

I posted the following as my Facebook status that morning:

Sam Felsenfeld just came from the nurse’s office at Jack’s school. Jack is fine. Sam needs to observe the “no running on the blacktop” rule.

I went to the gym on Friday night to run five easy miles on the treadmill. I was concerned that I’d have troubles running and I wanted to discover problems with my motion BEFORE race day. I was fine, life goes on. It’s funny, though. 53 marathons this year, and my three worst injuries that have impacted my running over the past 18 months have been non-running injuries. I suffered a severely sprained ankle walking through a parking lot, my right big toe still hurts from dropping a desk on it on February 5, and now this.

Oh well, life goes on!


I cut up my leg like that through my jeans. It felt pretty bruised, too.

Get The December Runner’s World!
Finally, here it is! Not the biggest piece in the world, but it’s going to be seen by a lot of people. It’s on page 28, early in the magazine. And it’s the best picture ever of me and Jack!


That photographer was money!

This Looked So, So Wrong
On Saturday night, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine from college named Janet. I knew her from the college paper I met Tiff at, so she’s know us for 16 years, although I’ve known her for close to 18, because I met her before Tiff joined the staff. She lives near Fresno, so while I was in town, we caught up.

It was just me and her going to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, but it was no big deal. In fact, I talked to Tiff while I was out and Janet said hi to her in the background.

Well, we’re sitting there at dinner and the waitress was about to take our orders, and my cell phone rang. So I stopped mid-sentence and told her, “Hang on — it might be wife.”

No sooner did the words come out of my mouth than I realized how wrong that looked. I did some quick explaining to the waitress that I wasn’t on a date, that my wife knew and there was nothing bad going on. It felt so weird to have to explain it!

It was my brother, which was a bummer. I couldn’t tell him, “Hey babe, I’m at dinner with Janet!”

How Not To Refuel
Yesterday was November 7, the day I broke my neck in 1991. For a few different reasons, I have a standard lunch at McDonald’s every year on that date. It’s a six-piece Chicken McNuggets meal plus a hot fudge sundae. I was with my brother yesterday, and he wanted two double hamburgers, so I went in and bought those for him. Except I bought him McDoubles, which are basically double hamburgers with one slice of cheese. He doesn’t like cheese on a burger, so he didn’t eat them. Plus, McDonald’s lets you upsize to a 10-piece meal for an extra 50 cents.

So here’s what I had for lunch:

– 10 piece Chicken McNuggets with barbecue sauce
– Large fries
– Two McDoubles
– Hot fudge sundae
– Large Diet Coke (I’m counting my calories, you know?)

When we got home, my daughter’s birthday party was starting. I continued to plow.

– Enchiladas
– Chips with seven-layer dip
– Large piece of Costco cake
– Homemade vanilla ice cream
– Salad (because I want to be healthy, you know?)

I skipped dinner. But guess what I’m having for dinner tonight?

That’s All For Today
I wrote that last night, and what I really meant was, “That’s all for tonight.” I was tired. Have a great Monday, everybody! I’ll see you back here tomorrow!