Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Recap And A Whole Lot More!

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Wow, what a blur the past few days have been. I was planning on writing a blog for yesterday, but that didn’t happen. I went to Alaska over the weekend and took a redeye flight back Sunday night and the next thing I know, I’m in the office on Monday morning. So, I guess here goes, a weekend recap and some announcements I need to make.

Real quick, just in case this is your first time here, click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism. I ran my 38th of the year yesterday in Anchorage, Alaska. I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I’ve run a lot of races, and none topped this one.

Now, for two quick announcements.

Race 4 Free!
I’m always trying to figure out new ways to increase participation and fundraising, so my latest attempt is something I’m creating called Race 4 Free. If you raise just $300, we’ll cover a race entry fee for you, plus we’ll send you an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt and sweatshirt. The race entry can’t exceed $150, and there’s no obligation to try. I’d prefer you do this for a race I’m going to be at, but you can do this for any race you like.

Also, if you have a preferred autism charity, we’ll contribute 85 percent of everything you raise beyond $300 to that organization. If you don’t have a preferred organization, Train 4 Autism will be the beneficiary.

Unfortunately, I can only do this for new fundraising efforts, but $300 is a pretty low requirement and it’s not mandatory. If you sign up and don’t make it, you’re not on the hook for anything. To create a team, go to operationjack.kintera.org/race4free. If you have any questions, send me an email!

St. Louis Cardinals Fundraiser Update
We settled on donation requirements for autographs at the fundraising event we’re having in St. Louis on October 2. Most of you aren’t in that area, so I won’t go into a ton of detail here, but if you’re thinking about attending, or if you’re unaware of what we’re doing, click to operationjack.org/cardinals to learn more. It’s going to be an awesome event!

Weekend Recap
Well, I think I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I posted an album on Facebook and I left it public so everybody could see it. I was really looking forward to Alaska and I was not disappointed. It was amazing and I’m so glad I went. I only saw a little tiny corner of the state, and it was the most magnificent corner of the world I’ve ever seen. I’m going back with my wife someday. No question about it — I can’t wait for her to see it.

Anyways, click here to see the album.

Something I Had Never Done Before This Weekend
I ate a reindeer sausage omelette. I took a picture, but I won’t post it here — it’s in the album. I got talked into it by Alaska native Brandon Wood, who I’ll talk about a little farther down in this blog. Like the saying goes, when in Rome … eat an omelette?

Something Else I Had Never Done Before This Weekend
I tied a necktie on a woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I guess I can cross that off the list of things I’d never done, too. I parked my car and a young woman dressed as Charlie Chaplain approached me from her truck. My first thought was she was going to ask me for gas money. But she told me she was going to a “gender bender” birthday party and she didn’t know how to tie her tie.

I know how to tie a tie, but I’ve never tied one on another person. And quite frankly, it’s pretty awkward to do that — especially to some random woman. But after three tries, I got it, and since I had my camera in my pocket, I told her I wanted to take a picture for my blog since it was such a random experience. So, here it is … how’s the knot?


I was impressed with my work. She offered to buy me McDonald’s, but I had already eaten.

It’s Not Very Often You Can Write This As Your Facebook Status
I had the opportunity to write this yesterday afternoon, and I don’t know when I’ll get the opportunity to write this again. Hopefully never?


I wonder why I can’t get below 200 pounds.

Don’t Tell Us You Can’t Do It!
Most of you know I dropped about 60 pounds when I got in shape to run marathons. But check this out … I met somebody named Brandon Wood on Sunday up in Alaska. He’s dropped more than 80 pounds since last Christmas! He was 290 back then and only 208 yesterday. I had seen his before picture, then met him yesterday, and when I went back to look at the before picture, it was so hard to believe that was him! I mean, it was, but wow — incredible job, Brandon! For the record, Brandon’s super nice. One cool thing about what I’m doing this year is I get to meet nice people in every city I go to.


Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

OK, that’s all for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow. Happy Tuesday!

Race Report: Humpy's Marathon

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I’m not going to spend a whole of time talking about my running in Humpy’s Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska, Sunday. I think that would miss the point of it all. But I will write a quick recap and then talk about why I think this one is a must-run.

I came into this race feeling pretty good. I felt about as good as I have physically this year and I was well-rested. I ran well early on and felt comfortable with how I was doing. I felt strong and not tremendously fast, but quicker than I’ve been lately.

I slowed a little bit after the first 10K, but hit the half in 1:35 and change. I started to slow pretty badly by about mile 17 or so. My legs got really stiff and I was running about a minute per mile slower than I had been. At mile 24, I tried my best to give it a good charge and I did fairly well at the end. What looked like a 3:19 day ended up being a 3:17:33. I finished 15th overall, 3rd in my age group. I’m content with how I ran in my 38th marathon of the year.

OK, now that the running part is out of the way, this race is now probably my favorite. It’s a tough toss-up between this and Boston, but Boston’s tradition and talented field give it some bonus points. From a course standpoint, there is no question that this is the best one I’ve ever run. I don’t know that I’ll ever run a nicer course.

It starts in downtown Anchorage, which is a nice little area, and within about two miles, you spend 22 miles running through a trail system that’s pretty well developed. The course has slight rolling hills, but nothing drastic. You can run fast on this course. But you might not want to run fast on the course because the scenery is amazing.

There are wooded areas, there’s a bay, there’s snow-capped mountains off in the distance … just when you think you’ve seen something awesome, there’s something else right around the corner. Runner’s World magazine has a section called “Rave Runs” where they show snapshots of people running in breathtaking areas. This course was one constant rave run. There were creeks, there was fog on top of the bay at times … it was amazing.

As I kept running, I kept thinking, “Wow, if nothing else, for all the work I’m putting in this year, these 26.2 miles are my reward.” At one point, I ran about 10 feet away from a mama moose and her little calf. The course support was great and the folks were enthusiastic.

I really hope that my wife Tiffany gets over the inflammation in her ankle that’s been bothering her for a year. I’d love to bring her here and run every step of the way with her. That’s probably the only way I would enjoy a run more than I enjoyed this one today.

So, that’s my take on Humpy’s Marathon in Anchorage. Take it from me, because I’ve run a lot of courses — this one belongs on your must-do list!


38 down, only 23 to go!

Weekend Preview: Anchorage

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Well, it’s already Thursday, so it’s time for another weekend preview, another announcement and another contest.

First, just in case you haven’t been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle son, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. And if you click here, you can see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism.

Quick Jack Update
A couple of months ago, we took Jack to a new D.A.N. doctor. It was an extremely traumatic experience for me and Jack. But it was the start of quite a bit of testing and a new routine. Tiff is going back for a return visit today, so we’re anxious to get feedback on test results and his dietary routine going forward.

I won’t be there, but I’ll be nervously awaiting Tiff’s call to find out how things go. I hope to hear good news about the tests, but I also hope to hear the visit goes well for Jack. I’ll never forget how upset he was on the ride back last time. Totally heartbreaking.

Helping Operation Jack Brings You Good Luck!
Yesterday, I announced a special fundraising event involving two members of the St. Louis Cardinals, Skip Schumaker and Adam Wainwright. And yesterday, in their game against the Reds, Schumaker went 3-for-4 with an RBI while Wainwright pitched seven innings, allowing no runs and only two hits to drop his ERA to 1.99 and improve his record to 17-6. With the win, the Cardinals took sole possession of first place. Surely this all happened yesterday because they’re going to help Operation Jack. Right? Right?

New Race On The Schedule
Well, it’s not actually on the schedule, but I’ll be running it. It’s a seven-hour timed race in Portland on September 5th and it’s going to be called the Operation Jack 7-Hour Challenge. Should be fun to do the day after a marathon, right?

About a month ago, Operation Jack supporter Deb Bosilevac approached me about the idea of a timed 7-hour race as a possible fundraiser. I told her that if she could put it together and make it happen, I’d do my best to make it happen. Well, she got it done, and we’re going to do it. We’re getting runners and it should be a good time.

Here’s the fun thing about it, though. Deb is a graduate of the University of Kansas. Me, I’m a proud K-Stater. So, this gives me an opportunity to compete against a rival Jayhawk. I’m going to work on collecting pledges for how much I beat her by. She’s expecting to cover about 35 miles. Even though it’s going to be the day after I run my 41st marathon of the year, I’m aiming for 45 miles. I’m curious to see what I can do in this race. It should be good training for the Tahoe Triple I’m running in late September (three marathons in three days).

Weekly Contest
Every week I have a contest where people try to guess my time in my race by making a small donation and the person who comes the closest without underbidding wins their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. If you think I’m going to run a 3:17, you make a donation of $3.17. If you think it’s going to be a 3:12, you donate $3.12, etc. I haven’t done this contest in a few weeks, but those of you who have been around are familiar with it.

To make a donation, click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site. But first, read on and get my opinions on the course.

This Weekend’s Race
I’ll be running in Anchorage, Alaska on Sunday. It’s a race I’ve really been looking forward to, because I’m definitely more into open space and wilderness than big cities. And in this country, does it get any more open than Alaska?

The course doesn’t look terrible on paper. There are some moderate hills, but nothing that looks too tough. It’s down at sea level and gets up as high as about 100 feet. I don’t think the climbs are too punishing, but I won’t know until I run them. I don’t have any recent performances to really judge my current fitness.

I went 3:33 last week in a run that I treated as a fun run. I stood still for about four minutes and I inadvertently ran an extra quarter mile. The week before, I felt sluggish and went 3:35 on a course that started at 3800 feet and went up from there. 22 of the miles were on a gravel road, which also made things tough. The week before was the San Francisco Marathon, which was very punishing with the hills and ran long by a good 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile according to just about everybody who ran the race. I went 3:21.

Before that, I went 3:42 in the humid Iowa heat. Temps reached about 87 or so, it was humid, and I was exposed for most of the run. Prior to that, a 3:49:40 while pacing the 3:50 group in Missoula. Going back, there was a completely uninspired 3:17 in Portland and a decent 3:12 in Seattle.

I feel good right now. I did well with my spadework this week, I’m recovering well from last weekend and I’m in a good spot mentally. I’m ready to run and I’m ready to run fast. I’m sick of this funk and I have a long flight back from Alaska. I don’t want to be dwelling on a poor time. So, if I had to guess, I’d go with 3:11 this week. I’m going to be ready to run and I’m going to do everything I can to make it happen.

Now go ahead, win something! And help a great cause at the same time!

What Does It Mean?
Last night, I went to In-N-Out for dinner with some friends of mine. Our order number was 38. I’m running my 38th marathon of the year this week. What does it mean? Probably nothing.


What’s up with this? I go to In-N-Out and take a picture of my receipt instead of my burger?

OK, that’s all for today. I’ll try to post a race recap at some point on Sunday. I’m pretty sure that won’t be problem. Thanks for following along and participating in the contest!

Three Cool Things For Summer

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Since it’s the middle of the summer and it’s hot everywhere, I figured I needed something cool for my blog today. So, I have details about a cool fundraiser we’re doing in October, a cool story about Jack from Tiff and a cool video of Jack from last week.

First, just in case you’ve never been here before, Click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 37. I mention Tiff and Jack in this blog a fair amount. Tiff is my wife of the past 11 years and Jack is my middle child. He’s 6 1/2 and severely autistic.

We’re Having A Really Cool Fundraiser In St. Louis October 2!
On October 2 at a sports bar called Hot Shots in St. Louis suburb Fenton, at least two members of the St. Louis Cardinals will be signing autographs as part of an Operation Jack fundraiser. Second baseman Skip Schumaker and starting pitcher Adam Wainwright will both be there. More players could be announced at a later date.

Schumaker was 10th in the National League in batting in 2008 and has finished with a batting average above .300 in each of the past three seasons. Wainwright finished second in the National League Cy Young voting last year and is a leading candidate for the award again this year. We’ll be pre-selling autograph tickets in about a week. We’re still finalizing details on pricing.

In addition to the players signing autographs, there will also be a soft-tip darts tournament and Wii home run derby with prizes and proceeds going to Operation Jack, 50/50 raffles, a silent auction, plus a donation table that will get patrons wristbands good for discounted food and drinks.

Most of you aren’t in the St. Louis area. But if you are, or if you’re like me and heading into town to run the Lewis & Clark Marathon in St. Louis suburb St. Charles, you should stop by because it’s going to be a great time. I have to say, I’m pretty grateful for the efforts of the players and the management at Hot Shots because this is really going to be huge for Operation Jack.

For details about the event, head to operationjack.org/cardinals.


Skip Schumaker

Adam Wainwright

Here’s A Cool Story From Tiff
I was running on the treadmill at the gym on Saturday when I was distracted by a text that came in on my phone. As I read the text, a huge smile came across my face and my pace got a little faster. It was from Cassie, Jack’s aide. She was telling me that Jack was in a good mood … until I walked out the front door and closed it behind me. Once I left, he got really upset. I quickly texted her saying I’d be home right away.

When I returned home and walked in the front door, Jack was there to greet me with a huge smile on his face. He grabbed my arm and led me upstairs to my room. As I stood there, he ran down the hallway to his room, grabbed his teddy bear and Curious George monkey, raced back down the hallway to my room, crawled into my bed and just stared at me, locking his eyes with mine. I said,”Hi Jack!” He said,”Hi Daddy.” For once, I looked past him calling me daddy. This was a special moment between us. As I leaned down to give him a kiss, he put his arm around my neck and wouldn’t let go. He also didn’t let go of the smile that was on his face from the minute I had walked through the door. He stared at me, his teddy bear and his monkey and just kept on smiling.

After about 15 minutes of laying there with him, we left my room and headed downstairs. For about 30 minutes, Jack followed me everywhere around the house. I found out from Cassie that the entire time I was gone, Jack was sad and cranky. She said that as soon as I came home, it was like day and night with his moods. For the first time, I felt like Jack actually noticed his mommy being gone. And for the first time, I felt like he really missed me. He’s come a lone way since the day the neurologist told Sam and I that if we were to leave a room for two days, he wouldn’t even notice!

Cool Video Of Jack
What can I say? He likes the Wizard of Oz right now … I guess he knows I went to college in Kansas?

OK, that’s all for today. I have a fun announcement for tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday, everybody!

Weekend Recap: As Good As It Gets

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Wow, I just had the best weekend I’ve had so far in 2010. I had fun from start to finish and I have photos and video to prove it! Is this how the other half lives? It makes me really look forward to 2011!

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

Speaking of those 61 marathons, I’m through 37 of them. I only have 24 to go! I ran on Saturday this weekend and had an absolute blast. I needed a race like this, no question.

The Concert That Was … And Wasn’t … And Was …
Tiff and I had planned on going to see Trace Adkins and Toby Keith on Saturday night. We bought tickets a couple of months ago and were really looking forward to it. I’ve always wanted to see Trace Adkins and we saw Toby Keith in 2003 and had a good time.

Unfortunately, our babysitting fell through on Friday night. And then it came together on Saturday morning and fell apart again. And then it was back on. Before it could be off again, we escaped out the door and headed down to the show.

It was a much-needed event for me and Tiff. Our San Francisco weekend fell apart a couple of weeks ago and this year has certainly been anything but easy for us. The show was decent. I like Trace Adkins and liked a lot of the stuff he did, but I like a lot of his slower stuff — Then They Do, Arlington, You’re Gonna Miss This, All I Ask For Anymore — and he didn’t do any of those. But he was still fun.

Toby Keith … I like Toby Keith and when I saw him in 2003 I really liked him. I enjoyed his show on Saturday, but it seemed that he really picked it up on the vulgarity scale and I was a little disappointed in that. But it was a good show, the people watching was incredible and we had a great time.

Even better that the show, though, was the drive. It was about two hours each way and we laughed the whole way there and back. We hadn’t been that carefree and happy in a long, long time. It was awesome. I’m glad the babysitting worked out.


I don’t look like I was happy, but really, I was.

I Love My Grandpa’s Birthday
We had a nice family gathering yesterday to celebrate my grandpa’s 87th birthday, which is today. It was a lot easier and more relaxed since they live nearby now and it was really nice to see the family. I ate too much for lunch (two sandwiches, a ton of peanut M&Ms, Costco birthday cake with ice cream, chips, potato salad, a pickle, a cookie, some pineapple and … I think that was it) so I didn’t eat dinner. But it’s good to fall off the wagon like that occasionally. Or, as my wife told me, that’s why I’m not losing weight.

My brother asked my grandpa if there was anything he wanted for his birthday and he said he wanted a toilet bowl brush and some Tide, so that’s what he got him. He only needs one toilet bowl brush, but he can always use more Tide. So I picked him up some Tide and a CD set he can listen to when he relaxes in his new place.

As you can see, he loved his gifts.


To each his own, right?

I’m not going to bother writing a whole lot of words about the gathering, other than to say I love my extended family and I was very happy to spend the afternoon with everybody.

Other Random Stuff
– Happy birthday to my mom and my grandpa today. I probably shouldn’t out my mom and say how old she is, but her mom died young due to lung cancer and then hepatitis that blew up during chemotherapy for that cancer. For whatever reason, my mom always thought she was going to die at that same age, but now she’s past that number. My grandpa is 87, no shyness there.

– I think I earned Bad Joke of the Week honors. We were at Subway and the guy didn’t put many onions on my sandwich. I told him to put more on there for me and told him with a straight, grumpy face while looking towards Tiff, “I don’t want that chick to try to kiss me.” I’m not sure if he knew I was joking or not. So a minute later, Tiff told me she was going to get some chips and I told her OK, then turned to the sandwich artist and with all the grumpiness I could muster, I told him under my breath, “Wow, she’s real pushy for a blind date, huh?” He eventually figured out that I was joking when I told him about how I spilled my salad all over my lap on my first date with her.

– I washed Tiff’s Suburban yesterday with the kids, and because my back is worth a dollar to me and my kids are young, Benjamin and Ava had a wheel-cleaning competition. Benjamin won the dollar. I like this whole “weekend” thing. Is this what the rest of you do?

– Back when I was a student at Kansas State and working on the newspaper, the photographers used to always take pictures of squirrels for the last issue of the semester and then fill the paper with them. It’s a long-standing tradition. On Saturday after my race, I saw a squirrel and had to take a picture. I posted it on Facebook and tagged all my friends from the paper for fun. Everybody had a nice stroll down memory lane.


He was comfortable around me because I’m a nut.

And lastly, check out this video of Jack from yesterday. I’m not exactly sure what was going on in his mind, but it was interesting and he had fun.

Ok, that’s all for today, folks. I hope your day is at least half as good as my weekend was. You’ll be happy if that’s the case!