Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Preview: Race #23

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Well, it’s Thursday, which means it’s time for my weekend preview. Marathon No. 23 of the year is this Sunday, and it’s the closest race to my house — the Orange County Marathon. No flights, no travel, no adjusting time zones, and for the first time in four weeks, I only have to run one marathon!

If this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I decided I wanted to try to put my legs to good use and make a difference in the autism community, so I came up with this crazy idea of trying to run 60 marathons this year to try raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

So far, I’m through 22 races without any major problems. I use this blog as an opportunity for people to see what’s on my mind, as if it’s interesting living vicariously through a guy who’s not going to do much more this year than run 60 marathons, work full time, raise three kids, hang out with his wife and tell bad jokes. That’s pretty standard stuff in my world. Zzzzzzz.

Anyways, on Thursdays I have my weekend preview, where I forecast my race and talk about a contest I have. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not too enthusiastic about this one. I’m kind of in a funk right now. I’m in a tough spot where I need to write this blog and write what’s on my mind, and normally I’m upbeat and positive and I tell silly jokes, but sometimes I just don’t have that in me.

I’ve struggled with depression in the past. It used to get really bad several times a month. For the most part, since I truly turned to God about two years ago, I’ve done a complete 180 and life has been wonderful. I thank Him for that, as well as for putting me in this position where I might be able to have a positive impact on a lot of people. But occasionally, something will trigger my depression and I’ll have a rough go.

And lucky me, that’s what’s going on this week, and it’s a total bummer, because it’s a home weekend for me. Three different things triggered it on Tuesday night, and while I’m angry about two of those things (and they’ll be taken care of), the depression is what’s actually causing my problems. It’s tough, because I realize when I’m struggling through this, but there’s really nothing I can do to snap out of it.

I prayed before I went to sleep last night to get lifted out of this funk. I went to sleep early, because I was tired, and Tiff woke me up with some good news about one of my kids that I’m going to keep private. When I woke up this morning, I was feeling a lot better. Still not 100 percent, but better.

So anyways, this weekend’s race. It’s the Orange County Marathon and it’s fairly flat and fast for a marathon course. It could get a little warm, and last year it was humid, so I have no idea how it will go. On this course last year, I went 3:11, which was somehow good enough for 14th overall. It’s kind of important to note that overall placement, because when 3:11 gets that, it’s a relatively slow day and there’s potential for a better time.

I’m racing my dad and my stepmom, who are both competing in the half marathon. They have treadmill workout times for 8+ miles and if they held those times, they would finish the race in 2:59. The adrenaline of race day will keep them rolling, but the challenge of the extra miles and covering the ground on the road instead of on the treadmill will make things a little more difficult. It should be a pretty close race between us. I could see myself going anywhere from 3:05 to 3:22 and I could see them going anywhere from 2:50 to 3:30.

First, though, I need to completely snap out of my funk and get motivated. If the race was this morning, I’d be running it in 3:50, because I can’t even imagine pushing and turning the wheels hard right now. I’m sure I’ll get there by Sunday. It’s just a matter of time.

I was going to have a bet with my dad and a promotion with you guys over my race with them, but I’m not going to do that. My heart isn’t in it to push for anything right now. I also typically have a contest where you guys try to guess my time by making a donation as your guess (you think I’m going to run a 3:07, so you donate $3.07 and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt).

I haven’t looked through the entries from last week, but I will and I’ll notify the winner. I normally do that for my Wednesday blog, but that didn’t happen this week. I’m not going to have the contest this week because I’m just not in the mood to be cheery and try to pitch it and after wasting away this opportunity to make something happen with this race with my dad, I don’t want to have my same old contest instead.

So I guess that’s it for today. I hate to write such a downer of a blog, but the whole point of writing these is for me to be me and give you a glimpse of what goes on in my mind as I go through this whole thing. This where I’m at right now. Sorry to not be so upbeat.

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

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Normally I write a pretty thorough update on Wednesdays to give an Operation Jack rundown, but I guess I’m in one of those funks right now where I’m not much in the mood to. I think mentally I’m at a point where I feel overextended (wow, big shocker!) and I’m trying to do too much by myself. I’m not going to air dirty laundry, so I’ll just be super quick about what you need to know.

– For those of you who were planning on attending Saturday’s pasta dinner, I’ve decided to cancel it. I don’t want to get into details about why, but for those of you who paid, I’ve issued refunds. If you didn’t get an email from PayPal, please let me know.

– I haven’t announced anything about shirts and stuff in a while, so if you haven’t been there yet, head to our Sponsors page … we’d love to send you some stuff and list you on there. The sweatshirts get pretty good reviews.

– If you’re in Orange County, we’re having a Silpada party as a fundraiser on Friday night. It’s open to anybody. If you’re interested, view our evite for the event.

I know one of the main reasons I write this blog every day is for you guys want to know what it’s like to be me and go through what I do on a daily basis as I attempt to run 60 marathons for charity this year while managing a full-time job and a family. Well, today it sucks. I think I hit a point where I’m extremely frustrated right now. I think it’s a combination of some expectations some people have of me, plus some expectations I have of others. And on top of that, if my wife ever gets upset, that sends me into a tailspin.

I tell people I’m frustrated and I hear all sorts of comments from a lot of you about how I’m inspiring, but all I want to do is crawl into a hole and not deal with anybody. My tailspin feels like a freefall and I don’t want to stand up with a smile today. This will pass, I’m sure, but I guess today you get to see me in my less-than-cheeriest state.

But I’ll at least leave you with something positive.


Jack playing with Tiff, using sticker toys to make something.

It was a bowtie! And when he was done, he said “bowtie” to her. I think he might have been prompted, but it was still pretty fun.

Low Octane Fuel?

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This is probably the most boring blog I’ve ever compiled, but what the heck — I spent a week writing it so I might as well post it. I don’t hide from the fact that I love my In-N-Out (had it yesterday!) and I love my ice cream (had it yesterday!), but all-in-all, I think I eat fairly well. A lot of you wonder how I can run on fast food and ice cream, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Since I ran three marathons last weekend, I decided to keep a journal of what I ate so you can see what it is that fuels me through all of this.

First, on the subject of food, we’re getting pretty close to last call for our pasta dinner on Saturday night. If you’re in Orange County, or if you’re running Orange County, please consider joining us! If you’re thinking of coming, please let us know soon because we need to turn in a head count pretty soon. If you’re on the fence, I’d really love to see you there! I’ll have the whole family there, including all three kids (yeah, Jack!). Our numbers are running a little low right now, so I’m in semi-panic mode, but not full-panic mode.

Anyways, moving on to my meal plan. Here’s what I ate last week:

Monday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, whole wheat bagel, one serving of Gatorade, 1 gel pack
Race: Gatorade (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Two Gatorade protein recovery drinks, one banana, one single-serving bag of chips
Lunch: Philly cheesesteak sandwich with sweet potato fries and a pickle
Post-lunch: Snickers ice cream bar, two small cookies
Flight: Plantain chips, cashews, single-serving bag of mini chocolate chip cookies, brownies

Tuesday
Breakfast: Two over-easy eggs with one slice of American cheese on whole wheat toast, Fiber One bar, PowerBar Recovery (protein) bar, coffee
Lunch: In-N-Out! Double-double animal style (add mustard and regular onions), fries
Dinner: Cabbage, Onions and low-fat turkey sausage
Dessert/Snacks: One small piece of carrot cake, one bakery-sized chocolate chip cookie, one small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Wednesday
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, Fiber One bar, EAS protein shake
Lunch: Whole wheat spaghetti with marinara, one bakery-sized chocolate chip cookie
Pre-workout snack: Small bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce (small)
Dinner: Large bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce
Dessert: One small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Thursday
Pre-workout snack: One slice of whole wheat toast dry
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, Fiber One bar
Lunch: Chipotle (chicken burrito, double rice, double green peppers and onions, black beans, pico de gallo, grated cheese, lettuce, hot sauce), saltine crackers, one bite of my daughter’s m&ms cookie
Snack: Banana
Dinner: Large bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce, small amount of grilled chicken
Dessert: One small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Friday
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, four pieces of whole wheat toast w/ Brummel & Brown low-cal spread
Flight: Ritz chips snack pack, cheese crackers, two small crackers, sample-size granola bar
Snack: Taco Bell chicken burrito
Dinner: Whole wheat spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms, garden salad with bleu cheese dressing, two pieces white bread
Dessert: Small bowl of spumoni ice cream

Saturday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, peanut butter PowerBar, 1 gel pack
Race: Cytomax (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Two bottles (60 cal each) Powerade, mini bagel, Snickers Marathon Energy Bar
Lunch: All-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP (11 of them!), coffee
Dinner: Three Taco Bell bean burritos
Dessert: Waffle cone of fat-free butter pecan frozen yogurt

Sunday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, vanilla PowerBar, 1 gel pack
Race: Powerade (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Honey wheat pretzel sticks, fig newtons, Carls Jr. Cheeseburger, Powerade
Lunch: Two Taco Bell chicken burritos, one Taco Bell bean burrito
Flight: Chewy granola bar, two small gingerbread cookies
Dinner: Baked chicken stuffed with broccoli, white rice, broccoli
Dessert: Small bowl of low-cal peanut butter fudge swirl ice cream

And that’s it. That fueled 90.3 miles of running. I had my In-N-Out and I had my ice cream, but aside from not enough vegetables, and maybe some extra desserts on Monday night, I think I ate fairly well.

Sorry about the boring blog. I’m guessing about four of you might be interested, though.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you back tomorrow with my What’s Up With OJ Wednesday blog. I have a couple of cool interviews I’ll be posting for you. Have a great Tuesday!

Weekend Recap: My Encounter With Ryan Hall

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Seeing history, meeting history, seeing Operation Jack supporters, sleeping in two fleabag motels and exhaustion that actually caused me to fall asleep on one of my flights. Yep, another weekend of Operation Jack is in the books, which means it’s time for another weekend recap blog.

First, of course, I ran my third consecutive double. Finally, I only have one marathon a weekend until late September. YES! This stuff is exhausting. Whose great idea was this, anyways?

On Saturday, I really didn’t like the Country Music Marathon in Nashville (recap). Yesterday, though, I LOVED the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon (recap).

Contest For This Week
I’m not going to do the “pick my time” contest I normally do this week. Instead, I’m doing a contest with my dad. The Orange County Marathon is this weekend and he’s running (I use the term loosely) the half and I’m running the full, of course.

You all know what my time range is going to be for the full. He’s taken stats on his treadmill workouts and last week, he did an 8.02-mile workout that projected to a 2:59:41 half marathon. I think he’ll be slower than that, because it’s five miles farther, plus it’s outdoors, not on the conveyor belt. In fact, I think I’m going to beat him, period, and he only has to go half the distance.

So we’re still finalizing a bet, but we’re going to tie the contest into a bet and that’s what it will be this week. I’ll have full details tomorrow, but this was my heads-up!

Quick Pasta Dinner/Silpada Fundraiser Reminders
We’re having a pair of fundraisers this weekend. We’re having a Silpada party on Friday and a pasta dinner on Saturday. I’d love to see you at one (or both) of the events!s

Seeing History
I saw the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and the memorial that has been constructed. I spent a lot of time talking about it in my race recap. It was pretty incredible. What a tragedy, but what a unified city. I highly recommend running this race.


The memorial in Oklahoma City at the site of the bombing.

Meeting History
So I’m sitting there in the airport in Dallas, waiting at a gate where there was a flight to San Francisco before my flight to Oklahoma City, and I heard the voice on the PA say, “Will San Francisco passenger Ryan Hall please re-check at the counter?”

If you’re a marathoner, you know who Ryan Hall is. If, not, I’ll tell you. He’s the fastest marathoner in U.S. history. He ran a 2:06 in his debut in London in 2007, he dominated the field to win the Olympic Trials in New York City later that year and he’s been the fastest American finisher at Boston in each of the past two years. He’s an incredible runner, but on top of that, he has great character and is really easy to root for.

So anyways, I looked to see if it was that Ryan Hall. It’s a more common name than Sam Felsenfeld. But it was that Ryan Hall. So I stood a little ways away and let him take care of his business. I wanted to snap a picture with him, but I didn’t really want to bother him. I can imagine how annoying it must be for him to get pestered all the time.

He saw me looking his direction when he walked back and he was shaking his head. I was kind of bummed and asked, “Not in the mood to take a picture?” But he said no, he noticed my shirt from the race that day and was just saying bummer about the weather.

From there, we chatted about a bunch of stuff for a good 20 minutes. I don’t think someone can fake character for that long, so I’m pretty convinced he’s all he’s cracked up to be. Amongst the things we talked about:

– He sleeps nine hours a night, plus takes a two-hour nap in the afternoon. “I just can’t function without my nap,” he said. I jokingly told him he’s missing life because he’s only awake 13 hours a day.
– He was pretty happy with his run in Boston. He was a minute faster than last year, and he said there’s not much you can do when somebody catches a flyer like Robert Cheruiyot did with his 2:05:52.
– He laughed about how close my marathon PR is to a sub-3 (3:00:05). He totally understood why I started charity running after obsessing about those six seconds. “It’s so much better to make something happen, huh?” Yep, totally. He can’t imagine 60 in a year, but I told him it’s not like I’m running 60 2:08s. He thinks I’d be faster if I only ran two a year. I think he might be on to something.
– He has a grandfather who lives near me and he’s totally familiar with my running routes to the point that he was able to identify the name of the local high school I run by.
– He told me I really have to run London someday. I told him I’ll do it as soon as I find a sponsor.
– We were talking about his teammate Josh Cox’s half marathon in Nashville on Saturday. I thought it showed the level he’s at when he referred to it as a 67 and not a 1:07. I’ve never heard anybody refer to a half time as a number minutes instead of the hour and minutes.
– I told him he needed to watch his back, because I stayed within an hour of him in Boston and I might catch him. Duly noted.

I asked a woman to take a picture of us and she did. She knew I was going to Oklahoma City, so she asked me if I was running the race on Sunday and I told her I was. She asked him if he ran marathons, and he said he did, so she asked if he was running Oklahoma City, too. He said he wasn’t, that he was on his way to San Francisco.

She started talking about her daughter, who runs half-marathons and is into the whole “marathon” thing. She’s trying to get her son into running, too. Hall and I kind of looked at each other and grinned a little bit because she had no idea who she was talking to. That woman ended up sitting next to me on my flight, so a little bit later, I told her who that guy I took a picture with was, and that she needed to tell her daughter she had a conversation about running with Ryan Hall and didn’t even know it. It was pretty funny.


Two guys who needed less than one minute per pound of body weight to complete the Boston Marathon last Monday.

Fleabag Motels
You know what’s worse than your motel needing to have a security gate? Your motel having a security gate that doesn’t work and stays open. That was Nashville. There was some shady guy in front of me trying to scrounge up cash to pay for one more night. Oh well, it’s just a bed and I made it out of there safely!

In Oklahoma City, there was a guy at the check-in counter trying to get a quarter, nickel and dime for 40 pennies, so he counted them all out. I checked into my non-smoking room, but it had a terrible odor, because somebody smoked in there the night before.

After the race when I went to take a shower, the hot water wasn’t working, but the lady at the front desk swore it was going to come back on any minute. I didn’t have time, so I just started taking a cold shower, which is a miserable thing to do after your second marathon in as many days. About 5 minutes into the shower, the hot water came on, which was a relief. I told the woman the hot water came on when I was checking out, and she was excited, because nobody in the motel had a cold shower all morning.

I guess that’s what happens when you get a room and rental car for $65, including all taxes. I’m kind of enjoying these little dives, though. Makes me glad to know I’m not wasting much money when I make it out alive.

Yay! OJ Supporters!
I got to meet up with a few Operation Jack supporters over the weekend, which was nice. I saw an old fraternity brother of mine, Will Rigdon, who’s pretty excited about what I’m doing. I also got to meet his wife, Nancy. They both ran their first half marathon in Nashville on Saturday! Awesome!

I also caught up with Laura Sullivan in Nashville, who I met in Mississippi in January. She inadvertently found Operation Jack through a Google search and has been a loyal supporter for quite a while. We chat a little bit here and there and it was good to see her again.

And then there’s Ally Phillips, who I saw for the third straight weekend. I also saw her in Catalina in March. Ally’s great … yeah, that pretty much sums her up. Her husband is a pretty cool dude, too. I got to see him again, too.


Me and Will at the expo in Nashville. I didn’t realize this until I edited the photo, but he wasn’t smiling for the photo and this is the only one I have. Bummer. Sorry, Will.

Laura, her husband Stephen, me, and one of their friends (I forgot his name … bad Sam!) after dinner on Friday night.

Me and Ally after the race yesterday.

That’s All For Today
Like that wasn’t enough. I ramble too much when I write my blog on the plane. Tomorrow, I’m posting what I ate last week. A lot of you wonder how I can run marathons when I just eat garbage like In-N-Out and ice cream. But I think I actually eat fairly healthy. I’ll let y’all be the judge.

Race Report: Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

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As I run marathon after marathon this year, I experience some races I’d recommend, some I’d never run again even if I got paid to, and some that are nice, but not worth traveling to. I’m putting the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in the must-do category. For everything about it, and everything it stands for, I think this is a race that every marathoner should complete once.

I’m probably going to talk more about the race than my race. The marathon is a tribute to the Oklahoma City bombing victims from 1995, both those who perished and those who whose lives have been forever changed. I knew that going in, but the magnitude of it didn’t hit home until I actually got down there.

The race starts right around the corner from the memorial that’s in place now, which is where the federal building stood. Aside from Ground Zero in New York City, I don’t think there’s a spot in this country that saw a more devastating act. I’ve seen Ford Theater in Washington, where Lincoln was assassinated, and I’ve been to the Texas School Book Depository/grassy knoll in Dallas where Kennedy was assassinated. But the magnitude of the bombing and the number of deaths make it pretty surreal to be right there in Oklahoma City, participating in a race that’s solely dedicated as a tribute to the victims.

Prior to the race, they held a 168-second moment of silence, one second for each person who was killed. It seemed like it went on and on forever. That’s a lot of people if each one only got one second. Two people next to me were chatting about their sub-2 half-marathon goal during that moment of silence, as if that couldn’t wait for, say, two hours during the race. I totally wanted to smack them for being so disrespectful.

After that, they played the song (or maybe somebody sang it — I couldn’t tell) “One Moment In Time”. I’ll admit it, that song isn’t on my pre-race playlist. But on Sunday, it just seemed right. And then of course, the national anthem. I was right there overlooking the memorial at that point. It was chilling and I was completely inspired to run.

Normally, I think a lot about my family and my kids during a race, but today, I spent a lot of time thinking about the bombing victims. I saw a lot (hundreds) of people running with signs on their back stating who they were running in memory of. They told us at the beginning of the race that we’d see 168 names on the course and I did the math. If they spread them out over the course of a marathon, they’d be about 800 feet apart. One victim, every 800 feet, for an entire marathon.

To be honest, I don’t remember a ton about what I saw on the course because I felt pretty bad physically and I didn’t pay a ton of a attention. But from what I remember, it was a lot of running through a midwest city, which I always enjoy. Nice people, spirited aid stations, plus big homes and yards. We had one spot where we ran alongside a lake that had a pretty strong wind whipping us. The wind was a bummer, but the view was nice.

Normally in a marathon, there’s plenty of noise, whether it’s from spectators, surroundings, etc. At about mile 19 or 20, we hit a spot that I’ll never forget. I’m not sure if it was a cemetery (I don’t think it was, because I didn’t notice headstones), a park, a golf course (didn’t see bunkers or greens) or what, but it was big and spacious with huge lawn areas. It must have been a good mile or two through there. Anyways, on the light poles, they had banners and each one displayed the name of a victim.

Out of nowhere, it was dead silent. There wasn’t a peep from anybody. Silence that a baby could sleep through. For that stretch of a mile or two, the only noise I heard was the horn from a train that sounded like it was about two miles away. It was extremely serene, and I thought it was perfectly fitting while I was reading the names one after another. It was pretty sad knowing each person had a story and a life and surviving friends and family. I passed a few people wearing names on their back during this stretch and I wanted to pat them on the back.

We came out of that and people were pretty upbeat the rest of the way. The last few miles had quite a few spectators, playing music, having a good time and thanking us for running. I enjoyed being a part of Oklahoma City for three hours and change.

After the race, I took my finish-line picture at the memorial instead of at the finish line. I just thought it was appropriate. I almost got teary-eyed going in there. The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon was a great race, a great tribute. The course seemed nice, the aid stations were constant and well-staffed with friendly volunteers and the post-race spread was great. They did a great job handling 22,000 participants. All-in-all, a great race, one every marathon runner should run at least once.

Anyways, I’ll talk briefly about my running. I felt terrible physically Saturday night after a miserable race in Nashville earlier in the day. I felt a little better Sunday morning, but doubles are tough, no question. I felt OK for the first 7 miles and was actually running pretty well, but then I started to feel nauseous for about 5 miles. That passed, but then I just started to feel pretty rough physically.

I burned worse than normal in my quads and when that wind was getting us, I lost a lot of fight. I know I didn’t push hard enough today, because my average heart rate was only 160, but I’m just exhausted right now. I’ve been away from home for 10 of the past 17 nights, and I’ve averaged maybe 6 hours of sleep a night max in the past three weeks, and I just completed 6 marathons in 16 days (and I won’t even get into the travel). I think I just ran out of gas today.

Final time, 3:17:42. I don’t really care about the time much one way or the other. It’s not great, but it’s not something I’ll lose sleep over. It’s a 3:17, and I’m now 22 down, 38 to go.


Me at the memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing victims. I don’t know the actual name of the memorial, but it’s a pretty chilling place. It was tough to force a smile in there.

Me and Operation Jack super supporter Ally Phillips after the race. This was her fourth marathon, I think, and her first was just five months ago. I think she caught the bug!

The memorial.

They have a chair for each victim there. I’m guessing one of this person’s survivors ran the race for them on Sunday.