Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

I Crack Jokes, But It's Not Always Fun And Games

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I was prepared to write about keeping focused during the ups and downs of a long, difficult mission, and I had a perfect example to talk about. But Jack’s struggling right now, and I’m too distracted to write about anything other than him. Poor little dude is having a really rough go right now.

First a real quick introduction in case you’re not aware of who me and Jack are and what we’re doing. Jack is my 6 1/2 year old son and he’s severely autistic. I’m a runner and I’m planning on running 60 marathons this year to help raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism, a wonderful charity I’m a part of and that I believe in.

That being said, for the past couple of weeks, Jack’s been in a lot of pain. It seems like it’s been his stomach, but it’s tough to tell, because his verbal communication is very, very limited. On top of that, when he gets frustrated or upset, he punches himself in the head, which leads to headaches. It’s a vicious cycle, which has led to long days filled with meltdowns, plus long nights in which he’s been waking up crying.

For the past couple of years, we’ve suspected that Jack has various internal/digestive problems. We’ve gone to several specialists to try to get an answer, but we haven’t gotten reasonable conclusions from anybody. In the midst of these problems recently, we went to his pediatrician to try to find answers and she sent us for some x-rays of his body. That procedure was Friday morning.

On Friday night, while Tiff and I were eating dinner in Catalina, we got a call from the pediatrician, who let us know why he was in so much pain. He’s very badly constipated (like VERY badly), which is causing the pain. We have about week’s worth of things to do to help him through this, and it’s going to be a very difficult, trying process. Tiff was pretty upset, but it was pretty easy for me to see the positive side to this. First, at least we knew what was causing the pain. And even better, we knew it was nothing permanent. He’ll be through this in a week.

We started with the milk of magnesia and some laxatives, plus some adjustments to his diet, and he’s getting better, but he was laying on the ground crying tremendous pain last night. It was so upsetting to see him like that. As I watched Benjamin and Ava playing together and having fun, I was just thinking, “What did Jack do to deserve this existence?” He doesn’t get to play much, he’s in school and/or therapy seven days a week, he gets upset because he can’t fully communicate, and he’s frequently in pain. What kind of life is my little guy living? How truly happy or upset is he?

I was looking at him as he was struggling last night. He’s not the only disabled child I know and I feel so bad for kids who don’t get a fair shake. It made me start thinking about next year. I’m not doing this 60-marathon thing again. But if I have enough people rallying together to make a difference, I’m kind of starting to wonder what I want to do, because I know I’ll want to keep the momentum rolling. I want to do something and help somebody if I can. Maybe it’ll be a pretty heavy effort (just not every weekend away) to continue to help Train 4 Autism grow.

Or maybe Train 4 Autism will be fulling rolling the way I hope and I can also help towards another great cause. There are plenty of bad things in this world and I know I’ll be fighting something.

Anyways, that’s what was on my mind last night when I started to write. I had something in mind that I was going to write, but I really couldn’t focus because I was too upset about Jack. And as I looked at him, and saw a sweet, innocent little boy suffer, it made me realize how happy I am now that I’m using my running to help kids who need help. I’ve thought about next year and talked a tiny bit about next year in very broad, vague terms to some people, but I guess I’ll just throw it out there in writing that I’m going to continue to try to capitalize on whatever I can build this year to help out next year.

So, that’s all I have for today. Sometimes the purpose of this blog is for you to live vicariously through the ding-dong who’s running 60 marathons. Well, that’s what’s on my mind today. And my quads still hurt from Saturday. I took a rest day again today.

Have a great Tuesday everybody! Wear your green tomorrow!

Weekend Recap: A Vacation And Time At Home In One Weekend!

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I was expecting a great weekend, and it was exactly as planned. In the span of about two days, I had a nice, 24-hour vacation with my wife, a great marathon and a day off with plenty of time with the kids and my relatives. What more could I ask for?

First things first, the reason I’m here and blogging is Operation Jack, my attempt to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. This weekend was marathon No. 13 so far this year, the Catalina Marathon. The scenery was amazing and I was pretty happy with how I ran. You can read my recap here and see a pretty sweet photo of me wearing a medal with a pink ribbon that I won for taking third in my age group. My first pink medal. Probably my last.

Stuck On An Island Without The Kids!
Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. But since this weekend’s race was on Catalina, an island 26 miles off the coast of Southern California, I dragged Tiff along with me and we had a nice little getaway. We got to eat our meals while they were warm and have grown-up conversations! It was awesome! I just had to run 26.2 miles up and down mountains to hold up my end of the bargain. One of the best parts is that we were still home by 6 p.m. Saturday night, so I also had plenty of extra time to spend with the kids.


Just before getting on the boat back from Catalina. What’s she doing with that guy?

Not The Greatest Hotel Experience
One condition I had when I booked my hotel was that I needed to check out no earlier than noon. A lot of hotels had an 11 a.m. checkout time, but with the race starting at 7, and my expected finish time somewhere in the 3:45 neighborhood, I needed it to be at least noon.

I checked with at least a dozen places and had a few that were OK with noon. I ended up going with a place called Hotel Macrae based on cost, although it was only a $6 difference over two other hotels — nothing significant. They told me their checkout time was 11 a.m., but late checkout at noon wouldn’t be a problem. They also told me they’d hold our luggage for us while we waited for our boat back.

Much to my displeasure when I checked in (after I had paid), they told me noon would be a problem and I’d have to be out by 11. They wouldn’t even let me stretch it until 11:30, although they told me they had a room I could use to shower and change in after the race.

The race started late due to a boat docking problem, so we were a few minutes late getting out. They weren’t very pleased, so I guess the feeling was mutual. I came to find out the “room” I was supposed to shower in was a public restroom on the hotel grounds. Not awesome.

I was going to ask about the luggage, but I saw an open space with cubby holes and somebody being directed to leave their bags there. I also saw a sign that said something like, “At your own risk, hotel not responsible for stolen belongings.” So yeah, we dragged our bags around Catalina for 3 1/2 hours. Again, not awesome.

As for the room, it was small and old. Nothing special. Not even a phone. Maybe we didn’t have the best room, because apparently, the one next to ours was the honeymoon suite. Definitely not awesome.

Sunday — Off!
No work, no travel, no running on Sunday. I truly had the day off. I haven’t had one of those in I-don’t-know-how-long. Even with the time change, I got eight hours of sleep. I went to church with the family and got my favorite donuts (maple old-fashioned). I went to Home Depot and then Advanced Hyperbarics with Jack.

I went to a family function celebrating my Uncle Marty’s 50th birthday and got to see a bunch of relatives, which was nice. I played soccer with Benjamin and Ava in the backyard, then ate dinner with them. I gave Ava a bath, worked on her with her reading then lost to her at Candyland. I got a chance to lick a bowl when my wife made some banana nut bread. I had some peanut butter fudge swirl ice cream, stretching my streak to 43 days in a row now.

In other words, I had a perfect Sunday. Or, maybe I just had a normal Sunday and I’m not used to this. How long until 2011? I could do this every week!


I took a picture of Jack when we were at Home Depot just to document our trip. But he stuck his tongue out at the perfect moment, which made the picture take a whole new twist.

We played some game that Benjamin made up and Ava actually won. I’m not an athlete. I just go left-foot, right-foot, repeat. I’m a one-trick pony.

I’m Human! I Really Am!
I get a lot of comments like, “I don’t know how you do it” and “I don’t know how you’re still walking around” and all that kind of fun stuff. Well, I’m really just a guy, and for those of you who think I’m superhuman, I’d like you to know that my quads were KILLING ME yesterday! It hurt to walk downstairs, it hurt to get up when I was sitting down … I was pretty beat up.

This morning, I tried to run, but it hurt too much so I quit after 3/10 of a mile. I didn’t want to overcompensate for quad pain and injure something else with an altered stride. I know nobody wants me to feel pain, but I am human! Be glad to know I’m just like you!

A Restaurant We Just Couldn’t Pass Up
We saw a place called “Jack’s Country Kitchen” and there was no way we could go without eating there. So, we went there to eat after the race on Sunday.


I’m sure we looked like tourists taking this picture. Sitting without our suitcases right by our table probably clued people in, too.

The meal was great, and really, I only wrote that because I’m dying to post these pictures I put up on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday.


Before.

After.

OK, That’s All For Today
I write these the night before and I’m pretty tired right now (Sunday night). So, I’m calling it quits for now. I’m pretty sure I know who won the contest to pick my race time, but I’ll confirm that Monday, notify that person and put it in the blog on Wednesday.

Have a great Monday, everybody!

Race Report: Catalina Marathon

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I’m a superstitious guy, especially with the number 13. I might never have that fear again though, with the way my 13th Operation Jack marathon of the year went Saturday in Catalina.

Before the start of the race, I met up with two Operation Jacksters, Jake Rome and Ally Phillips. They were both sporting their Operation Jack tech shirts and it was great to see them. They’ve both been really supportive of what I’m doing and it was awesome to see them sporting the logo!

The race started and we got rolling and my gameplan was to keep it fairly conservative, pushing hard but not killing myself on the hills. I knew they were coming immediately, with a good 1,000 feet of climbing within the first 2 1/2 miles or so. Pace didn’t matter. I knew that if I kept it under control, my time would take care of itself. But I couldn’t truly worry about my splits.

On the hills, walking is typical. For somebody with my ability, and really for anybody this side of Superman, it’s really not possible to run the entire way up. So on the big uphills, my strategy was to run until my heart rate reached 174, then power walk until it dropped to 165, then repeat. I’ve run two trail ultras before and it’s easy to start walking, but it takes some willpower to start running again. I put the willpower in the hands of my heart-rate monitor.

On the downhills, my goal was to run as fast as I could without falling. It’s tricky footing to go down a very steep dirt path covered with small rocks and pebbles when you’re used to fairly smooth roads. But if you’re going to lose time on the uphills, you still need to make it up on the downhills.

That all being said, I kept in under control early, getting my legs rolling but not really attacking. I took that first bit easy as we headed into the climb, then stayed true to my heart-rate strategy. I was pleasantly surprised with how I hit that first hill, although I didn’t get down the first descent as well as I would have liked.

The scenery for the course as amazing. Catalina is an island 26 miles off the coast of Southern California. There’s nothing but plush green hills and canyons and undeveloped land. It’s essentially the way it was created. The climbs weren’t much fun, but the simultaneous views of the canyons, hills and ocean made it worth the effort.

I struggled to find a rhythm early, battling the uphills and downhills and trying to find a groove. I was hoping to run about a 3:40 to 3:45 and definitely below a 4:00, but those were just guesses for my ability based on what I’d heard from other runners on the course. I knew that to do that, I needed my average pace to be considerably below 9:00/mile, but my average pace was hovering around 9:10. I didn’t worry, though. I knew that all I could do was do my best to run as well as I could and my time would be whatever it was.

Just to reiterate, though, the views were amazing. I’ve now run 41 marathons and two ultras and this one was absolutely the most scenic course I’ve been on.

Moving along, though, from about 6 to 10, I was physically struggling a bit. The trails aren’t really my thing and I’m not that fresh. I was passing people, but I was also getting passed by quite a few. Finally, at about mile 11, I passed a woman, who then passed me back a minute or two later. I told her, “leapfrog!” as a joke, and she laughed. I passed her back and told her, “you’re it!” and she laughed at my second bad joke in as many minutes.

A few minutes later, I could hear a spectator tell her she was the third-place woman. By the time we were at 12, I heard her footsteps getting pretty loud and I found a gear and started pushing, trying to pull her along. But she didn’t have it. From there, it was a long, gradual uphill climb. We went up 1,000 feet over the next eight miles with only one tough stretch of about 1/2 mile. around 17 1/2. I hit the half in 1:59, not sure if I’d get sub-4.

But on that gradual uphill, it seemed like I was consistently turning miles in the low 8s. I felt like I was in a zone and I was getting stronger. From the time I pulled away from that third-place woman, not a single person passed me the rest of the race that I didn’t eventually pass back. My confidence really started to grow with the way I was picking people off, because I knew I was running a good race.

I have to give a quick shout-out to the mile 18 marker. I’ve never seen such an amazing view during a race in my life than from there. Green mountains everywhere, and an incredible view of the ocean. My body was pretty beat up, but it was worth it. I felt pretty blessed to have the ability to enjoy that.

So moving along, I knew there was a big downhill finish, but I didn’t remember where. We had rolling hills throughout the early 20s, and longer they continued, the more antsy I became. We were still hanging out at 1,500 feet and I knew we were headed for sea level. When we were still up there at 22, I knew it was going to be a crazy-steep drop. And sure enough, it was. The course got a little rocky (literally — rocks) and I was being as careful with my footing as possible. I wanted to make up some time, but not at the expense of a sprained ankle or a bloody tumble.

By about 24, we were onto pavement! THAT is my playground! And it was downhill, so I started flying. I got rolling, then really turned it on the last mile. I passed a guy who was moving pretty well and was just locked in. I averaged a 6:19 pace for the last mile, which is pretty good for me for mile 26 of a marathon. It felt good to move.

I finished at 3:48:42 and saw my beautiful wife there at finish line! It wasn’t a surprise, because we headed over to Catalina together the day before, but it sure was nice to see my biggest fan for the first time for an Operation Jack race!

I ended up taking third place in my age group. When I enter, I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to enter the Buffalo (200+ pounds) division or just run with the skinny kids, but I chose the skinny kids. I would have won the Buffalo division by 42 minutes, but I think I’m happier with the third place. For my prize, I earned a medal with a pink ribbon. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

We saw Ally finish a little later. She did pretty well considering her recent times and the difficulty of the course. Jake did OK, although he seems to really enjoy the run and the Catalina experience more than just going for a time. His brother went something like 3:35 to take second in his age group.

All-in-all, a great day on a great course. 13 down, 47 to go!


Me and Tiff at the finish.

Me and Ally at the finish.

Me and Jake. I totally messed up and forgot to take a picture with him, so I’m glad Tiff snapped this. There I am with my sweet pink ribbon.

Weekend Preview: Race #13, Catalina

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Ahh, lucky No. 13. I’m superstitious, and I’m staring at some tough luck this weekend. For starters, I’m going Sunday to Saturday between races and only have five days to recover. On top of that, though, my race, the Catalina Marathon, offers BY FAR the most challenging course I’ve faced so far this year.

Guess My Time And Win Operation Jack Gear!
First things first, I’m trying to raise money, but I’m trying to do that as painlessly as possible. So I’m thinking an easy way is to have a weekly contest to guess my time. Basically, if you think I’m going to run a 3:15, you’d guess my time by clicking here or on the “Donate Now” link at the top of any page and donate $3.15. That’s pretty easy — less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

And when you make your guess and your painless donation, you’re putting a big grin on my face. If you support what I’m doing, please participate in this contest!

The winner will be the person who guesses the closest to my time without going under. If you win, we’ll send you your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Last week’s winner was Molly Rearick, who has a sweatshirt on the way.

The good news: I’m not too slow, so it’s cheap to guess. The better news: I’ll give you analysis about how fast I expect to run.

Catalina Marathon Preview
This race is going to be tough. I’ve looked at finishing times from past competitors. Guys running 2:55 to 3:00 in road marathons are needing as much as 3:40 on this course. It’s primarily on a dirt fire road, but I’ll be wearing trainers because the footing should be fine.

The troubles come from the hills. I don’t think I’ve had a climb more than 200 feet in any of my races this year. Catalina welcomes me with more than 800 feet of gain in the first 2.5 miles.

To give you some perspective, the Boston Marathon is famous for having rolling hills, including four challenging climbs at the end. Talk about training for Boston with anybody and they’ll talk about hills. A friend of mine in Miami is getting anxious about Boston and worried about his hill training. Here’s the course profile for Boston:


I’ve run this race twice. Those hills towards the end chew you up and make the downhill at the end difficult.

Now here’s the profile for Catalina:


This is not a PR course.

The widths of the 26.2 miles in these two images are the same. And the vertical scale is identical in both. So, when you look at the hills in the two course profiles, you’re comparing apples to apples.

This is not a 3:10 course for me. I’m going to try to keep it under 4:00 and I’d be thrilled if I pulled it off in sub-3:45. This race compares more to the two ultras I’ve run than the 40 marathons I’ve completed. In my first ultra, a 50K, I struggled on hills that were considerably steeper than this. It was my first experience to trail running and I learned that I wasn’t nearly as fit as I thought I was.

Just six weeks before I ran Boston in 3:01 last year, I went 5:37 in that 50K. I don’t remember what I hit 26.2 in, but it was probably somewhere around 4:40. That course was considerably tougher than Catalina, though.

Three weeks after Boston, I ran a 50-miler. The course was run at a higher elevation (4,500 – 6,500 feet) than Catalina (0 – 2,000 feet) and temps were about 85 degrees. Catalina should be in the 50s on Saturday. In that 50-miler, the hills were somewhat tame, probably comparable to Catalina. I did well early on, hitting mile 20 by about 3:00. I fell apart in the heat by about mile 23, though, and ended up needing 10:42 to finish the race.

Coincidentally, six days before that 50-miler, I ran a marathon in 3:11:37, just seven seconds quicker than I ran last Sunday. So, I’m heading into Saturday in somewhat similar condition. The difference will be cooler temps, lower elevation and more experience. So that’s why I think 3:45 is a reasonable A goal and 4:00 is a reasonable B goal. I’m setting my C goal at 4:30. Tiff will be out there and I’ll tell her to be at the finish line by the 3:30 mark, but not to start worrying until 4:30.

If I’m a betting man, which I’m not (how messed up would that be for me to win my own contest?), I’d go with $3.52 donation.

Oh, yeah, so I just mentioned Tiff will be there. We have babysitting! We’re truly going to be stuck on an island without the kids for 24 hours — it’s as much of a vacation as we’re going to get any time soon! We’re also going to get to meet Ally Phillips and her husband, who have been big supporters of Operation Jack since last summer.

The best part? We’ll be home Saturday night in time for dinner, and I will actually have an entire day off!

Don’t Forget To Enter The Contest!
It’s less than the cost of a box of Girl Scout Cookies, unless you think I’m going to struggle. But it’s definitely less than the cost of lunch at McDonald’s.

That’s All For This Week
I’ll post a race report on Saturday. Have a great weekend, everybody!

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

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I’ve fallen into a weekly routine with my blogs and for the Wednesday version, I’m piecing together updates about Operation Jack for y’all. I decided to call it “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” because alliteration works and I can re-use the headline. So, on that note, it’s Wednesday — here’s what’s up with OJ!

SF Showin’ Love For SF!
OK really, it’s SF showin’ love for OJ, but the SF-SF thing worked there for the headline. The first SF I’m referring to is the San Francisco Marathon. The second SF is me (Sam Felsenfeld), although really, it’s Operation Jack in this case. The marathon featured me yesterday in its monthly newsletter as the “Runner Highlight” of the month, although at the core of it all, it’s an Operation Jack highlight.

This newsletter is posted on the marathon’s website, but it also went out in an email to everybody in its database. A lot of people found out about Operation Jack yesterday because of this, which could be a big help as the year goes on. I joked with a lot of friends yesterday that I did a fine job of sneaking my way into their inbox. Things like this are fun, but above that, they’re a big help.

Also, the marathon gave me pretty nice billing on its Official Charities page. So as I said, SF gave SF (and OJ) some love yesterday! I met the race director and some other staff members up in Napa over the weekend and they were super-nice people. I’m really looking forward to running in their race in July. I hope a lot of you join me and support a race that is working hard to support Operation Jack! If nothing else, you get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge — how rad is that?

Congrats To Molly Rearick For Predicting My Blow-Up In Napa!
I had a contest last week, and I’ll keep having it (I think). Basically, guess my time in my race for that weekend with a small donation (for instance, if you think I’m going to run a 3:12, donate $3.12) and whoever gets closest without bidding under my finishing time wins their choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Coming off of my 3:09 in Tampa, based on the course and my condition, I really thought I was going to be quicker in Napa. I was chasing sub-3, and I really thought I’d be good for a 3:06 or so. But I went 3:11, so Molly won with her guess of a 3:18.

Five Ways To Help
A lot of people jump follow along and ask me what they can do to help. Like with everything else, I know from every person I hear that from, there are probably a dozen more silently thinking the same thing. So, I’m going to throw out five different ideas. In a way, I guess I’m the team leader, since I’m visible and running the 60 marathons. But if I was doing this alone, it would be a colossal failure. I know this is a team effort and we’re all hoping for the same goal — growing Train 4 Autism to help countless children and families for years to come.

So, I’m asking that each of you try just one of these five ways to help during March. If you do, Operation Jack will have HUGE momentum heading into the second quarter! These five ideas get a little more difficult as you scroll down the list, but the first one is really easy!

1. Spread the word
Everybody knows somebody who is impacted by autism somehow or is a runner or who might find what I’m doing to be interesting. Please send one person to the site, invite them to become a fan on Facebook, join the Facebook group, follow me on Twitter, etc. I always say that I’m throwing a bunch of darts and some of them will hit the board. The more people you tell, the more darts we can throw!

2. Commit to run a race
I still have 48 left on the schedule and I love meeting supporters at all of the events. If you’re going to be in town at one of the races I’m doing, I’d love to meet you, and I’d love to have you run it in an Operation Jack shirt. I’m running marathons (26.2 miles), but most races also offer events as short as a 5K. Those work too!

3. Sport the gear
If you take a look at the Sponsors page, you can see the levels to get shirts, tech shirts, hooded sweatshirts, etc. They all turned out pretty nicely and the sweatshirts are really comfortable. I know, just in time for spring. But they’re comfortable! We use these as a fundraiser and you’re advertising the cause you when you wear the clothing.

4. 10×10
I’m not a fundraising expert, but I know I’ve gotten a bunch of requests over the years to contribute to support somebody who’s running a race. I go to a web page, donate $20 and move on with my day. I know it’s tough to do this, so I created a plan called 10×10. My hope is that $10 is a pretty easy donation to get. That’s about what lunch costs. I also hope that you’ll give it a shot. If you get 10 people to contribute $10, we’ll send you an Operation Jack tech shirt and t-shirt for free.

5. Start a Train 4 Autism chapter
This one probably take the most work out of any of these, but it’s not as hard as you think and we have people who will help you as much as you need. It doesn’t take a ton of work, and this is really what’s going to make Train 4 Autism grow. It’s also the one that you’ll notice the direct results from the most. If you have any questions, e-mail me and I’ll discuss it a little more.

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough though, huh? Have a great Wednesday! I’ll be back tomorrow with my weekend forecast. This one’s going to be tough. Big, big hills!