Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

It's RACE WEEK!

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The Long Beach Marathon is Sunday, and I’m getting pretty excited about it! It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since January. It’s going to be my 26th full marathon and it’ll probably be my fourth slowest (although hopefully just my seventh slowest). As a lot of you know, though, I’m not excited that I’m running the Long Beach Marathon. I’m excited that my wife is running the Long Beach Marathon.

Before I talk about my wife, I’ll just do a quick introduction to those of you who are visiting for the first time. I’m a married father of three (8, 6, 3 1/2) and my middle child, Jack, is severely autistic. In 2010, I’m planning on running 60 marathons to raise awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. This blog is my reality show … when I write it. Anyways, back to my wife …

Tiff told me in January, a couple of weeks after she ran her first (and only) half marathon, that she wanted to run a full. The original plan was for San Diego on May 31, but she got injured and it didn’t happen. She’s battled through some dings this summer, but she’s gonna give it a go on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to running a marathon with her.

I feel pretty lucky to be able to run marathons. Most people don’t know what it’s like to take 26.2-mile running tours of various cities. Even when I run sub-par races, I know I’m fortunate to be able to enjoy the experience. And now, I’m going to get to share this experience with my wife! How lucky am I? How lucky is she? Nah … how lucky am I!?!?

So, just bear with me this week. I’m gonna keep talking about her. Can’t help it. She’s doing carb depletion right now (no carbs, which helps her store glycogen better when she starts carb loading on Thursday). I hate doing that, but fortunately for me, I’m treating Sunday as a training run and I don’t have to deal with that. When I have goal races, though, I deplete and I hate it. It works for me, though, so I do it. She has a minor inflammation problem in her right leg at this point, but it’s nothing that’s going to keep her from running. I talked to her about it at dinner time last night and it’s basically something that’s going to be a test of how tough she is. We’ll see.

But yeah, I’m excited. Really excited. Marathon courses are my playground and I can’t wait to show her around. I really hope it’s a positive experience for her, because first marathons should be fun. I guess that’s up to me, because I’m the tour guide.

Running Update
I nailed my long run over the weekend. I ran 28.3 miles and felt great. I didn’t really set out to run the miles quickly, and I didn’t. But the past two weeks, I cut my long runs short because I started feeling sick towards the end. Finally, I got my 28 in and I was happy. For those of you who don’t know, I had to take a month off this summer due to an ankle injury (suffered while walking through a parking lot after lunch!). So, I’m working my way back into shape. My biggest run of the week is always my long run. It helps me with the endurance I need and it’s the one I enjoy the most. It felt nice to finally accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.

Cleveland Anybody?
I know I’ve been talking about different things going on with various races, so today I’m going to talk about Cleveland. They have a great charity program and I’m really hoping to build a good team there for the weekend of May 15 and 16 next year. There’s a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and full marathon. The 5K is the day before the other three races. I’m pretty sure I’ll run the 5K and I know I’m running the marathon. I’m really hopeful and optimistic about building a team of 25 people there. If you’re in that area, let me know — I’d love to talk to you about increasing participation. Remember, no fund-raising minimums!

That’s All For Today!
Have a great Tuesday! Eat some tacos! See you tomorrow!

Once Again, I'm Smart Enough To Know How Stupid I Am

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I donated blood on Tuesday, and they told me not to exercise for 24 hours. I thought it would be a good idea to do it the day before physical therapy, because then I could use that as my rest day and be fresh when I got in there. But in the back of my head, I had a suspicion that the physical therapy would fall under that “exercise” category and I’d pay the price. I’m pretty smart and pretty stupid at the same time.

I’ll get to that in just a bit. On Monday, I wrote about how upset my wife was with her run over the weekend. Well, she appreciated all of the feedback she got and she’s looking forward to running Long Beach later this month! I can’t believe it’s already October! She ran a good 15-miler in the sun yesterday, so at this point, I think she’ll be fine to start the race with 20 good miles.

A lot of people say that the second half of the marathon starts after 20 miles, but after running 25 of them, I disagree. I think it all depends on how tough you are. She’s pretty tough, so I think the second half for her will start after 13.1 miles.

While I’m talking about running, I guess I should talk about my own running, since I’m the one planning on running 60 marathons next year for Operation Jack. I went 8.65 miles on Monday, 13.4 on Tuesday, nothing yesterday (as you’ll read about in the next segment) and 12 today. Nothing special, nothing fast. I guess that’s about all I have to say about my running right now. I’m thinking about running a 5K next Saturday at Chapman. If you’re going to be there, let me know.

Next Time I’ll Listen To What The Red Cross Tells Me
I donated blood on Tuesday, a new habit of mine I hope to keep up for a long, long time. I’m terrified of needles, but I know it’s a blessing to be on this side of a blood transfusion, so I decided to start doing this in July. I was inspired to do this by a friend of mine named Peggy, who’s as good of a person as you could know, and I chose to do this in honor of my late Uncle Bob, who died of leukemia in 2004. He died on July 27 of that year, so I donated for the first time on July 27 of this year. Well, that was the first time I’d donated in more than 12 years.

Anyways, I went back on Tuesday to donate again. All went well, I got my free cookies, and went back to work. They told me not to exercise for 24 hours. When I think of exercising, I think of a 12-15 mile run before work. My body apparently considers physical therapy to fall into that category. I did a new drill yesterday that involved sets of 30 seconds of stepping up and down off of a box with weights in each hand. When I was done, I felt like I was going to throw up. I couldn’t catch my breath. I started getting dizzy and everything went black for a split-second. I was light-headed for the rest of the day, and needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson.

I’ll definitely give blood again as soon as I can. But I’ll also definitely follow the no-exercise-for-24-hours rule a little better!

I’m “Charity Chasing” In Mobile!
I’m going to be something called the “Charity Chaser” in the BankTrust First Light Marathon in Mobile, Ala., on January 10 next year. I’ll be the very last person to cross the start line, and I’ll be collecting pledges for charity. All proceeds from this will go to the charity that promotes the marathon, L’Arche Mobile, a great organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities. I have an uncle (my dad’s brother) who lives in a similar organization out here and I’m glad I’ll be able to help.

Part of what will add to the challenge is that I’ll be running a marathon in Jackson, Miss., the day before. So, if you’re looking at the race schedule and wondering if I go all-out the second day of a double … I do. And when there’s money on the line for charity, I’ll really be pushing hard.

I’m starting to work on Mobile-area contacts to try to find sponsors/pledges for this. I’m expecting to pass somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 people in the marathon and the half-marathon. If you’d like to make a pledge towards this (a nickel per person I pass, a dime per person I pass, etc.) or if you have contacts in the Mobile area, please let me know. I’ve been working with the race director in Mobile, and he’s going to be coordinating coverage with the local media out there, so depending on the pledge, there could certainly be promotional considerations!

Anybody Looking For a 3:30 At Surf City?
I’ll be a 3:30 pacer again at Surf City next year. In February, I led a pace group for the first time in the Surf City Marathon. I had a work emergency and only got one hour of sleep the night before the race, but since I made a commitment, I carried through and paced the 3:30 group. I was nervous, because if I bomb my own race, that’s my own problem. But if I bomb as a pacer, that affects other people. And with only one hour of sleep, plus parking problems that made me so late I had to sprint to the start line and couldn’t use the porta-pottie (a pre-race must if you’re well hydrated!), I was certainly concerned! But I turned in a 3:29:57 and got invited back!

If you’re looking to run a 3:30 and want a pacer who will tell bad jokes for 26.2 miles, Surf City might be the race for you!

That’s All For Today!
Oops, no video for today. Don’t think I’ll be writing anything for tomorrow. Have a great weekend everybody!

Can Somebody Say Something Nice, Please?

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This weekend, I planned on two long runs, a 28-miler on Saturday and a 20-miler on Sunday, but they were both cut short. The two runs had something else in common — my conversation at the end of both of them made me decide to ask you all to provide positive feedback to two good people. One is my wife. The other is somebody I’ve never met.

My long run was on Saturday, and it didn’t go as planned. I wanted to go 28, but I started feeling sick to my stomach and the sun started getting to me, so I cut it short to 25. I know, 25 isn’t terrible. But they were slow miles, and for me, a long run on the weekend has to be at least 26.2 I’ll call it a fail, but I know I’m beating myself back into shape and I’m going to have to go through a few of these.

The run I was really excited about over the weekend was running with my wife yesterday. After running a half marathon in January, she decided in early February that she wanted to train for a full. She set some lofty goals, hoping to not only run a marathon 16 weeks later, but attempting to qualify for Boston in that race. Tough challenge, although she ran a 1:45 in her 1/2, and needs a 3:40 for the BQ, so I thought it was possible if she could build her endurance.

I told her she’d be redlining, and sure enough, she got injured a little after her first 20-miler in April. She couldn’t run San Diego Rock N Roll on May 31 and was pretty disappointed. She got better, but took some training runs too hard, and got injured again. She’s been battling back and doing well, targeting Long Beach on October 11. Sunday was supposed to be one last crack at a 20-miler, and I thought she had a chance of hitting the run. But five miles in, we did the turnaround.

I felt so terrible for her. She really, really wants this. She’s worked so hard and struggled so much through her training. Part of the problem is that it’s come so easy for me, so she’s not really in touch with reality. I try to remind her that I didn’t qualify for Boston until my eighth marathon. But it doesn’t much matter. She’s really upset about this right now.

She was just about in tears when we got back to our starting point. She feels that if she could have qualified for Boston in her first marathon, she would have felt like she accomplished something. I have a special plaque from my first Boston on the wall in my office at home and she says she dreams of getting one of those, too. She was crying about feeling like a failure with running, and feeling like she hasn’t accomplished anything in life because she doesn’t have a college degree. Running a certain time in a marathon might change that for her in her eyes, and that’s totally ridiculous. Some of you know us personally, and a lot of you don’t. Those of you who do can vouch that she’s an AMAZING mother and that impact she has on our kids is a huge accomplishment.

So, that brings me to my point. I always get ideas in my head when I run, and over the last couple miles of our run yesterday, I came up with this idea. She’s a longshot to get her qualifying time. But she’s worked so hard with her training and I really want her to realize that it’s not all about a finishing time. The bigger thing I want her to realize is that long term, it’s more about the adversity you face, how you react to that and fight through it, and how hard you work to accomplish a goal, even if the journey isn’t what you thought it would be. In a way, it parallels what she goes through with Jack on a daily basis.

I know a fair amount of you read this every day, so I’m hoping I can get one of you to come through on this for Jack’s mama. I want Tiff to finish this off and go complete that marathon, even if she has to walk and crawl and spend 8 hours getting to the finish line. It’s kind of selfish for me to ask this, but I’ll do it anyways. Can I get just one of you to commit to at least a $10 pledge to Operation Jack and to participate in an race next year if she completes her marathon on October 11? You’ll be helping a great cause, and as a result, a good person will see her hard work pay off towards a better purpose than she would have imagined. Anybody? Please? Please?

Thank You, Cassie Walls!
Cassie, I met your dad at the end of my run (and the end of his run) on Saturday and he’s seen me running a lot in the past. We started talking about running and then I told him about Operation Jack and then he told me about you.

For everybody reading this, Cassie works in special education at one of the schools in our local district and works with autistic children. That job is very special and requires a very special person. It takes incredible patience and an incredible touch and I know I’m grateful for all the help Jack has received from everybody over the years. He was in your school at one point, so you might have worked with him. He’s in the first grade now, so he’s at a different school.

Anyways, your dad told me that in the past you’ve talked about maybe not amounting to a whole lot with that job. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you what I told your dad. It’s not about whether or not you can buy that Porsche. It’s about the footprint you leave, the impact you have, the lives you affect. You ARE amounting to something. You’re making a difference and helping sweet little children at an extremely critical point in their development.

I’d like to say thank you for what you do, and I’d also like to beg any parent/relative/friend of a special-needs child reading this to leave a comment here for Cassie to tell her what you think about the job she’s doing.

Video Of The Day
This is for Tiff. She loves this song and it totally applies to her right now.

That’s All For Today, Folks
I’ll be back on Wednesday or Thursday. I have a lot of cool things going on with Operation Jack that I’m totally excited to tell you about! Have a great start to your week!

How I Met My Best Friend

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15 years ago today, I went on my first date with my Tiffany. You know, I feel like such a cheeseball using my blog to write something about my wife when the last blog I wrote last week was about my son. But there are two important things to take from that sentence: I’m a cheeseball, and it’s my blog!

On September 22, 1994, I was 19 and she was 18. Lucky for me, I waited a year to mail off my application to Kansas State University. I should have transferred out of my two-year college in two years. But on day one of my third year, I met the woman who I would marry.

Guys, you know how it is when you’re single in college. First day of class and you’re checking out the new ladies. Well, there she was and wow was she hot! Call me a pig, but wow was she hot! We were on the newspaper together. I was the sports editor and she was a newbie. I tricked her into taking a women’s volleyball story that she’d need help on. Sure enough, she freaked, and I was there for the rescue.

We spent a lot of time working on that story for a couple of weeks, and I’m pretty sure that nobody but the players on the team read it. But it did the trick and we became friends. During that first month while we were becoming friends, I used to drive her home from school. I always had a Motown CD in my car and I played this song every time:

Of course, she didn’t realize that until later. But I still wanted to put that video in the blog for her today!

Anyways, on September 21, after going to In-N-Out for a burger with some friends and then celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday, I drove her home and asked her out on a date (after 15 or so minutes of nervous stalling). The next night, we went on our first date. Dinner at a steak place called Buffalo Ranch (I spilled my entire salad on my lap and brushed it on the ground — oops!) and a walk on the beach. We clicked and we’ve been together ever since.


I didn’t know which picture to pick. I hope this one is OK.

We’ve had our ups and downs, betters and worses (I don’t think that’s a word, but you know what I’m saying). We were kids back then, and now we have three of our own. I know, it’s nothing unusual to be married, but I’ll always vividly remember picking her up for that first date in my freshly-detailed car with a dozen roses. If you would have told me that day that we’d end up sharing a life and a home and so many memories that I’m starting to forget a lot of them, I don’t know if I would have believed it.

She’s been an incredible wife and mother and as I always tell her, I feel truly blessed that I get to hold her hand on this roller coaster called “life” that we’re riding. The person you choose to be your parter has such a huge impact on how your life turns out, and as I look over at her while she watches TV and has no idea what I’m writing, I think “yeah, that was a good decision.”

Back in 1994 and 1995, one of my best friends always used to say, “There’s an @$$ for every seat” when talking about the two of us, and he’s right. We’re two peas in a pod, totally made for each other. We celebrate May 23 because that’s the day we made the lifetime commitment to each other back in 1999. But we celebrate September 22, because since that day in 1994, we’ve been best friends.

Happy Birthday To Jack!

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Today is Jack’s 6th birthday. It’s kind of depressing to me, because my sixth birthday is my earliest birthday that I can remember, so I can remember being his age. When I turned 6, I had a big party at Shakey’s Pizza for my entire first-grade class. On the flip side, last Friday — five days before his 6th birthday, Jack called me “Miss Anne” when I dropped him off at school. Even though he can’t read and probably won’t be able to by his next birthday, I decided that for my blog I’d write a letter to him as if he could understand it. Maybe I’ll save it and show it to him years down the road.

For those of you who have never been here, Jack is my son and he is severely autistic. I’m a marathon runner and in 2010, I’m going to try to run 60 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. I’m hopeful that we can make a big difference in his honor.

Dear Jack,
I can’t believe you’re already 6 years old. You’re struggling right now with your autism, but you’ve had a great summer and I’m encouraged by your progress. For years, I’ve dreamed of being able to talk to you, and I still think that dream is going to come true. You’re really coming along and I’m excited about it. I’ve held out hope for a long time that you’ll have a breakthrough and someday live a life that’s close to typical. Part of me thinks that’s still possible, because you’re still only 6. But part of me does the math and knows you’re already 1/3 of the way to 18.

If you think I get frustrated taking care of you, you’re right. You’re very challenging. I wish you weren’t the way you are. A small part of that is because it makes things difficult for me, Mommy, Benjamin and Ava. But the biggest part of that is that it’s no fair for you to go through the challenges you face on a daily basis. You’re only a little kid. It breaks my heart. You didn’t ask for this.

I look at you and I get happy and sad at the same time. Like I said, it kills me that you suffer the way you do. You’re such a cute, sweet little kid. But I’m so glad God gave you to us. I couldn’t imagine you not in our life. Mommy and I talk all the time about how your autism makes things challenging for us. We look back at our wedding pictures and get sad, because we had no idea what we had coming. A year ago, we went to an engagement party for our friends Brian and Kelly, and Mommy cried when she saw them dancing, because she thought, “Who knows what the future holds for them? Will they have healthy children? Will they struggle like we do?”

But you know what? Mommy and I look at life as a roller coaster. We had no idea what the ride would be like, but we’re grateful that we get to ride it together and bring you along. This is the track we’re on, and only God has control. If this is what He wants for us, we’ll graciously accept it. We all pray every day for you to get better. I don’t know if you notice, but at family dinner, it doesn’t matter who leads the prayer — me, Mommy, Benjamin or Ava. The first thing we ask for is for you to get better. And we all still have faith that you will.

I look forward to the day that I can have a conversation with you. And the day I can take you to In-N-Out for a burger without putting you in a high chair. And the day we can go on a walk (or jog!) around the block. And the day we can play a game the right way. And the day we can watch something age-appropriate on television. I don’t care if anybody tells me to accept you the way you are right now — I still look forward to the day when things are better.

In the meantime, just know that I will always take care of you. Parents always take care of their children as much as necessary, but you can rest assured I will always have your back. There is nothing Mommy and I won’t do, and the rest of your family — your grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. — feels the same way.

We’re going to have a party for you on Sunday. You won’t really know it’s a party for you — it will seem like just another play day at a new park. You won’t be able to eat the cake, because there’s dairy in the frosting. And you won’t be able to eat the pizza, because there’s dairy in the cheese. But everybody will be there because they love you. And just because you don’t know any different doesn’t mean we’re going to treat you like a second-class citizen. You deserve the best, and that’s what we’ll try to give you.

Jack, I really just want you to know how proud I am of you. You work so incredibly hard and you’re a sweet kid with a huge heart. Even though you don’t know today is your birthday, I hope you have a great day. I hope school goes well, I hope you enjoy your break from therapy, I hope you don’t have any meltdowns and I hope that whatever thoughts are going on inside your head are positive. Enjoy your day and have a great 7th year!

Love always,

Daddy