Weekend Preview: Grizzly Marathon

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I know I mention every week how the weeks fly by so quickly, but this time, it has been such a quick, quick week. My legs are still pretty wrecked from the hills of San Francisco, yet it's time to write another weekend preview blog. That's the blur that is Operation Jack. I'll be glad when I'm done, but I know I'll miss it, too. Whatever the case, I've got the Grizzly Marathon in Choteau, Montana on Saturday.

If you've never been here before, I'm a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I tend to recover fairly quickly from my marathons, so I decided (well, after consulting with my wife) to try to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I'm a part of called Train 4 Autism. This is my first crack at really trying to make a difference. So far, so good. 35 down, 26 to go.

So anyways, moving on to this weekend, I'm super tired this week and have no idea what to write. And thinking about my weekend, I'm getting more tired by the minute. I have an early-morning flight out, a late-night flight landing for my return, I'll be driving about 500 miles this weekend and there's the requisite marathon. And to think, I'm already tired. Awesome!

This race should be interesting. It's in a small town (population 1,700) called Choteau, Montana, and they advertise that like the local residents, the race is tough and charming with plenty of character. It's an out-and-back measured by an F-150. Sounds like a race by runners for runners. I'm expecting a tough go just because I know I'll be tired, I'm still pretty banged up from San Francisco and I've been nothing but slow lately.

This long, hot summer continues, but that's OK. The tougher it gets, the better the memories will be. Kind of. Speaking of the Grizzly Marathon, I saw this article online yesterday. I'll just remember that I don't need to be able to outrun a bear. I just need to be able to outrun three people.

Anyways, what I'm really looking forward to is Sunday afternoon, because I'll be going to the Rangers-Angels game with my son Benjamin and my dad. After the game, they have a "Kids Run The Bases" promotion and he'll get to run the bases. Can't complain about Benjamin having a blast!

Oh, and my weekly contest ... I normally have a weekly contest, where people guess what my time is going to be and then make a donation in that amount to win a prize (for instance, a 3:15 guess requires a $3.15 donation). Well, it's been slow lately and participation has been really low, so I'm not going to do that this week.

Anyways, I expect to post a race report on Saturday. Have a great weekend everybody!