Well, I didn’t post a blog yesterday, so this is kind of a weekend recap and Monday recap. Some things happened yesterday that are certainly blog-worthy!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. Click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this year (and a couple of ultramarathons) for Train 4 Autism.

This past weekend, I went to Olathe, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, to run in the Patriots Run. It was a wonderful event. Of course, it was very hot — 80 degrees with 70 percent humidity at the start, and it warmed up. Oh, and there was no shade or cloud cover. I officially ran in a marathon and in a timed race, a 9:11 run on a one-mile loop on 9/11. It was as American as is gets and I actually won the ultramarathon, running 54.18 miles in the allotted time. I posted a race recap here.

My Body Hates Me
I could tell during Saturday’s race that I was going to cramp pretty badly afterwards, and even thinking that, I underestimated how bad it was going to be! I had three severe episodes before I left the finish area. It was miserable and it took me an hour to catch my breath!

I stayed with some good friends of mine in the Kansas City area and after I got back and sat down on their couch, they started cramping on me again and I was bouncing around in pain. I had to get up at 6 a.m. yesterday for a flight, and I was exhausted to say the least. But I couldn’t fall asleep — I was laying there in my bed past midnight and my legs kept seizing up on me! I did everything I could think of, but I was beyond miserable. Oh, and I’m sunburned from the race, too! Not to mention very sore.

I did all sorts of things — I drank pickle juice, which is supposed to help, I did a deep massage on my calves and I put some of that burning muscle cream on. Finally, at 2 a.m., I fell asleep. I only woke up two or three times from random cramping. And when the alarm went off at 6 a.m., I only snoozed once and I was out of bed at 6:05! So yeah, like I wrote in the headline, my body hates me. It responded by shutting down at 7 p.m. on Sunday night. Nothing like 12 hours of sleep to catch up.

Jack’s Birthday Party!
Jack turns 7 on Thursday, so we had a family birthday party for him on Sunday. Knowing my race schedule for the year, I knew that had to be the day. We had relatives over and decorated everything with a monkey theme, because that’s what Jack likes. He loved his monkey cake and demanded that we re-light the candles after he blew them out so he could blow them out again. It was his party, so whatever he wanted, right?

Jack is going to Disneyland for his birthday. He doesn’t know this, and neither do his siblings (we’re not going to tell them, either). It’s gonna be a special mommy-and-Jack date. So happy for them! I view birthdays as a special day for Tiff, too, because she unselfishly carried the babies and gave birth. If she wants a day at the Happiest Place on Earth with her baby, then that’s fine with me!

Ahhh, The Good Old Days
When I was out in Kansas City, I went and saw the first apartment Tiff and I had after we got married. 12425 W. 120th, #1023 in Overland Park. Ahhh, the good old days. Life was so easy!

Summer Vacation Ends, Fall Vacation Begins!
The kids all started school yesterday. Finally Tiff can get back into a routine. The summers are always tough for her because of Jack’s difficulties, but this one wasn’t as bad. Still, it’s nice when they go back into school and get into their routines. Jack thrives in a routine and Ben does well in school. Ben is now in fourth grade and Jack is in second. Ben really seems to like his classmates and we’ve heard great things about Jack’s new teacher.

As for Ava, it was her first day of kindergarten and she loved it! She’s totally excited that she gets to go back again tomorrow. There was no sadness or any kind of emotional difficulty for me knowing my youngest was now in kindergarten. The way I see it, she was happy. Good deal.

Last-Minute Change Of Plans
I was going to run the Boulder Marathon this weekend in Boulder, Colo., but there was a fire there and the race was postponed. I guess that was bound to happen once this year, and fortunately for me, I can still make good use out my airfare to Denver. There’s a race 200 miles southwest of there in a town called Gunnison called the Mountain Air Marathon. I was concerned about the difficulty of the race in Boulder, because it was all in the 5,200 – 5,600 foot elevation range. This new race starts at 8,800 feet and ends at 7,700 feet. Should be easy. Or maybe not. It all depends on whether or not I need air when I run.

That’s All For Today
I’m heading to In-N-Out for Taco Tuesday! Yeah! Have a great day, everybody!

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?

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?

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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!

I need to remember to use my camera more. When I do that, I can write my blog with more pictures and fewer words. There’s going to be some words in this weekend recap. But I have 13 pictures, too. I like pictures — they’re easy to read!

Real quick, if this is your first time here, click here and see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons for Train 4 Autism this year.

The Most Common Question I Get
Do you work?

Yeah, I work full time. I’ve missed maybe 10 days or so of work this year, all for travel. I haven’t taken a sick day or a personal day or anything like that. The only days I’m missing are when I have to travel on a Friday. Well, I missed the Monday for Boston, but I was in the next day, and I missed a day when I missed a flight and got stuck in Spokane.

But I can do my entire job anywhere as long as I have a computer, and I always have a computer with me, so I squeeze in some bonus time pretty frequently. Why am I telling you this? Because this weekend was ridiculous! Here’s a quick blow-by-blow of Friday and Saturday. I had a deadline Saturday night.

My “weekend” started super early on Friday morning. Up at 3 to catch my flight at 6 a.m. out of Los Angeles. There was a slowdown getting through security and I almost missed my flight, walking directly from security onto the plane without slowing down a step. On my first flight, I worked on the plane. Yay laptops. I had a layover of about 90 minutes and I powered away some more while I waited in San Francisco.

On that second flight, I was at it some more. I got to my destination, Missoula, Montana, but I had to wait 3 1/2 hours to pick up my rental car (once you go over 24 hours, you get charged for a second day. So I sat by the baggage claim and kept on working. When I got my car, I grabbed some pancakes, drove 165 miles to the town I was staying in, Choteau, then picked up my race stuff, checked into my motel and got to work after I spent 10 minutes getting everything ready for my race the next day.

I called it quits at 9:30, because I had to get up at 3:45 the next morning. After I got up and got ready for the race, I squeezed in another hour. After the race, I showered, hit the road, stopped for lunch, then spent a couple of hours waiting at the airport. I was productive during that time, of course, and on that first flight, I finished my project.

During my 90-minute layover in Seattle, I plugged in, uploaded files onto a development site, ran some tests and everything was ready to go. On the flight from Seattle to Los Angeles, I spent about an hour making some last-minute changes, then took a break and spent about 30 minutes writing my race report.

After landing and getting my car, I drove an hour to get home, walked in the house at 12:30 a.m., made myself a turkey sandwich and spent about 30 minutes uploading the project and making sure everything was fine. I checked my email at about 8 a.m., saw that there were some issues, then went downstairs and spent 45 minutes polishing things up. Finally, I got to relax, enjoy breakfast with my family, and then I was off for the rest of the day Sunday!

So yeah, I work. I think there was a marathon in the middle of all that, too.

After Two Exhausting Days, At Least I Had A Nice Family Day
I went to the Angels-Rangers game with my dad and my 9-year-old son Benjamin on Sunday. It was a great pitching matchup, Cliff Lee vs. Jered Weaver, plus they have something where kids get to run the bases after the game. Benjamin had a blast with that. Oh, and we stopped at In-N-Out on the way to the game. That made me happy!

After the game, I went to visit my grandparents at their house. They’ve been there since 1968, which was way before I was born, so that’s always been where I’ve gone to see them. They’re moving into an assisted living facility today, and I’m pretty excited about that, because they’re going to have a much better quality of life, plus they’re going to be five minutes from my work and 15 minutes from house. Their house they’re moving out of is 45 minutes away, so it’s tough for me to see them frequently.

While I’m excited about that, it blows my mind that they’re moving out of their house after 42 years. I went up after the game to see it for one last time. I got to visit with them too, which was nice. But I just can’t believe I’m never going back there. There have been countless family gatherings there, I used to spend the night when I was a kid … when I think of them, I think of that house. But amazingly, it’s just a memory now. Life goes on, I guess.

But anyways, the ballgame and seeing my grandparents really made for a great day.

So that’s all from my weekend. Here are the pics!

That’s all for today … have a great Tuesday!

Oh, what a weekend — exhausting and HOT. But I had a great family day yesterday and through it all, I had wonderful experiences and witnessed more proof (not that I needed it) that I’m being led down a wonderful path. The Operation Jack train is still headed down the track and I got to spend a full day with my four favorite people in the world. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Just in case 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. To try to make a difference in his honor and help him have an impact on the world, I’m attempting to run 61 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. I named the endeavor Operation Jack

So far, I’m through 34, I’ve raised a fair amount of money and I’ve introduced a lot of people to Train 4 Autism. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying to raise more money or reach more people, but it does mean that so far, I’d call this a success. Only 27 more marathons and I can take a nap!

This past weekend, I ran the University of Okoboji Marathon in Okoboji, Iowa. There’s really no University, but that’s an inside joke with the locals. The race was absolutely miserable to run in because of the weather, not that I expected a marathon in Iowa in the middle of July to be cold and overcast. It was very humid, in the 70s at the start and in the high 80s by the finish. I don’t know the exact temperature when I was done, but when I got to my hotel, it was 96 and it didn’t feel significantly warmer.

If you want to read about misery, check out my recap.

Why I say The Running Is The Easiest Part Of This
When I was walking to my car after flying home Saturday night, I started doing the math in my head. In the previous 14 days, I had driven about 1,200 miles in rental cars. I’d spent four nights in four hotels in four different states. I’d spent about 12 hours sitting in airports on layovers. And I spent three days as Mr. Mom. That’s why I say that the running is the easiest part of all of this. The three marathons in those 14 days were nothing!

But of course, in those 14 days, we also won $20,000 for Train 4 Autism. So it was all worth it.

How I Know My Race Was Truly Humid
I knew it was going to be humid, because I could feel it when I got into town and it’s humid in that part of the country. I can truly tell during a race by how soaked my clothes get from the sweat. If it’s not too bad, my clothing wicks sweat and will actually be pretty dry in the front.

But on Saturday, I was drenched from head to toe about 5 miles in. My shoes and socks were totally soaked, too. At one point, at about mile 22, I looked down and noticed I was leaving light footprints where I was running because my shoes were so soaked. I think it was humid.

Not Much Weekend-ness To Report On From Iowa
I flew in Friday, drove 3+ hours to where I was going, got some Taco Bell for dinner, then went to sleep about 30 minutes after getting my stuff ready for Saturday and calling home. On Saturday, after getting up at 3:45 (Central time) and running the race, I drove back to my hotel, spent about 20 minutes getting showered and checking out, then drove back to the airport.

I stopped for 15 minutes to eat at Taco John’s on the way back and eventually got to the airport 55 minutes before my flight. I flew home and walked through the front door at about 9:15 p.m. Exciting stuff, huh?

One thing about Taco John’s … I see that chain in a lot in my travels, but I had never eaten there. I never thought I’d utter these words, but I should have had McDonald’s instead. With my chicken burrito, which was mediocre at best, I got a big cup of tater tots that were the size of lifesavers. Seriously, tater tots with Mexican food?

At least they had Diet Mountain Dew. Side note: I don’t recommend drinking three 44-ounce cups of Diet Mountain Dew if you still have 2 1/2 hours to go to get to the airport. Just sayin’.

Sunday Fun Day!
Slept in until 8, lazy breakfast (Tiff’s homemade banana bread!), church with the family and then the five of us went to the community pool for a couple of hours. I dozed on the couch for a bit, watched a little ESPN while Ava took a nap laying on me, then had a mellow evening. The kids had fun playing in the backyard, they were good at dinner, Tiff made some really good salmon for dinner and I celebrated National Ice Cream Day with a bowl of peanut butter fudge swirl.

I’ve been longing for a day like that for a long time. It was nice to get it.

Speaking Of Ice Cream, …
For those of you who didn’t see on Facebook or Twitter, I totally forgot to eat ice cream last Thursday and my streak snapped at 165 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. Oh well. Please don’t hate me!

Fun Jack Story
Last night at dinner, we had fun playing a clapping game with him. He was clapping on and off, so me, Tiff, Ben and Ava started clapping when he was clapping and stopping when he stopped clapping. He figured out what we were doing pretty quickly and had fun being in charge and leading us. We did this for several minutes, and it’s a good thing for his development — it’s good reinforcement that there can be positive results from his actions.

After a few minutes, Tiff made him start saying “clap” and “stop” to get us to start and stop with him, so we added language into the equation. He had a lot of fun with it. He’s getting there. Slowly, but surely.

Grandparents Watch
15 days until they move to 20 minutes away from my house and 10 minutes away from my work. I … can’t … wait! I’m going to be super sad when their house sells, though. They’ve been in it since 1968, which was before I was born. I’m going up there on August 1. Might be the last time I’ll be there. I’m betting that I’m gonna cry.

That’s All For Today
I’ll see you back here tomorrow! Have a great Monday, everybody!