I normally do 10 random things on Tuesdays, but this week, I’m doing it today, because I wanted to go with the Chase Community Giving Contest as my focus yesterday. I normally write something catchy at the top to get you to read the rest of the blog, but today I’m not feeling very clever. So can I just beg you to keep reading?

Just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack is severely autistic and I’m taking my first shot at trying to make a difference in the world. I’m attempting to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. I’m through 29 of the 60 and I’m reaching a lot of people!

10 Random Things!

1. OK, so I’m going to start with that Chase Community Giving Contest. They’re giving out $5 million combined to 200 different charities. I’m all in favor of us being one of them. If you haven’t already voted, please take 30 seconds to vote and help us out! If you have voted, please click this link to post this page on your Facebook wall!

2. Video of the day: Jack dancing! I took this on Monday night.

3. A friend of mine in San Francisco, Heather Hawkins is having an Operation Jack fundraiser at a bar this weekend. If you’re looking for something to do, here are the details!

4. What’s E.T. short for? I’ll have the answer a little bit later.

5. Downhills kill your quads. I was so excited to have a “week off” last week by pacing 3:40 at Utah Valley. But the course was downhill. Even though I ran slow, I pounded my quads. I’m writing this blog about 85 hours after I finished the race and it hurts 10 times as bad to walk as it normally does. That’s just because of my quads, though. Everything else feels pretty good.

6. My wife thinks I’m not very funny. At one point, I decided to start counting every time I mad her laugh. Eventually (I think it took a year or two) I got past 100 and I stopped counting. I am funny. I am, I am, I am.

7. My ice cream streak is up to 136 days now. It’s also 239 out of the past 240 days. I had peanut butter fudge swirl with s’mores flavored Magic Shell last night. That flavor of Magic Shell is amazing.

8. I picked up a pacing gig for Missoula (July 11) that has me a little bit nervous. I’m pacing the 3:10 group. I’m not pacing the entire race, though. Just the first half. I’m going to run consistent 7:14s, get the group to the half at 1:35, and then somebody else will jump in and pace the second half. I’ll be free to run my own race at that point. I’m very confident in my ability to get this done, but I don’t have a huge margin for error.

9. I watched the Lakers-Celtics game a little bit last night. I think I have less confidence in the integrity of the NBA than I do in the integrity of boxing. I think the NBA is totally fixed. I’m not the least bit shocked this series is going seven games. I played Chutes and Ladders last night with Benjamin and Ava – that game was more exciting than the one being played at Staples Center.

10. Oatmeal is healthy, right? And raisins? Because I had a lot of oatmeal and raisins yesterday, so I feel healthy. Well, except the oatmeal and raisins were mixed with a lot of butter and sugar … I think the word is “cookies”?

Answer to the question about E.T.: Because he has little legs!

OK, that’s all I have for today. I am funny, I am funny, I am funny. And I’ll see you tomorrow!

What do Facebook, bowling, a dented car and Jack’s photography have in common? They’re all part of my 10 Random Things For Tuesday blog.

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. I came up with this idea (and my wife made the decision that I’d do this) to try to run 60 full marathons in 2010 all over the country in attempt to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism/.

So far we have new chapters in several states, I’ve raised a fair amount of money and I’m on schedule with the races, through 28 of the 60 marathons. And with that, I’ll dive into my 10 random things.

1. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when somebody hit my wife’s car while she was inside the dentist’s office with the kids, then left before she came out. I was pleasantly surprised because the person left a note with her contact information and insurance information. Who does that nowadays?

2. Speaking of that dentist visit, Jack was with Tiff, but was just along for the ride. He remembered his visit to the DAN doctor last week and was apprehensive walking through the hallway. Poor little dude thought he was going to get stuck with needles again. He notices and remembers a lot more than you’d think he does.

3. I’m having some pretty nice pain in the IT band in my right leg. It’s been bothering me for about a month and I finally figured out what it is. Running 60 marathons in a year is a challenge. Getting over an IT band problem while running a marathon every weekend should be tricky, too. I took yesterday and today off and I’m spending some quality time with my foam roller.

4. On May 2 at the Orange County Marathon, Jack was hanging out in the stroller, playing with Tiff’s iPhone. He likes to take pictures, and he snapped one. If you’ve wondered how Jack views the world, now you know.

5. Tiff posted the following Facebook status yesterday:

Well, aside from getting lost on the way to the pharmacy, listening to kids fight in the back seat (causing Jack to cry), a way too long dentist visit for Ben which caused us to be late to Jack’s therapy, and walking out of the dentist to find a note on my car from the person who backed into it, leaving a huge dent in the back, I’d say I’ve had a pretty awesome day! Cheers! 🙂

She replied immediately to herself with

Oh, forgot too add that when I arrived at the pharmacy, my prescription was never called in.

I’m a sensitive, caring husband. So I posted

What’s for dinner?

And she told me

Steak, salad and couscous.

And I’m very appreciative, so I told her

Don’t burn the steak or I’ll be angry.

6. My ice cream/frozen yogurt streak is at 128 consecutive days now. I had cookies and cream frozen yogurt with crushed Butterfinger as a topping. Kind of an odd combo, but I liked it.

7. I’m really liking the way this baseball season is shaping up. Tampa Bay is the class of the AL, the Padres are in first place, the Braves and Nationals could make some noise and the Cardinals and Reds are locked in a battle. This is not what the experts expected. It’s looking like it’s going to be a fun summer (well, aside from all these warm-weather marathons I’m running).

8. Who are my bowlers in SoCal? I’m really trying to get a team together to represent Operation Jack on July 17 at Lucky Strike Bowling Alley at The Block in Orange. I only need four people, but I’d love to have eight. Heck, I’d love to have more, but I’ll start with eight. Here’s the info. If you’re interested, send me an email!

9. Last night, I was at a frozen yogurt place with Benjamin and Ava. The place was loud and very family friendly. Benjamin was starting to get a little wild at one point and ran around the table a couple of times with his friends. I looked at him and he made eye contact with me. He had a big smile on his face, but I wasn’t smiling. So he tried to hide the grin but he couldn’t. I looked him in the eyes, then shifted my eyes to look at his chair, then looked back in his eyes. I didn’t say a word and he sat down in his chair. I thought to myself, “Wow, I’m a DAD!”

10. You want a feel-good story for your Tuesday? Check out this blog from Asia Renning. Asia has autism and is a runner. On Saturday, she ran her 100th race! Asia and her parents Adair and Jerry are members of Train 4 Autism and good friends of Operation Jack. Go check out her blog and give her some congratulations!

OK, I’m no accountant, but I know that’s 10 random things. So I’m checking out for today. See you tomorrow!

I’m pretty late in announcing this, but I just got it finalized last week and I use Wednesdays to give Operation Jack updates. We’re going to have a series of three Train 4 Autism races, featuring marathons and half-marathons. The good news? I’ll be offering prize money for the overall series championship. The bad news? The first race is a month from today. Like everything associated with Operation Jack, though, participation trumps everything else, so you don’t want to miss a race!

Here’s how it’s going to work: I’m working with Charlie Alewine, who puts on a series of low-key races, and we’re going to stage races on April 3, August 8 and December 27. The December 27 race will be the 60th and final race I run for Operation Jack! The races will work as a fundraiser, but we’ll also offer $750 in total prize money. FULL DETAILS HERE

There will be a half-marathon and a marathon at each event. Series points will be awarded for the top five finishers at each event (5, 4, 3, 2, 1). Beyond that, each finisher will receive 10 series points for participation. So, the fewest amount of points you can earn for completing all three races is 30 (10×3) and the most is 45 (10+5 bonus, x3).

The first tiebreaker will be total races completed and the second tiebreaker will be average time. So, if somebody wins the first two races and doesn’t show for the third, and somebody else shows up and finishes dead last in all three races, they’d both have 30 points (10×3 and 15×2). Since the first tiebreaker is total races completed, the runner finishing dead last in all three races will end up ranked higher in the series.

Prize money will be $250 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place and $100 for 3rd place in the marathon series and the same in the half-marathon series. And of course, by showing up to race, you’ll be supporting Operation Jack.

The races are low-key and low frills, but you’ll get a tech shirt and a medal.

Weekly Contest Idea
Give me some feedback on this. I’m always scratching my head for ideas, so fortunately, other people are actually thinking. My friend Jen Morgan came up with one yesterday and I’m going to give it a shot for a week and see if it flies. I’ll mention it again tomorrow, but here’s the deal … make your guess as to what you think my time will be in my race this weekend and whoever is closest without guessing too fast of a time will win their choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Now here’s how you guess: Click on the Donate Form and make a donation in the amount that you think my time will be. If you think I’m going to run a 3:13, then donate $3.13. If you think it’s going to be a 3:08, donate $3.08. Whoever gets the closest without guessing too fast of a time will win. I’ll do a random drawing if there’s a tie. I’m figuring it’s an easy way to make a contribution and I’m hoping that collectively, enough of you will play along to make a difference over the course of the year. I’ll talk about this again tomorrow, but go ahead and start making your guesses now!

I’m Going To Leave It At That For Today
That’s enough for today. I know the shorter I keep this thing, the more likely y’all are to read to the bottom. And if you don’t read to the bottom, you won’t know that my ice cream streak is at 31 days now! Have a great Wednesday, everybody. I know I will — I’m hitting In-N-Out for lunch!

My weekend started on Thursday at noon when I got a call from my wife’s cell phone. It was actually my neighbor calling from my wife’s phone, telling me Tiff slammed her finger shut in the door of her Suburban and she was bleeding pretty badly. I could hear Tiff screaming in the background. And no, my weekend didn’t get any easier from there.

My blackberry stopped working Thursday morning. Perfect day for that, because while I was speeding home to tend to my wife, I couldn’t communicate with anybody. I got her to the doctor and we found out she broke her right index finger in two places. I had to get prescriptions filled for her. But I also had to get my phone taken care of, because we were going to Tucson over the weekend and I live through that thing, communicating with the world. Of course, the phone store took forever and there was a lapse in communication between the pharmacy and the doctor, adding an hour on to my wife’s wait for much-needed painkillers.

I’ll spare you the details, but I didn’t have my phone again until Saturday. Even when I’m not working, I have to keep an eye on things, and everything flows through email. So basically being out of touch with everything from Thursday at noon until Saturday morning was a huge problem. But whatever, I moved on.

On Friday morning, I dropped Ava and Benjamin off at school and Tiff took Jack to her mom’s house. He was getting over being sick and we decided to keep him out of school for an extra day. After spending a couple of unexpected hours at an orthopedist for Tiff’s finger, we got on the road to Tucson. It poured miserably for about three hours. And by the time we got there, we found out that Jack was starting to feel miserable again and Ben and Ava were sick.

Meanwhile, Tiff was starting to come down with a pretty good cold and the painkiller made her queasy. I got a sore throat last Monday, and that turned into a decent cough on Friday. Tiff was miserable with her cold by Saturday morning, and my chest was really starting to burn when I coughed. Back home, our kids weren’t getting any better and it was pretty obvious that my poor mother-in-law was having a rough go with the kids. I talked with Tiff about putting her on a plane home, but for whatever reason, we decided against that.

I woke up yesterday to run the marathon in Tucson and my chest cold was burning pretty badly. I’ll save the details of the race for a race report tomorrow, but it was a pretty difficult run. I went 3:17:02 and had a tough time. I’ll leave it at that for now. Anyways, after the race, we went back to where we were staying, I showered, and we hit Cracker Barrel for lunch before driving 462 miles home. We barely got home before the kids went to bed, but it was good to see them. What a weekend. It’s like we were on Punk’d for 84 hours. But at the end, the kids were happy to see us. It even seems like Jack seemed to notice that we were back, which we were happy about.

All in all, complete chaos. And now it’s Monday …

Kids Say The Darnedest Things
On Thursday night, Benjamin, our 8-year-old, had the following wisdom for Tiff:

Ben: Mommy, I have some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?
Tiff: We always save the best for last. Tell me the bad news.
Ben: The bad news is you broke your finger in two places and it’s going to hurt for four to six weeks.
Tiff: Yes, that’s bad. What’s the good news?
Ben: Tomorrow is our last rehearsal for our Christmas musical.

It’s tough to argue with that.

Have You Joined The New Operation Jack Facebook Group?
We’ve had a fan page for a while, but we’re migrating over to the new group page. The link is on the Facebook button on this page. If you’re not a member, become a member! And tell your friends!

By The Numbers
18 days until Operation Jack, Race 1! And 54 consecutive days with ice cream now.

That’s All For Today!
I’ll post again tomorrow with a race report from Tucson. I think you should all read it and enjoy the pain I went through. Have a great Monday!

I was the sports editor of the daily student newspaper when I was in college, and once, the radio station scheduled me for a 30-minute segment to talk about football recruiting. I was excited, but once I got in and saw the red “On Air” light, I froze. I stumbled and bumbled my way to the first commercial break and the hosts were kind enough to let me off the hook after a mere seven minutes. I’m going to have an audience on December 14, and I’m cautiously optimistic that things will go better this time.

Standard introduction: If this is your first visit here, I’m a marathoner and a father of three — but not in that order. My middle child, 6-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and next year I’m planning on running 60 marathons in his honor to try to raise money and nationwide awareness for Train 4 Autism, a wonderful charity.

Running Update
I didn’t do a long run over the weekend. Heck, I didn’t even do a short run over the weekend. I’ve been beyond stressed over a lot of things going on in my world and I just couldn’t run this weekend.

I had a nice run yesterday, though. 15.1 miles at a 7:50/mile pace. This morning, I ran 8.15 miles of nothing, but I’m extremely stressed out about some things that have nothing to do with anything I’ve ever discussed here, so I cut my run short because I couldn’t focus. But I’m kind of getting back to where I was, and I’m still optimistic at this point that I’ll be ready to make a legitimate run at sub-3 in Tucson on December 13. Speaking of Tucson, …

I’m More Nervous About This Than I Am About Running 60 Marathons
I’m going to be speaking at an elementary school in Tucson the day after the race. There’s going to be an assembly for kids from 3rd grade through 6th grade and I’m going to talk to them for about 30 minutes. I think I’m going to be talking to them about helping others, believing in yourself and challenging yourself, health and physical fitness.

That speech will be right after I throw up. The last time I spoke in front of anybody was in my college speech class in the summer of 1997. There were about 15 people in the class. I might as well get used to this, but still! Yikes! Do you think they’ll get my jokes?

If You Don’t Know What An IEP Is, Be Grateful
We had an IEP for Jack yesterday, and I guess it’s one of those things that parents of special-needs children get to deal with. Basically, it’s a once-a-year thing where parents meet with the school district to set educational goals for the child.

The school is evaluated on how well the student does meeting the goals, so the goals can’t be unrealistic. But at the same time, parents want to see progress, so the goals can’t be too simple. Finding that middle ground is a challenge that’s a way of life for anybody involved in special ed. It can be a decent experience, or it can be a bitter battle. We’ve had both.

I’m not going to get into specific details about yesterday’s meeting. That’s not saying anything one way or the other — that’s just saying that some things shouldn’t be written about in a public blog. Despite 2 1/2 hours, though, we didn’t finish and we’ll be continuing the process in a couple of weeks.

I will say that it’s pretty depressing sitting through an IEP, looking at the numbers about how Jack tested out. He’s definitely behind. I don’t think I even want to say how far behind in various areas. But I know that I’m still optimistic that he’s going to get better. He’s got a lot going inside that head of his and he’s going to break through this shell that’s currently limiting him. I like what I’ve seen from him lately and I’m cautiously optimistic.

But like I said, if you don’t know what an IEP is, be grateful.

Good Luck To A Good Friend Of Operation Jack!
This Sunday, Ally Phillips is running her first marathon in Tulsa. I love running vicariously through other people, so I get to run a first marathon this weekend! The experience of your first marathon is awesome, one you’ll never forget. I always say that the most important part of running a first marathon is running a second marathon, because that’s how you know you’re making a lifestyle change and a fitness commitment beyond crossing the marathon off the proverbial list of things to do in life.

So Ally, good luck, and have fun!

Have A Great Day Everybody!
That’s all I have for today. I could probably come up with more, but this thing is already long enough. Plus, I wrote this last night and I was getting tired.