A lot of people ask how I picked my race schedule. Quite a few things went into selecting each of the 60 marathons on my schedule for this year, but being home with my family for Mother’s Day outweighed everything else for this weekend.

There are races on Sunday, but I didn’t even consider those. I originally scheduled a race for this Saturday in Wisconsin, but the flight schedule getting back was pretty tight. I was looking at running a race starting at 8 and the last flight of the day leaving the local airport (30 miles away) was at about 1 p.m. The schedule would have been possible, although extremely tight, but it wasn’t worth the risk.

Luckily, about three weeks ago, I found a race just outside Grand Junction, Colo. I only need to leave work about two hours early to catch my flight on Friday, and I’ll be back fairly early on Saturday night. On top of that, the race director was very friendly to deal with, which is always a treat.

So, I’m running the Grand Valley Marathon in Palisade, Colo. on Saturday, my 24th full marathon of the year. Every week, I have a contest where you guys make a small donation and guess my time (for example, if you think I’m going to run a 3:07, you donate $3.07). I analyze the course and give you my best guess as to what I think I’m going to run. And then you give me a pat on the back by clicking here or on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site. $3 and a nickel or two (or three or four if you have no confidence in me) is all it takes. The winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. I’ll get to that in just a bit.

First, since it’s Mother’s Day Weekend, I’m going to talk about mothers briefly. I have a bunch of mothers in my life. I talk about my wife a lot, but I never really talk about my mom or my stepmom. I’m not going to go into huge details, because I view their privacy in regards to Operation Jack a whole lot differently than I do Tiff’s.

Anyways, my parents split more than 30 years ago, but in my mind, it was for the best for everybody. My mom found her soulmate and has been happily married since 1993, and my dad found his soulmate, and they just celebrated their 18th anniversary on Monday.

My mom lives in Atlanta, but I keep in pretty close contact with her. She’s a huge supporter of Operation Jack and does crazy things like stopping random runners on the street to tell them what I’m doing. I’ve told her that’s bad etiquette with runners, but she’s proud and there’s not a lot I can do to stop her. She loves me unconditionally the way a mother should.

My dad met his wife when I was a sophomore in high school. That’s a difficult time to come into the picture, but she’s been a big part of the equation for the majority of my life. My world has been pure chaos for a good 12-15 years as I went through college and then got married and started a family, but she’s been there with me and for me the whole time. She, too, loves me unconditionally the way a mother should.

Anyways, the way I see it, God leads you down paths for a reason. I wouldn’t be who I am today if not for both of them. I’m not saying I’m anything special, but I am who I am, and there’s no question they have both shaped me. And since it’s Mother’s Day Weekend, I figured I’d give them a shout-out.

I’m also pretty lucky to still have one of my grandmas. My Grandma Bea, still ticking at 85 (she’d kill me if she knew I put her age in here!) is a one-of-a-kind. I’m grateful for every opportunity I get to see her. She’s got her little quirks, but all-in-all, she’s a sweet grandma. If you’ve been following along this whole year, you know that we’ve had a Super Bowl bet for each of the past 22 years. This year, I won, so she took me and my family out to lunch. The way she sees it, she really won. For starters, my grandpa paid. Plus, she got to see all of us!

But really, I’m biased. I have a favorite mom … my wife! I know everybody thinks their wife is the best mom, so I guess I’m just like everybody. She sometimes gets upset that she doesn’t have a “job” or a career, but she does an amazing job with our three kids. It’s really tough to raise a special-needs child, and it’s even tougher to raise a special-needs child and two more children. But she does, and she takes care of me, and she takes care of herself. The older my oldest son Benjamin gets, the more I can tell that we have a very sweet, loving son who’s going to grow up to be a good man.

And I should clarify. Her taking care of them goes way beyond taking care of them. She has grown into her role so naturally since I met her back when she was 18. She’s the type that knows every little detail about each one of them in order to take care of them perfectly. She’s their biggest defender and their first source of comfort.

We all have our talents. I run marathons, I’m good with numbers and computers and I can write pretty well. She was born to be a mother and her impact will live on for generations through our children and their children. I tell her all the time that I’m glad our kids are so fortunate as to have a mother like her. She likes it when I’m around, and in my book, Sunday is HER day. That’s why I’m running on Saturday. I picked out this song for her today:

OK, The Race …
The race doesn’t look tremendously easy or difficult. There’s a pretty steep climb of mabye 150-200 feet in mile 4, but there’s an equal drop in about mile 21 or so. It looks like an out-and-back with some rollers, nothing tremendously significant. The biggest problem is that it’s going to be at elevation, varying between 4,700 and 4,900 feet. I have strengths and weaknesses in my fitness and I’ll find out how oxygen deprivation impacts me.

Lately, I’ve been hit-and-miss with my races, but I have pretty good confidence right now. I feel strong, although not particularly quick, and I know what’s slowed me down lately. I really think I can go sub-3:10, although if I was betting, I’d go with a 3:12 to be conservative.

So go ahead, make your guess. Winner gets some Operation Jack gear. I didn’t have a contest last week, but two weeks ago, Dina Williams, a loyal Operation Jack supporter who used to work with my father-in-law, guessed I’d run a 3:19 in Oklahoma City and I went 3:17:42. I hope you play this week!

That’s All For Today
I’ll post a race report at some point on Saturday. Have a great weekend everybody!

Sometimes I have serious issues I want to tackle, and when I do, I cover them in my Tuesday blog. As you can probably guess by the headline, though, I’m not doing that today. I’m going with 10 random things for Tuesday. These are fun to write, as long as I can come up with 10 things. Lucky for me, I did today!

Real quick, 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’m trying to make a difference in his honor and create a legacy for him, so I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year. I named the endeavor Operation Jack and so far, so good. I’m through 23 marathons since January 1.

OK, now 10 random things.

1. I went to McDonald’s on Saturday to get Jack two things from the dollar menu — a 4-piece Chicken McNuggets and a small order of fries. I was shocked when they wanted $2.49 for the chicken when they charge $4.99 for 20. I asked how much a 4-piece chicken happy meal was, and it was going to be something like $4.68. Do they rip off parents for the meals for kids? They have a bunch of those $2.99 meals now, but it costs more than that for four nuggets (worst chicken ever) and fries. We’ve been over the fact that I’m cheap, so we relocated to Burger King.

2. I got to spend a lot of time in Jack’s therapy sessions this weekend. Normally, that doesn’t happen. I get home from work as he’s wrapping up during the week, and I’m gone on the weekend. When I’m home on the weekends, I observe and the therapist explains what he’s doing while he’s doing it. But this weekend, he put me in the driver’s seat and I got to conduct the session. On Saturday, Jack figured it out pretty quickly that I was the one doing the session, and he got a big ol’ kick out of that, giggling hysterically for a little bit. The therapist was happy with how I did and was very happy with some of the things I did to creatively pull language out of Jack. It was a lot of fun, something I don’t normally get to do.

3. Jack was was due on September 12, 2003, the day Johnny Cash died. When I found out that morning that Johnny Cash had died, I told Tiff that if Jack was born that day, we had to name him Cash. Yeah, um, that’s not a good thing to suggest to a woman who’s nine months pregnant. It didn’t matter, because he wasn’t evicted until September 16. And as one of my Operation Jack followers pointed out, it’s a good thing we stuck with Jack as the name. “Operation Cash” probably would have sounded like a scam.

4. One thing I love about music is that it brings you back in time. “Right Here, Right Now” reminds me of the first summer I had a car. “Baby Got Back” reminds me of a ridiculous night in New Orleans. I’m thinking that this “Carry Out” song by Timbaland will always bring me back to the beginning of Operation Jack.

5. This is borderline inappropriate, but what the heck. I have a supporter in Colorado named Erin Fortin who will be running the Cleveland Marathon as part of Operation Jack. I’m going to finish ahead of her, but I want to wait to see her finish. There’s a flight I could probably catch, but I’d have to rush and I’d miss her at the end. I found a schedule that worked, but it was a touch more expensive. I went with it, because I want to be there at the end of her race.

I told her, “I’m sure you’ve never been told this, but you’re worth $49 and a red-eye flight.” It was totally appropriate in this circumstance, and I’m sure I’ll never have an opportunity to use that sentence again. So when I booked my ticket, that’s what I told her.

6. My bride Tiffany stopped in the middle of her 5K on Sunday to take a picture with some firefighters. Typical chick.

7. If you don’t have an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt, please check them out on our Sponsors page! These are one of our big fundraisers and (I think) the prices are pretty reasonable. If you dig what I’m doing, please consider picking one of these up and showing your support!

8. I’m considering adding a 61st race this year, Memphis on December 4. Lance Haney, a grad student at Auburn University, wants me to run that race with him. He created a fundraising page and if he reaches his goal, I’ll be there.

9. I saw this as my friend Susan Hill’s Facebook status last week and I couldn’t resist using it as my own: TICK WARNING! I hate it when people post bogus warnings, but this one is real. Please repost this as your status! If someone comes to your front door saying they are checking for ticks due to the warm weather and asks you to take your clothes off and dance around with your arms up, DO NOT DO IT! THIS IS A SCAM! They only want to see you naked. I wish I’d gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid.

10. I started a new training plan today, the Pfitz 12/55. Not the highest-mileage plan, but now that I’m through my doubles that I had in April, I want to start working on my speed. The strength and endurance is there, but the speed isn’t. We’ll see how it goes. Today called for 8 miles with 10x100m strides. I went 8 on some pretty nice hills with 11x100m hill sprints. So far, so good.

That’s all for today. Have a great Tuesday, everybody. See you tomorrow!

This is probably the most boring blog I’ve ever compiled, but what the heck — I spent a week writing it so I might as well post it. I don’t hide from the fact that I love my In-N-Out (had it yesterday!) and I love my ice cream (had it yesterday!), but all-in-all, I think I eat fairly well. A lot of you wonder how I can run on fast food and ice cream, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Since I ran three marathons last weekend, I decided to keep a journal of what I ate so you can see what it is that fuels me through all of this.

First, on the subject of food, we’re getting pretty close to last call for our pasta dinner on Saturday night. If you’re in Orange County, or if you’re running Orange County, please consider joining us! If you’re thinking of coming, please let us know soon because we need to turn in a head count pretty soon. If you’re on the fence, I’d really love to see you there! I’ll have the whole family there, including all three kids (yeah, Jack!). Our numbers are running a little low right now, so I’m in semi-panic mode, but not full-panic mode.

Anyways, moving on to my meal plan. Here’s what I ate last week:

Monday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, whole wheat bagel, one serving of Gatorade, 1 gel pack
Race: Gatorade (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Two Gatorade protein recovery drinks, one banana, one single-serving bag of chips
Lunch: Philly cheesesteak sandwich with sweet potato fries and a pickle
Post-lunch: Snickers ice cream bar, two small cookies
Flight: Plantain chips, cashews, single-serving bag of mini chocolate chip cookies, brownies

Tuesday
Breakfast: Two over-easy eggs with one slice of American cheese on whole wheat toast, Fiber One bar, PowerBar Recovery (protein) bar, coffee
Lunch: In-N-Out! Double-double animal style (add mustard and regular onions), fries
Dinner: Cabbage, Onions and low-fat turkey sausage
Dessert/Snacks: One small piece of carrot cake, one bakery-sized chocolate chip cookie, one small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Wednesday
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, Fiber One bar, EAS protein shake
Lunch: Whole wheat spaghetti with marinara, one bakery-sized chocolate chip cookie
Pre-workout snack: Small bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce (small)
Dinner: Large bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce
Dessert: One small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Thursday
Pre-workout snack: One slice of whole wheat toast dry
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, Fiber One bar
Lunch: Chipotle (chicken burrito, double rice, double green peppers and onions, black beans, pico de gallo, grated cheese, lettuce, hot sauce), saltine crackers, one bite of my daughter’s m&ms cookie
Snack: Banana
Dinner: Large bowl of penne pasta with marinara and meat sauce, small amount of grilled chicken
Dessert: One small bowl of low-cal butter pecan ice cream

Friday
Breakfast: One double serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and a sliced banana, four pieces of whole wheat toast w/ Brummel & Brown low-cal spread
Flight: Ritz chips snack pack, cheese crackers, two small crackers, sample-size granola bar
Snack: Taco Bell chicken burrito
Dinner: Whole wheat spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms, garden salad with bleu cheese dressing, two pieces white bread
Dessert: Small bowl of spumoni ice cream

Saturday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, peanut butter PowerBar, 1 gel pack
Race: Cytomax (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Two bottles (60 cal each) Powerade, mini bagel, Snickers Marathon Energy Bar
Lunch: All-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP (11 of them!), coffee
Dinner: Three Taco Bell bean burritos
Dessert: Waffle cone of fat-free butter pecan frozen yogurt

Sunday
Pre-race: 1 1/2 servings of UltraFuel, vanilla PowerBar, 1 gel pack
Race: Powerade (don’t know how much), 3 gel packs
Post-race: Honey wheat pretzel sticks, fig newtons, Carls Jr. Cheeseburger, Powerade
Lunch: Two Taco Bell chicken burritos, one Taco Bell bean burrito
Flight: Chewy granola bar, two small gingerbread cookies
Dinner: Baked chicken stuffed with broccoli, white rice, broccoli
Dessert: Small bowl of low-cal peanut butter fudge swirl ice cream

And that’s it. That fueled 90.3 miles of running. I had my In-N-Out and I had my ice cream, but aside from not enough vegetables, and maybe some extra desserts on Monday night, I think I ate fairly well.

Sorry about the boring blog. I’m guessing about four of you might be interested, though.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you back tomorrow with my What’s Up With OJ Wednesday blog. I have a couple of cool interviews I’ll be posting for you. Have a great Tuesday!

My blog today is going to be pretty short, sweet and to the point, just like the subject I’m writing about. My wife.

I know I gush about her all the time, but I can’t help it. And I just felt like today, I wanted to write something about her. She works so incredibly hard behind the scenes to do so much to help out with everything and does so in virtual anonymity. I work pretty hard doing what I’m doing, but I get all sorts of praise and feedback. That feedback is a big boost, and it helps me as I drag myself through this year.

But she doesn’t get a day off, she doesn’t get the chance to get out and meet people and see places like me, and she doesn’t get the pat-on-the-back she needs aside from when I thank her (and I thank her often). A lot of you say a lot of nice things about Operation Jack. You think it’s great, you find it inspiring and you’re totally behind it. Well, I just want everybody to know that none of this would be possible without Tiffany. I totally depend on everything she does to help, and she never lets me down.

Operation Jack is a total team effort, and she’s the ultimate team player. This blog is my best way to shout from the mountaintop, so I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell her that I love her and I appreciate everything she does!

I’m going with 10 random things for my blog today. I’m kind of random, so this works out well.

1. I have to give mad props to Zensah. They gave me a pair of compression pants to wear on flights and those pants my new best friend. My calves twitch a lot (sometimes pretty badly cramping) and my legs feel pretty torn up after I run 26.2, but I throw those things on and my legs feel a whole lot better. They’re still sore, but I don’t cramp with them on and the tightness on my sore legs feels awesome. It’s almost like a massage. I go from feeling pain to feeling sore. I love, love, love those pants and I highly recommend them.

2. I also highly recommend Wheaties Fuel. It’s some new cereal, I guess. I got a sample box after the race on Sunday and I wish I would have grabbed six of them. I had the box as a snack on the plane on Sunday and that stuff was delicious. I don’t remember what I really liked about it, but I remember eating it thinking, “Dang, I need to get me some of this as a snack!” Tiff, if you see it on sale at the grocery store, pick some up. I’ll totally eat it as a snack. I love it!

3. Speaking of the grocery store, I went on a field trip last night with Ava. Tiff needed a few things (actually, Jack needed a few things), so I took my little princess with me. We had a fun time. She bagged the apples and bananas, picked a lot of the stuff off the shelf and pushed around a little kiddie cart with everything we were buying.

4. You’ll notice there’s flowers in the cart. I got those for Tiff, just because. I don’t believe in buying flowers when I’m in trouble. “Hey babe, I’m sorry … so I shelled out some of our cash … ” Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. I have to think that wouldn’t be sufficient for Tiff, either. So yeah, flowers, and no, I wasn’t in trouble.

5. I only buy flowers from the grocery store. $10 for a dozen longstem roses. Sometimes $12. They’re flowers, Tiff likes them, so why waste money at a florist? Maybe I’m cheap.

6. On the subject of me being cheap, on Sunday night in the Denver airport, I was looking around the food courts, and I saw a fast food place where I could get a fairly decent looking chicken philly, fries and a pop for about $12. I don’t know. I know it’s an airport, but I thought that was pricey for fast food. Next door there was a Domino’s, and it was something like $10 for a mini. Or, there was McDonald’s, and to go large with my fries and drink (living large is how I roll), it would have been about $9. So I just decided to skip dinner, even though I was kind of hungry. I’m kind of cheap like that, and I couldn’t justify spending $9 on McD’s.

7. My ice cream/frozen yogurt streak is up to 72 consecutive days now. I’m almost getting close to my personal best of 110 days. If I can make it to May 21, I’ll break my record. May 21 will also be the 11-year anniversary of my bachelor party. I ended up with a black eye. Too bad my wedding was two days later. I’ll save that for another blog.

8. I can’t stand almost all of the reality shows my wife watches, but she watches one called Millionaire Matchmaker that I like for some reason. I don’t know what the reason is, but I like it. I hope I don’t lose my Man Card for that.

9. My wife cried over a Folgers commercial last night. She’s such a girl. She definitely has no Man Card.

10. I’m running the Orange County Marathon May 2, and my dad and stepmom are running the half marathon at that same event. I’m not so certain that he’s going to beat me to the finish, even though only has to go half as far as me. I want to come up with some kind of bet or something to help the charity. Any ideas anybody?

That’s all for today, folks. Rest in peace, Brother Sloan.