OK, these weeks are flying by way too fast. Saturday races, like I have this week, make them fly by even quicker. My quads are still a little sore and I’m already carb-loading. Ahhh, the joys of a Saturday marathon. Good thing I don’t have one of those every single weekend in April. Oh wait, never mind. I do.

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a marathoner and a father of three. My middle child, 6-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a wonderful charity called Train 4 Autism. I write this blog Monday through Thursdays (plus race reports on the weekends) to give y’all an insight into what goes on in my mind. Scary, I know.

Yes! An Excuse For Me To Mention Kansas State University!
There was a nice article about Operation Jack in the Kansas State Collegian today. The Collegian is the student newspaper at KSU, my alma mater. I spent a couple of years on staff back in the 90s and about a month ago, I got a call from a student reporter working for Update Magazine, one of the publications in the journalism department that tracks alumni.

She had a few questions about what I’m up to, primarily with my family and career. We were chatting for a few minutes and at one point, she asked if I was up to anything interesting that might be newsworthy. Well, aside from trying to run 60 marathons this year to try to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism, I couldn’t think of much. Maybe I should have mentioned my ice cream streak? (59 days now, by the way.) Operation Jack was newsworthy enough for her, though, and today, the article made it to print.

I read it before my run this morning and really liked it. Online, you can see how they lay it out and they allocated about 1/3 of the front page to the story! EVERYBODY reads the Collegian at K-State, so I know it will be seen, which is good. It kind of makes me laugh to know that some of my old professors will probably read it and do a double-take. Sam? Running? For reals?

Train 4 Autism Marathon Series, Starts This Weekend!
Along with local race promoter Charlie Alewine, I’m putting on a series of three marathons this year as a part of Operation Jack. I’ve named them the Train 4 Autism Marathon Series and the first one is THIS WEEKEND! We’re going to have a half-marathon and a full marathon and there’s going to be prize money for the series!

If you’re local, I’d LOVE to see you out there! Jack is scheduled to be in a therapy session on Saturday morning, but we’re working to re-schedule that so he can be out there at the finish line. I’m totally excited about this and I really, really hope to meet some of you out there! E-mail me if you have any questions!

Congratulations to Katey Williamson!
Every week, I have a contest where you guess what time you think I’ll run and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. You guess by making a super-easy donation in the amount of what you think my time will be. So, for instance, if you think I’m going to run a 3:15, you make a donation for $3.15.

Whoever comes the closest without bidding too low is the winner. Or, in the last two weeks while I’ve struggled miserably and nobody bids a high enough time, the winner is the person who bids the closest even though they didn’t bid high enough. Katey is this week’s winner and we’ll send her out some gear.

Thanks to everybody who played along!

Reminder About Our April 30 Silpada Party
We’re going to have a Silpada party on April 30 in Lake Forest, Calif. That’s two nights before the Orange County Marathon and 9 days before Mother’s Day. All the profits from this will go to benefit Operation Jack. Silpada is company that sells jewelry. I’m a guy, so I can’t really give a good description. It’s nice stuff, decent quality. It’s not like diamonds and fancy stones. It’s just nice, moderately priced things. Maybe the right word to use is that you would accessorize with Silpada?

I don’t know. Whatever the case, I’ll be posting the evite next week for everybody. RSVP so we know how much finger food to provide. When I say we, I’m talking about my wife and my mother-in-law. I’ll be home with the kids. I don’t do jewelry parties. I have a rep to uphold.

Coming Soon, WordPress
I’m working fast and furiously to integrate WordPress into here. I know it’s a total pain in the butt to have to register or log in to leave comments, and nothing puts a dagger in your efforts to interact with folks like an unfriendly blog. I had no clue what I was doing when I built this, so I just kind of cranked it out last July and I’ve run with it while making only a few minor modifications. But I know it’s going to be better with WordPress. I’m just working on finalizing some integrations in my, uh, spare time.

Please Help Spread The Word!
I know y’all are here because you support what I’m doing, so I don’t feel too shy to ask for a little bit of help. All I’m asking for right now is for a little bit of help spreading the word. Facebook, Twitter, the site … whatever you can use to pass the word along, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Anything You Want Me To Talk About?
I have plenty of blog topics in mind, and with my formulaic approach I’m taking nowadays, it’s fairly easy for me to come up with material. BUT, if there’s anything you want me to talk about, let me know. If you have any questions, fire them off and I’ll answer them in a future blog. You can post them in a comment or use the Contact Us Form.

That’s Pretty Much All For Today
I’m going to cut myself off for now. I need to shift gears from blog writing to code writing. Have a great Wednesday everybody!

It’s Wednesday which means I’m having In-N-Out for lunch and I have to fly to a race (again) in three days. But it also means it’s time for What’s Up With OJ Wednesday, my weekly opportunity to use alliteration and give you a rundown of what’s going on here.

First things first, just in case this is your first time here, I’m a marathoner and a father of three. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic, so I’m doing something this year where I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to try to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. 14 down. I just don’t want to say how many there are to go, because it seems like so many. OK, 46. There, I did it.

Train 4 Autism Marathons
I can’t believe these races are going to start next weekend! With the help of Charlie Alewine, we’re going to have the Train 4 Autism Marathon Series, a set of three marathons and half-marathons starting on April 3 in Huntington Beach, Calif.

I’m pretty excited about the third race in the series, because it will be my 60th of the year. But I don’t think too much ahead, because I have enough on my plate. Really, I’m barely thinking about next week, because I need to run Knoxville this week. But I can’t just remind everybody just a few days in advance, so to you Southern California maniacs, I’d love to see you out there a week from this Saturday! We’ve got a half and a full and we even have prize money.

Help Wanted!
Please help me spread the word about Operation Jack! Tell your friends about the site, invite them to become fans on Facebook and follow me on Twitter! I haven’t thrown this out there in a while, so I figured I’d throw this out there.

When It Rains, It Pours
I hadn’t gotten Operation Jack in the paper much lately, but I hadn’t pushed much lately, either. I broke out of that slump this weekend when I contacted the daily paper in Virginia Beach and got a story in Monday’s paper. Well yesterday, I had three good interviews that should help the cause. I don’t want to name the publications here (I save some of that for my personal Facebook page and I’ll wait until the stories run to go into more detail about them here).

I had a quick 15-minute interview during the day, then two for about 30 minutes each after work. I was a journalism grad in college and my first job after I graduated was working for the AP, so it’s kind of fun being on this side of things. I know to try to use complete sentences and avoid saying um too many times. I also know that I have no clue who reads this blog, but if you’re a member of the media, or if you know anybody who’s a member of the media, I’d be happy to talk to you (them)!

Guess Who Won My Weekly Contest Last Week?
Every week, I have my contest where you guess my finishing time in the form of an easy donation. So, if you’re expecting me to run a 3:11, you donate $3.11. The winner gets their pick of an Operation Jack t-shirt, sweatshirt or tech shirt. One of my loyal followers out in Florida, Jen Morgan, gave me the idea for the contest. And sure enough, she won. I thought I’d go quicker than 3:10, and when I saw her guess of 3:18 come across, I told her I hoped she lost and she told me she was just trying to put a chip on my shoulder and motivate me. Well, she had the slowest guess and I couldn’t even pull that off, going 3:20. Grrrrrr …

I’ll forecast this weekend’s race tomorrow and y’all can take another stab at it.

Silpada Anybody?
There’s a company called Silpada that makes jewelry and we’re going to have a party to benefit Operation Jack on April 30. It’s a network marketing company that sells jewelry and I don’t know a ton about it, but I know my wife likes it and I’ve bought her a few things from there. It’s not expensive diamond stuff, it’s decent and fairly inexpensive. You’ll have to forgive me for not giving a very good description, because I’m a guy, and this really isn’t my thing. Anyways, some friends of ours hosted a Silpada party last fall with a distributor who’s a friend of theirs and all of the proceeds from the party were donated to a local shelter for abused women. I talked to that distributor and she’s going to do the same thing for Operation Jack.

So if you’re on here and you’re in Orange County, keep that date in the back of your mind. That’s the Friday before the Orange County Marathon, nine days before Mother’s Day. We haven’t set a location yet, but I’ll let you know the when and where as soon as we do. It’ll be a fun little opportunity to go to a party, pick up something for yourself or your mom, snack on some finger foods and help Operation Jack in the process. If you’re not nearby but want to see their stuff, I’ll put a link up and you’ll still be able to look and participate if you want to.

Ice Cream Update
I haven’t talked about my ie cream much lately, but I’m up to 52 days in a row now eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. I had butter pecan last night and it was fantastic. Too bad I just about fell asleep with my face in the bowl. But I kept the streak alive. Just 58 more days until I tie my all-time record!

That’s All For Today!
Thanks for stopping by! I feel like I didn’t have anything to say. Maybe that’s because I’m starting to get into a rhythm and it almost feels routine. But I do appreciate your support and I’m glad you’re here. Have a great Wednesday! I’ll see you tomorrow with my weekend forecast!

It’s Wednesday, which means I have a great opportunity to re-use my headline. Each Wednesday, I’ll take the opportunity to run down a few miscellaneous items impacting Operation Jack. I’ve got some geek talk, clothing talk and food talk. Welcome to my boring little world.

Running Update
I’ve been battling to get over sore quads since Saturday’s race, anxious to see if I’m stronger after battling those ridiculous hills. Sunday was a scheduled rest day, Monday was a turn-back day and yesterday was a forced rest day because I was still in too much pain. For those of you who think I’m not human, I swear — I really am!

I got up to run this morning, but Jack had been getting up since 3 a.m., and during the 10 minutes I was getting ready, he had gotten up three times. So I stayed back to help with him and let Tiff sleep. Maybe I’ll try to run tonight. But I still haven’t run since Catalina, which makes me a little nervous.

Congrats To Contest Winner Jamie Fellrath!
One of my new features here is a weekly contest to guess my time. Make a guess in the form of a donation (if you think I’m going to run a 3:12, donate $3.12, etc.) and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Jamie made a $3.48 donation and I went 3:48:39. Lucky for him, I really turned it on in the final mile and chased down two people I saw ahead of me.

The first guy I picked off finished 22 seconds behind me (gun time) and I would have run a 3:49:01 if I had finished at the same time as him. Somebody else guessed I’d run a 3:49, so Jamie owes me when I meet him in Cleveland! He’d better be wearing his gear!

Incidentally, I’m kind of a numbers geek. Well, there’s no kind of to it. I was the star of the math team in junior high. But anyways, I was bummed when I checked the results. I finished 26th overall. If one more person would have finished ahead of me, it would have been the third time this year I’d finished 27th overall! 3x3x3 = 27 so it would have been 3 x (3x3x3)!

OK, I’m done geeking out.

Actually, I’m Not Done Geeking Out
It took about two lines of code, but I made a switch yesterday and if you notice, we’re at operationjack.org now, not operationjack.com. I think that since we’re a cause, we’re better off living at .org. Any page you attempt to hit at .com will automatically go to that page at .org now. Good idea? Bad idea? I think it was a good idea, and my vote carries the most weight, but you can still let me know what you think.

OK, I’m really done geeking out now.

OJ Gear Isn’t Just For Contest Winners!
I’d love to outfit you in one of our t-shirts, tech shirts or sweatshirts! For more info, check out our donation levels on our Sponsors page. You can also earn it chasing a 10×10. Is it tacky if I beg for help like this?

Attention Orange County Runners!
On May 1, the night before the Orange County Marathon, we’re going to have a pasta dinner. It’s going to be fairly inexpensive and the focus will be on Train 4 Autism. Our leaders will be there to talk about the charity and it should be a wonderful evening. We’re still finalizing the exact time and location, but I’ll definitely be announcing that when it’s set and it’s definitely going to be on May 1 in South Orange County. If you can, keep your calendar clear, because I’d love to see you there!

Attention Virginia Beach Runners!
Huge thanks to Ryan Conrad, who put together a pasta dinner for this Saturday in Virginia Beach. If you’re going to be in Virginia Beach, I’d love to see you there. Here are the details. Gotta eat, right?

2010 = 60. But What About 2011?
I touched on this a tiny bit yesterday, but I’m kind of starting to think about 2011 in the back of my mind (way, way, way in the back). I’m not going to do this 60 marathon thing again. But we’re gaining momentum and I’m suspecting we’ll have a pretty good group by the end of the year and I don’t want to just throw it all away. Those of you who follow me believe in helping others, and I’m hoping we can figure out a good way to do keep doing good things next year.

I’ll probably post something like this at least once a month the rest of the year. If you have any ideas for next year, send them my way. In the meantime, I’ll be scratching my head to come up with something.

Ice Cream Update
I haven’t touched on my ice cream streak lately, but I had a vanilla/chocolate frozen yogurt swirl yesterday, running my streak of consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt to 45 days. I’ve got about two months until I set a new all-time record. I think my best was 110 days last year, but it’s going to be tough to reach that. It can be a lot more difficult than you’d think to get ice cream when I’m on the road, which is every week.

That’s All For Today
I hope you enjoy your lunch as much as I am. I’m having that traditional Irish meal, In-N-Out. Tiff’s cooking something a little more American tonight, corned beef and cabbage.

I’ve fallen into a weekly routine with my blogs and for the Wednesday version, I’m piecing together updates about Operation Jack for y’all. I decided to call it “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” because alliteration works and I can re-use the headline. So, on that note, it’s Wednesday — here’s what’s up with OJ!

SF Showin’ Love For SF!
OK really, it’s SF showin’ love for OJ, but the SF-SF thing worked there for the headline. The first SF I’m referring to is the San Francisco Marathon. The second SF is me (Sam Felsenfeld), although really, it’s Operation Jack in this case. The marathon featured me yesterday in its monthly newsletter as the “Runner Highlight” of the month, although at the core of it all, it’s an Operation Jack highlight.

This newsletter is posted on the marathon’s website, but it also went out in an email to everybody in its database. A lot of people found out about Operation Jack yesterday because of this, which could be a big help as the year goes on. I joked with a lot of friends yesterday that I did a fine job of sneaking my way into their inbox. Things like this are fun, but above that, they’re a big help.

Also, the marathon gave me pretty nice billing on its Official Charities page. So as I said, SF gave SF (and OJ) some love yesterday! I met the race director and some other staff members up in Napa over the weekend and they were super-nice people. I’m really looking forward to running in their race in July. I hope a lot of you join me and support a race that is working hard to support Operation Jack! If nothing else, you get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge — how rad is that?

Congrats To Molly Rearick For Predicting My Blow-Up In Napa!
I had a contest last week, and I’ll keep having it (I think). Basically, guess my time in my race for that weekend with a small donation (for instance, if you think I’m going to run a 3:12, donate $3.12) and whoever gets closest without bidding under my finishing time wins their choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Coming off of my 3:09 in Tampa, based on the course and my condition, I really thought I was going to be quicker in Napa. I was chasing sub-3, and I really thought I’d be good for a 3:06 or so. But I went 3:11, so Molly won with her guess of a 3:18.

Five Ways To Help
A lot of people jump follow along and ask me what they can do to help. Like with everything else, I know from every person I hear that from, there are probably a dozen more silently thinking the same thing. So, I’m going to throw out five different ideas. In a way, I guess I’m the team leader, since I’m visible and running the 60 marathons. But if I was doing this alone, it would be a colossal failure. I know this is a team effort and we’re all hoping for the same goal — growing Train 4 Autism to help countless children and families for years to come.

So, I’m asking that each of you try just one of these five ways to help during March. If you do, Operation Jack will have HUGE momentum heading into the second quarter! These five ideas get a little more difficult as you scroll down the list, but the first one is really easy!

1. Spread the word
Everybody knows somebody who is impacted by autism somehow or is a runner or who might find what I’m doing to be interesting. Please send one person to the site, invite them to become a fan on Facebook, join the Facebook group, follow me on Twitter, etc. I always say that I’m throwing a bunch of darts and some of them will hit the board. The more people you tell, the more darts we can throw!

2. Commit to run a race
I still have 48 left on the schedule and I love meeting supporters at all of the events. If you’re going to be in town at one of the races I’m doing, I’d love to meet you, and I’d love to have you run it in an Operation Jack shirt. I’m running marathons (26.2 miles), but most races also offer events as short as a 5K. Those work too!

3. Sport the gear
If you take a look at the Sponsors page, you can see the levels to get shirts, tech shirts, hooded sweatshirts, etc. They all turned out pretty nicely and the sweatshirts are really comfortable. I know, just in time for spring. But they’re comfortable! We use these as a fundraiser and you’re advertising the cause you when you wear the clothing.

4. 10×10
I’m not a fundraising expert, but I know I’ve gotten a bunch of requests over the years to contribute to support somebody who’s running a race. I go to a web page, donate $20 and move on with my day. I know it’s tough to do this, so I created a plan called 10×10. My hope is that $10 is a pretty easy donation to get. That’s about what lunch costs. I also hope that you’ll give it a shot. If you get 10 people to contribute $10, we’ll send you an Operation Jack tech shirt and t-shirt for free.

5. Start a Train 4 Autism chapter
This one probably take the most work out of any of these, but it’s not as hard as you think and we have people who will help you as much as you need. It doesn’t take a ton of work, and this is really what’s going to make Train 4 Autism grow. It’s also the one that you’ll notice the direct results from the most. If you have any questions, e-mail me and I’ll discuss it a little more.

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough though, huh? Have a great Wednesday! I’ll be back tomorrow with my weekend forecast. This one’s going to be tough. Big, big hills!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m a typical, imperfect guy. I get upset about things, I do some things right and some things wrong. I was on the verge of calling off Operation Jack because I didn’t think I was strong enough mentally to handle this. Physically, I’m not worried. Mentally, I am.

But yesterday, it became clear to me that even if I don’t have what it takes to handle this mentally, I have great support from all over the country and since I know y’all won’t let me down, I won’t let you down, either.

I’d also like to say that I misinterpreted a few things late last week and misjudged some people as a result of that. To those of you I’m talking about (and you, too, D), I apologized to you yesterday, I meant it, and I still mean it. You guys are good people. Anyways, I’m not going to go into much more than that.

I said yesterday that it would be my last blog for a little while, until I finish The Project, but I changed my mind and I wanted to leave something else up here that’s a little more positive.

Operation Jack is going to be my attempt, in my son Jack’s honor, to get lots and lots of people across the country to make a difference. As I blog throughout this journey, I’m going to do everything I can to introduce you to Jack. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s about six weeks shy of his 6th birthday. He’s severely autistic, and he’s a total sweetheart.

I wanted to show you his newest thing. He LOVES to watch the same Caillou tape over and over and over. He hops up on the chair and rewinds it and as you can hear, he tries to recite some of the lines. This clip was taken July 27, 2009.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to watch him progress throughout the next 17 months. I’m excited that you all will get to know him.

Ice Cream Update
Peanut butter fudge swirl last night, 41 straight days with ice cream or frozen yogurt! Yeah!

Spread The Word
Help me get people here! If you’re a fan on Facebook, recommend the page to any of your friends who might be interested (there’s a link right below Jack’s picture in the column on the left). If you’re not, be a fan! And if you’re on Twitter, you can follow me at @operationjack.

I really, truly think I’m signing off for the next couple of weeks or so. I’m looking forward to my next blog, because they’re fun to write and it’ll mean that my project is done. Until then, thank you all for being so supportive. I say this a lot, but I really, really appreciate it.