Finally, A Philly-Tulsa Decision!

For those of you who come around here regularly, you know I’m in a pickle for the weekend of November 21. I planned on running Philadelphia, and there are people there I’d like to see, but the race sold out and they wouldn’t let me me in. A lot of you contacted the organizers on my behalf and never heard back. I lined up a plan B with Tulsa and set this week as a deadline to finalize that week. And I did.

It’s going to be Philadelphia!

I never heard back from the race, but I came across a charity called the Hearts & Smiles Foundation, which provides assistance to siblings of special-needs children in low-income families in the Philadelphia area. They provided me with an entry into the marathon. I’m going to do my best to raise some money for them.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to use my ability to recover well from marathons to make a difference for kids like Jack. So, I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 50 of the 61. I’m almost there!

Anyways, back to Hearts & Smiles. I think about what Jack goes through a lot, and it’s pretty tough. But Hearts & Smiles makes me pause for a minute to think about my other two children, Benjamin and Ava. We’re on a very tight budget, but we’re not a low-income family. Still, they have their difficulties because of Jack. Their routines frequently have to revolve around Jack and they sometimes don’t get the attention they need.

Families with special-needs children have all sorts of challenges and the typical siblings will face struggles as a result of those circumstances. They’ll grow up to be very loving, protective people, but they’ll have pretty tough elements in their childhood. Being in a low-income family will make things even tougher.

So, I’m excited to help Hearts & Smiles as part of running the Philadelphia Marathon. You can reach my fundraising page by going to operationjack.org/philadelphia. Let’s nickel-and-dime our way to the top of my thermometer.

I used to have a weekly contest where you’d pick my time. How about contributing a dime for every full marathon I’ve run this year? 10 cents is a lot easier than 26.2 miles. I’ve done that 50 times. That’s only $5! That’s the donation I started with personally. Even on my tight budget, $5 doesn’t mean anything. But it’s going to help a great cause.

So, please think about it! Thank you for your support!

Race Preview: Mankato Marathon
Marathon No. 51 of the year is the Mankato Marathon in Mankato, Minnesota. I’m excited about this for a few reasons. First, I get to pace the 3:40 group. It’s a lot of fun pacing, because I get to help people reach their goals. I’ve paced four times before, averaging less than 1/2 second a mile fast. I take it seriously and I’m aiming for a 3:39:59. The last time I paced 3:40, I went 3:39:58 at Utah Valley in June.

The other reason I’m excited is the race is on Saturday and I’ll be home Saturday night! Daddy gets a day off!

Of course, it’s also nice to give my legs a break this weekend. For me, that means running a marathon at a pace of about 8:20 per mile. I’ll have a report posted Saturday night.

That’s All For Today
Have a great Thursday and Friday, everybody. I’ll have a race report up on Saturday!