For marathon runners, the day of your first marathon is like another birthday. That day is your day, and every year on that day, you know that’s your marathoniversary. It’s the day you went the distance for the first time, the day you never again wondered if you had what it takes to go 26.2. The day you forever gained the confidence that you could do anything you wanted to if you worked hard enough.

It’s probably also the day you had all sorts of disasters and things didn’t go the way you wanted them to, but it doesn’t matter. That was your day, the day you joined the club. The day you became a marathoner.

For me, that day was June 4, 2006. Six years ago today. If you would have told me that morning before the race I’d run 99 more marathons in the next six years, I would have told you NO WAY! However, if you would have told me that afternoon after the race I’d run 99 more in the next six years, I would have … well, I was drinking a little too much. I’m not sure what I would have told you.

My first marathon was the 2006 San Diego Rock ‘N Roll Marathon. Seven months earlier, I’d run my first half marathon on a dare. It was supposed to be a one-and-done thing. But one thing led to another and I got talked into running my first full so that me and a couple of buddies could have a Boys Weekend camping in the fifth wheel down in San Diego. Thanks, Kevin. Look at what you caused!

The race itself was fairly uneventful. I aimed for a sub-4 although I knew going in I was probably a few minutes shy of that ability. I started to struggle at about mile 20. (The wall? Really? No way!) Between miles 1 and 26, I made plenty of mistakes that I learned from and I went 4:06:25. I took two sick days from work because the pain from the race made it too miserable for me to go back to the office. By the third day, I was still in pain and genuinely worried that I had permanently injured myself. Ahh, how things have changed. Nowadays, I’ll play with the kids at the park in the afternoon after running a marathon in the morning. Or maybe I’ll run a marathon the next day. And sometimes, both.

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Today I have a guest post from Operation Jack supporter Jake Rome. Actually, I should call him super-supporter Jake Rome. He’s been very supportive of everything I’ve done from the get-go and he’s actually the person who came up with the idea of the Operation Jack Marathon with its current location. It’s been huge having him in my corner. He asked me about running a guest post here and I didn’t hesitate to say yes for two reasons.

1. How can I say no to Jake?
2. It’s a lot easier to run a guest post than to write one of my own!**

** If you ever want o run a guest post here, let me know! I won’t say no!

OK, that all being said, here’s what he gave me:

Jake here with a guest blog today about a personal project that will benefit people with Autism through, what else, fundraising. I’m a rambly writer, so this will be too long. But could it be any other way? So we’ll get started, in the famous words of James Stockdale, “Who am I? Why am I here?” If you know the answer to those questions, you can jump straight here.

I actually knew Sam when he was much closer to 261 than 26.2, as I was a regular on the Runner’s World “Los Angeles Marathon” forum (before I led the effort to rename it Southern California, and later just California Running & Racing). I can’t seem to find the earliest, but suffice it to say that I was giving awful advice to Sam since he was running 2:30 half marathons. Our paths first crossed IRL at the 2009 Diamond Valley Lake Marathon, where I snapped the shot seen here & a few others after I finished the half and waited for the marathoner runners to end their races. Sam really liked this photo, as he was looking back at a friend that was closing fast– you can check out some details. It was even his Facebook pic for a long time.

So, that’s how I know Sam. Later than year, Sam announced his plans for Operation Jack, including his audacious goal of running 60 marathons in 2010. To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention to the project, but I happened to read his blog late in 2009 when Sam started to doubt the project. Call it luck, coincidence, fate or anything else. But that ignited a little flame in me & I offered my support and did something I had never done before… fundraising! Over the next 12 months, my friends & I donated over $2500 to support Operation Jack leading up to Sam’s last race of the year, and I crossed paths with Sam at Carlsbad, Catalina & SD RnR Marathons. [Read more…]

OK, we’re ready! The third-annual Operation Jack Marathon is officially back, open for registration! We’ve got our informational site up at operationjack.org/marathon and you can GO … REGISTER … NOW!

I’m really excited for this race for a lot of reasons. As y’all probably already know, I ran 61 marathons back in 2010, all-out every time, to raise money for Train 4 Autism in honor of my son Jack. He’s severely autistic and I wanted to use my running for something more than just PR-chasing. So, I ran all those races as my stupid-human trick to get some attention and raise some money. To date, “some money” has a gross total of about $140,000.

I’m never running 61 marathons in a year again. There’s just no way. At the end of that last race, I told a buddy of mine that I was glad it was finally over and he gave me the old cliche that it was just the beginning. While I’m not running a marathon a week any more, he’s right. Operation Jack fights on and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to try to do some good in the world.

STOP RAMBLING SAM!

OK, I’m done rambling. The Operation Jack Marathon and Satellite Runs are now the main fundraiser for my foundation and they do pretty well. Last year, they grossed about $40,000. This year, we’re hoping to do even better. So, a few things you need to know:

(But first, LIKE THE RACE on Facebook and FOLLOW THE RACE on Twitter!)

Actually, for old time’s sake, I should throw in the video from the 2010 race:

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