Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Race Report: Santa Rosa Marathon

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Sunday’s Santa Rosa Marathon was almost more about the Pocatello Marathon for me than it was about Santa Rosa. I needed to get on track mentally for Pocatello, and that’s exactly what I did. I could have been faster that I was today, but I couldn’t be happier than how I am right now.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, running only one Boston qualifier since I went 3:10 at Fargo on May 22. There have been pretty fair reasons for some of the slower times — pacing duties, challenging courses at high elevation, high heat and an injury to the IT band in my right leg. However, I’ve been doing a fairly good job in my training lately and I’m confident I’m regaining a bit of the speed I surrendered in June and July.

I’m eyeing next week’s race as a huge opportunity, but I wanted a confidence booster. I know I can run fast and I think I can run fast now, so I wanted to go out and get it done today. I wasn’t necessarily dwelling on putting together the race of my life, but I wanted to see some success.

Santa Rosa’s course is pretty nice. It’s flat and fast, peaceful and scenic. It’s in wine country, although it was more of a scenic run through the woods. I would have never known I was near vineyards if you wouldn’t have told me, but it was still a nice run through a well-developed trail network. About eight miles were run on gravel paths that weren’t optimal for footing.

I wanted to go out, run by heart rate and not fear a bonk. That’s exactly what I did and I was pretty happy with how it went. I stayed under control, not letting my heart rate creep beyond my target rate of 170-172. Each of the first seven miles were between 6:48 and 6:59. Mile 8 was 7:00 on gravel. I felt fairly quick, with good stride and turnover. And really, that’s all I needed from the race to give me confidence. I kept at it and started to feel some pain by about mile 10. I slowed a bit, but it wasn’t significant.

I hit the half in 1:33 and change, but knew with the pain I was feeling that I probably wasn’t going to come in sub-3:10. The course was two loops of a 13.1-mile route and I knew I’d be slower the second time around. I figured I was a lock for a sub-3:15 and a BQ, though.

I kept rolling, picking up some momentum and moving past some people between miles 14 and 18. I was actually in good fighting shape for a 3:10 at 20, needing 7:15s or so the rest of the way. I didn’t have the fight, though, and faded with miles in the 7:30-7:40 range over the final 10K.

I crossed the mat in 3:12:58 according to my Garmin. I took 10th overall and 3rd in my age group. I didn’t put together a tremendously solid race, but it was good enough and it gave me the confidence boost I needed. I’m running a downhill course next weekend, something I’m very strong on. I know, everybody is faster running downhill than uphill, but downhill running is a strength of mine.

I wanted something to convince me I can reasonably go after sub-3 next weekend and I’m convinced. I think I’ll be able to head out and run in the 6:35-6:45 range for a while. Ordinarily, I might feel a bit guilty about going after a PR on a downhill course, but I’ve run those before and there are no free miles. They beat the heck out of your quads and can be a disaster. And of course, I’ll never apologize for anything I accomplish in my 41st marathon of the year!

So, mission accomplished in Santa Rosa. I ran a decent race. I knocked some of the rust off my wheels. And I ignited my competitive fire as I head into a PR attempt.

40 down, 21 to go. Look out, Pocatello. I’m coming to get you!


I accidentally had my camera on video, so I had to take a screen cap of a paused video. Terrible!

A Day To Remember And To Forget

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I don’t even know where to start this blog. I’m in such a haze writing it. Yesterday was a day that ended up OK, but I’ll never forget it. To put it simply, I almost lost my grandma.

Real quick, if you’ve never been here before, click here and see why I’m running 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism. But read this blog entry first.

Yesterday at about 11:15, I was sitting at work, plugging away, and I got a call from my stepmom. She told me my grandma had fallen and chipped her tooth and her mouth was bleeding. That wasn’t the most out-of-the-ordinary thing, but my stepmom told me that she heard somebody administered CPR on my grandma, and that doesn’t fit in with a chipped tooth. Something certainly seemed odd.

My grandma has asthma, and she’s 85, so several members of my family wanted me to go to the hospital to check on her status. If you’ve been following along, you know that three weeks ago, my grandparents moved to an assisted living facility about seven minutes from my work. The hospital she went to is five minutes from my work. I called the place they live at just to make sure my grandpa was there with her and he was. So, not really fearing much, I left immediately for the hospital just to make sure everything was OK.

When I got there, I went to the ER and they had no record of her being there. They checked a couple of different ways and she wasn’t in the system. So, I went outside and called the assisted living facility to confirm, and they swore that she was there with my grandpa, taken by paramedics. So I went back in and asked again. They had no record. They checked something else and still couldn’t find her. I was about to go back to work and tell my family it was a false alarm, because she wasn’t there. I asked one last time, because I felt about 60 percent sure she was there, and the woman told me that she found her, but she had been checked in with a different name. I asked if it was her maiden name, which would have been weird, because she’s been married 66 years. The woman told me that no, when patients are more critical, they check them in with a different name. That’s when I became concerned.

“Is she OK?”

“You just need to get a security pass and go to bed number two and talk to the doctors.”

WOW. That’s when I got really concerned. I got back there pretty quick and saw four or five patients crowded around a person who was mostly covered up. I couldn’t tell who it was. There were machines and tubes all over the place. I saw my grandpa sitting in a chair in the corner, crying with a woman consoling him. I knew I was in the right place, so I told him I was there and I went to take a look at the person. It was my grandma. Her face was pretty swollen with a lot of blood coming out of her mouth. I hate to say this, but she looked terrible. I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead, conscious or not.

I asked one of the doctors if she was alive and they told me yes, that she was slightly coherent, too. I stepped back to my grandpa and he started telling me about how they were at Target and she fell and he wasn’t sure what was going on. He didn’t have his hearing aid in, so it was a little difficult to communicate with him. Within about a minute, a doctor came over to us with the infamous, “let’s go into the hallway to talk” line.

He told us her heart had slowed down quite a bit while they were at Target, and she passed out, landing on her face, which caused the bleeding. She needed a temporary pacemaker put in immediately and would probably need a permanent pacemaker put in about two or three days later.

I loudly gave my grandpa the quick version and the doctor asked him if he’d sign some papers. He said he would, and within about three minutes, my grandma was getting wheeled on her gurney to get that procedure done. I couldn’t make any calls, but I sent some texts, emails and Twitter direct messages to relatives to let them know what was going on.

While my grandma was getting wheeled down the hall, it was pretty shocking to see her with all the tubes and in her hospital attire. She looked more frail than I’d ever thought she was. The ER trauma doctor was walking with me telling me that he had checked her out and she didn’t suffer any trauma. There were no head or spine injuries and no broken bones. But he told me that an off-duty ER physician’s assistant performed CPR on my grandma while she was out at Target and that saved her life. He seemed like he was 100 percent without doubt when he told me that she would have died right there on the ground if not for that person.

I was shocked like I haven’t been shocked in a long, long time. My wife’s grandma is doing terribly and probably isn’t going to be around too long. I couldn’t believe that I had almost lost my grandma first. My grandma is 85, but she’s pretty upbeat and coherent for 85. Here we are in February:


She still has a lot of life in her.

It just didn’t seem right. She’s a pretty young 85. Everything happens for a reason and I believe in God’s plan. Three weeks ago, she just moved about 45 minutes south from her home of 42 years to live in a new assisted living facility. Yesterday, she was on a group outing with her home to go shopping at Target. If she’s at her old home yesterday, I’d be dusting my suit off for a funeral right now. If that mystery person doesn’t perform CPR, it’s the same situation. And speaking of that, I couldn’t imagine performing CPR on an 85-year-old woman bleeding heavily from her mouth. As I said on my Facebook yesterday, thank God for good doctors and good samaritans. I don’t know what more I can say about that.

Anyways, she’s going to be fine. The procedure went fine yesterday and she’s going to get a permanent pacemaker pretty soon. She’s in Cardiac ICU right now and will stay there for the duration of her stay — probably a little less than a week. I stuck around for about four hours, taking care of my grandpa.

He’s a pretty emotional guy, and he was swinging all over the place. He was upset, and then he was OK cracking jokes. At one point, he started telling me he was proud of me and wanted to know where I was running this weekend. Santa Rosa, California.

“Oh, I remember being there when I was young,” he said. “I got pretty drunk, then started running behind a truck, trying to chase it and grab onto it. I nearly got myself killed!”

Ahhh, the things you learn during emotional moments, huh?

“There’s nothing worse than a wine drunk, Sam.”

Glad I stopped drinking, I guess. Anyways, he started placing blame on himself, saying that maybe it was his fault or maybe he could have done something differently. I told him to stop being ridiculous, that her heart would have stopped beating at that moment no matter where they were or what they were doing. They were in the absolute right place at the right time and everything was going to be fine.

My brother came by and finally my dad and my stepmom were able to get there. At that point I went back to work, but I pretty much spaced for the rest of the day. And that’s pretty much it for my story. My grandma’s going to be fine. But she was way too close to dying face down in her own blood yesterday. I’ll be forever grateful to whoever it was that administered CPR on her.

One last thing … I normally have a weekly contest where you guys pick my time. I’m not going to do that this week, just because I’m just not in the mood to have fun. But here’s what I want to do:

My grandma’s youngest son, my uncle Marty, has autism. He’s 50 and somewhere between moderate and severe. He’s definitely got his problems and he’s nowhere near mainstream. As a result of being a mother of an autistic child who has led a life of difficulty, she has formed a pretty special bond with Tiffany and she’s very proud of Jack.

So, instead of having a contest, I want y’all who would be willing to play to donate $5 (or more) in her honor and I’m going to tell her what the number ends up being. I’ll randomly draw one out of every 10 of you who donate and give you your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt.

So that’s all. Thanks for getting to the bottom of this. I hope you have a great weekend!

Video Of The Day

Quick DAN Doctor Update

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I’m going quick with the blog today. They don’t always have to be super-long, right? I have a quick update on Jack and a couple of announcements I wanted to repeat. You’ll be back to work in three minutes flat!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this for Train 4 Autism.

DAN Doctor Update
I don’t think Tiff read my blog yesterday. The reason I say that is because I announced in there yesterday that she would have an update from the DAN doctor for today’s blog, and when I asked her for that last night, she looked at me like I was a three-headed alien. Now, I know I’m ugly. But I’m not that ugly. So Tiff, click here and read what you missed yesterday.

Anyways, she suggested I should use something we put on Facebook last week as an update, so here goes:

UPDATE on Jack’s test results: He’s highly reactive to gluten, has low white cell blood count, has yeast (Rhodaturula) in his stomach, has heavy metals (arsenic and lead) in him, cholesterol is low because it’s spilling into his stool because his body’s not absorbing all it’s fats and his zinc is low. Doc added on 11 more supplements-daily.So far we’ve been successful on what he’s been taking. Keep him in your prayers. 🙂

Also, she gave me a list of things she gives him. He gets most of these daily.

Chelate Mate (minerals)
Digestive Enzymes
Isocort (adrenal suppport)
MCT oil (anti-fungal)
Nystatin )anti-fungal)
Cholesterol
Zinc
Uva Ursi (anti-fungal)
Probiotics
Magneseum cream
Naltrexone (blocks opioids)
Glutathione cream (detoxification)
Vitamin D3
Culturelle (probiotic)
Progesterone cream
Grapefruit seed extract (anti-fungal)
Rectal suppositories (pulls out metals)
Sea salts
Methyl B-12 shots (balances out brain chemicals)
Nasal spray (contains hormone that helps w/interaction)

Maybe we’ll have a little something more on Jack tomorrow.

I’m Repeating This From Yesterday
There’s a family that lives about 15 houses down from us and one of the daughters in the house was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Most of you live out of the area and there’s nothing you can do with this fundraiser that’s going on this Wednesday, but if you’re in Orange County, or if you know anybody in Orange County, PLEASE take a look at this and pass it along on Twitter, Facebook, etc. THANK YOU!

It’s tough to get into anything not completely serious after that, but I have a few random things for you to start your week with.

Something Else I Want To Repeat From Yesterday
I decided that I’m going to have a pick-em contest this year as a fundraiser. Hopefully, a lot of you participate. It’s gonna be $20 for the entire season. You’ll pick weekly winners — no spread, no weighted games. Just pick each game and who you think will win. You’ll get a point for each game you pick correctly and the winner will be the person who does the best over the course of the season.

First place will pay 40% of the pool, second place will pay 20% and the remaining 40% will go to Operation Jack. So easy, fun, a chance to win something, NFL and only $20. Who’s in? Oh, and quick feedback … do y’all think I should play? I’d probably lose, and I’d hate to win my own pool, but if I won, I’d give my winnings to the foundation. Let me know your opinion!

Here’s the link: http://operationjack.football.cbssports.com/
The password to join the league is sixtyone
Enter the league and then click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site and donate $20. I’ll see it come through, I’ll check the site with the pool and I’ll confirm that I’ve got you as paid.

That’s About It For Today
Can you tell I was busy last night and didn’t have time to write a whole lot for today? Well now you know. Sometimes that whole “life” thing gets in the way. Please forgive me and come back tomorrow!

Monday Musings: Random Ramblings

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Normally on Mondays I write a weekend recap, but my trip was so quick and easy this weekend and I have a bunch of announcements I want to throw out there today. So, I’m going to abandon my typical format and throw a bunch of information your way. At least I have a really cool video of Jack in here!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner and this year, I’m running (well, trying to run) 61 marathons to help raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. Train 4 Autism serves as a vehicle to help people participate in events such as races, triathlons, etc., while raising money for the autism-related charity of their choice. It can even be a small, local organization — any autism-related non-profit is fine!

So far, I’m through 39 of the 61, completely on target. This weekend, I ran the Park City Marathon in Park City, Utah. It was a very nice and very challenging race. If you want, you can read my recap here.

I’m Leading With Something Important Today
There’s a family that lives about 15 houses down from us and one of the daughters in the house was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Most of you live out of the area and there’s nothing you can do with this fundraiser that’s going on this Wednesday, but if you’re in Orange County, or if you know anybody in Orange County, PLEASE take a look at this and pass it along on Twitter, Facebook, etc. THANK YOU!

It’s tough to get into anything not completely serious after that, but I have a few random things for you to start your week with.

DAN Doctor Update
If you’ve been following along here, you know we took Jack to see a new DAN doctor and we’ve been starting him on a new biomedical program. Tiff (my wife, if you’ve never been here) will have an update on this tomorrow. We’re really starting to get into this new routine — it’s giving us a headache, but at least he’s not having as many tummy aches!

When Life Gives You Lemonade Mix, …
Have an Operation Jack lemonade stand! This was last Thursday. Glad it was 97 degrees!


I guess the picture was more of the fame than the stand, but they sold lemonade and Tiff’s secret-recipe snickerdoodle cookies and made $54 for Operation Jack!

Dueling Facebook Status Updates …
So yesterday afternoon, I put the following as my Facebook status:
16 years ago today was the first day of the semester and there was a new girl in the newspaper class rockin’ some tight black pants and she was really, really pretty. If you would have told me I’d end up marrying that hottie, I would have said, “Never, she’s way out of my league!” But yeah, I did. And she’s still way out of my league!

Then, a few hours later, that hottie updated her status:

‎16 years ago today, I met a cute teenage boy with a cool car and a big heart. Now, that teenage boy is an amazing husband/father who still has a big heart. Cool car’s gone though. <3

Whose was better? Mine was, no need to answer.

Do I Lose My Man Card For Admitting This?
I took Benjamin out to see a movie called Despicable Me yesterday. I’m not too up on the movies, so I had never heard of it, but I really liked it. It was a nice story and one of those kids movies that adults can take different meanings from. It was a fun story for Benjamin, but I really enjoyed watching the main character warm to becoming a dad after adopting three girls. And, I’ll admit it, at the end, I had to fight from getting teary-eyed. I don’t know if non-parents would view the movie differently, but I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I almost cried over an animated movie.

NFL Pick-em Fundraiser
I decided that I’m going to have a pick-em contest this year as a fundraiser. Hopefully, a lot of you participate. It’s gonna be $20 for the entire season. You’ll pick weekly winners — no spread, no weighted games. Just pick each game and who you think will win. You’ll get a point for each game you pick correctly and the winner will be the person who does the best over the course of the season.

First place will pay 40% of the pool, second place will pay 20% and the remaining 40% will go to Operation Jack. So easy, fun, a chance to win something, NFL and only $20. Who’s in? Oh, and quick feedback … do y’all think I should play? I’d probably lose, and I’d hate to win my own pool, but if I won, I’d give my winnings to the foundation. Let me know your opinion!

Here’s the link: http://operationjack.football.cbssports.com/

The password to join the league is sixtyone

Enter the league and then click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site and donate $20. I’ll see it come through, I’ll check the site with the pool and I’ll confirm that I’ve got you as paid.

Video Of The Day
This was Jack in his therapy session yesterday. A few minutes earlier, I asked him to write “cat” and he wrote “hat” and said “hat,” but I couldn’t get him to do it again. In watching the video, I’m thinking that maybe he tried to draw a hat … he likes to put on fedoras. Whatever the case, there were some cool things in here.

That’s all for today, folks. Have a great Monday!

Race Report: Park City Marathon

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I’m always up for a good challenge, so lucky me, I got to run the Park City (Utah) Marathon Saturday. The course starts at 6,450 feet above sea level, spends 16 miles climbing to 7,250, then drops back down to 6,450. It’s a difficult run, to say the least. The altitude is a significant problem, and the hills are extremely tough. I headed in hoping to break 3:40 with a solid run.

I felt fairly decent heading in. It was a short week for me, a Saturday marathon following a marathon the previous Sunday. But I didn’t run much this week and my legs felt OK. I didn’t fear or dread the course like I might have in the past. But I knew it was going to be a long day.

My plan was to run hard, but conservative, until we peaked at 7,250 feet. I kept an elevation window on my Garmin so I could keep an eye on our progress. For the first several miles, we went through a series of rolling hills, never really getting much higher than 6,550. I started getting anxious, because I knew the longer we waited to really start climbing, the steeper the hills would be.

Along the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. Following Humpy’s Marathon in Anchorage last week, it would have been easy for me to be unimpressed with Park City. But this course was pretty nice. I’d put it up there with the best I’ve run this year. It’s a ski resort town and I didn’t see a single thing that didn’t look nice. It was very green, extremely sleepy and peaceful.

About 1/2 the course, maybe a little less, was on either gravel or a single-track trail. So that, combined with the altitude and climbs, made it a very tough run. But it was a very nice, peaceful run. I’d highly recommend it if you’re not afraid of a challenge.

Anyways, we finally started climbing pretty well somewhere a little after mile 10 or 11. Temperatures were fairly cool for most of the run, but we were exposed for a good chunk of it and the sun started peeking out about halfway through. The last three miles before we peaked were a fairly solid climb and it started to get pretty difficult. I held on pretty well getting to the top — I think one thing I’m getting good at is running through pain, even if the speed isn’t all there, so I handled this pretty well.

I was excited to hit the turnaround because I run well on downhills. I moved for a couple of miles and passed some folks, but we faced a ridiculous climb at mile 18. It was probably 1/4 mile and it must have been a 20-degree incline. When I turned the corner and saw that, I knew it would be a killer. Everybody else was walking it, but I ran (well, shuffled), because I hate trying to start running after walking. My shuffle was only good for a 15 minute/mile pace — that’s how steep it was!

Once I got through there, I started to run out of steam. I’d thrashed myself getting to that point, and there was no air to breathe. I kept going as hard as I could, which wasn’t very hard. I really wanted to come in under 3:40. I think this course adds 25-30 minutes to your time, especially if you don’t have the altitude experience.

We were exposed for most of the last 8 miles and it started getting fairly warm. I kept my eye on my progress and knew I was fairly close and by about 23, I figured I’d end up within 20 seconds of 3:40, either way. Once I hit 25, I didn’t look at my overall time or my pace or my heart rate. I just ran to the finish. I really enjoyed the run, but I was really glad to cross the finish line and stop moving!

I stopped my timer and got some fluids in my system before checking my time. I wanted to take a minute to not worry so much about my time and catch my breath after completing a good, hard run. I finally took a look, and I went 3:39:40. I was pretty happy about it. Nothing I’m going to do back flips over, but I feel like I ran well, fought hard, and gave it my best shot. I have no shame in this run.

And really, when I compare it to how I did at the Grizzly Marathon three weeks ago, I’m pretty pleased. That race was challenging with climbs and gravel roads above 4,000 feet, and my 3:35 there was actually decent. Today’s course was easily 10-15 minutes slower than that one. I’ve worked fairly hard on my speed in training this month and I think I’m starting to run a little better, even if the times don’t reflect that.

I did some different things to manage my nutrition during the race today — I have a few target races coming up and I want to try to delay fatigue. So, I guess I’m happy with this one. Individually, I’m comfortable with how I ran. But beyond that, the Operation Jack train is still rolling.

I’m starting to run out of time, but I’m really starting to get excited to think about the fact that I had an idea and I went after it and I’m doing everything I can do get it done. Nothing feels better than running yourself into the ground working as hard as you can.

So, 39 down, 22 to go!


I forgot my camera in my motel, so I had to use my phone. That’s why the picture is terrible.