Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Life Happens When You're Busy Making Plans

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Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. I’ve heard that before and it was the case once again this weekend.

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. To try to make a difference in the autism world, I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good, I guess. I’m raising money, reaching people, and I’m through 35 of the 61 marathons.

I’m used to life not going according to plan. Tiffany and I met when she was 18 and I was 19. We got married the spring after I graduated from college, bought our first home less than a year later and she gave birth to our first child two years and a month after we tied the knot. According to plan, we followed up with our second and third child and they were each a little more than two years apart. Three kids, two boys and a girl, 51 months between the oldest and youngest.

Perfect! Well, except while we were busy with our plan, Jack’s autism prevented him from bridging the gap between Benjamin and Ava. Life happens, huh? I think back to when Tiff and I were teenagers, living at home and dating. We had no idea life would be this way. Even in the first couple of years of our marriage, when we were saving money, moving into a bigger home, having kids and buying puppies, we would have never guessed things would have turned out like this.

Anyways, I guess our detour this weekend is extremely minor in comparison to the rest of everything going on in our world, but just because the impact on us is comparatively minor doesn’t mean I can’t be bummed about it. This was supposed to be our weekend, the weekend of the year. Not according to the plan, though, one of the big highlights was laughing about a $4.99 wiffle ball bat, but I guess that’s life.

We’d been looking forward to this weekend since I mapped out my Operation Jack schedule more than a year ago. The San Francisco Marathon! We made plans for her to come along, we extended it a half-day on the front end and back end, and this was going to be our big vacation of the year. Sure, we were only going to be gone for 36 hours, but that was a big deal for us. We got a killer deal at a Courtyard by Marriott ($39!) and we were going to have lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf. I texted her all week, joking, “Let’s run away to San Francisco this weekend!”

Everything changed on Friday night, though. Our child care options are extremely limited because of Jack — a combination of of the challenges of taking care of our “Wild Bunch” and the fact that we don’t trust hardly anybody to stay with the kids overnight. Tiff’s parents were watching the kids for the first part of the weekend and then my parents were taking over. Her parents were flying out to New York for a trip they had been looking forward to for a while.

However, her grandmother, whose health has been declining for a little while, took a turn for the worse on Friday. Her parents cancelled their trip to New York and were fairly distraught. It was a no-brainer for Tiff to cancel her trip, too. First of all, we couldn’t possibly have them babysit when they needed to be at the hospital. And there’s no way we could have possibly enjoyed any kind of vacation together with everything that was going on.

I was staring down the barrel of an extended stay in San Francisco, but I was able to switch my flights. Instead of leaving at 9 a.m. Saturday and returning at 9 p.m. Sunday night, I was able to leave at 12:35 p.m. Saturday and get back at 3:15 Sunday. The fun trip turned into another business-as-usual trip. Our lunch date at Fisherman’s Wharf Sunday turned into a breakfast date at Denny’s on Saturday.

We had nice time chatting at breakfast and I enjoyed my all-you-can-eat pancakes (seven!) and five cups of coffee. On the way out, we spotted the coloring pages they have for kids and grabbed one for Ava. We stopped off at the grocery store on the way home and picked up, amongst other things, rice cakes for Jack and a $4.99 wiffle ball kit for Benjamin.

I opened the car door for Tiff at the grocery store. I always hold the door for her going in and out of buildings, but I don’t typically get her car door — there’s always too much chaos with the kids. However, when we’re out on date night, I always get the door to the car for her and she smiles. So anyways, while I got the door for her at the grocery store and gave her the wiffle ball bat, I joked with her, “Hey Benjamin, we brought you a souvenir from our trip!” We both laughed over the irony of what the weekend had become, and really, how different our life is turning out from what we had planned. She responded that we brought home the coloring-book page for Ava and the rice cakes for Jack.

We have a roof over our heads and three children, so we have everything we need and we know that. But things certainly aren’t what we had expected. This weekend was another reminder that we have a whole lot less control than we think we do.

As for her grandmother, it’s still status quo. It would be great for her to somehow come out of this and make it to the Easter dinner she loves so much, but that doesn’t seem likely. Our vanishing vacation is certainly meaningless in comparison, but it’s still a component of our world that was kind of a bummer. I got to meet some people I had never met before up in San Francisco, but aside from that, I really didn’t want to be up there. I just went through the motions and looked forward to coming home.

On the bright side, though, since I got home early, I had time to go to the park with the kids yesterday afternoon. I spent a while pitching and hitting with Benjamin and his new wiffle ball set, then played with Ava and watched as Ben ran around playing with other kids with the bat and the ball.

So, not exactly as planned, but I was where I was supposed to be and I guess I shouldn’t complain, because it wasn’t a bad place.

Race Report: San Francisco Marathon

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I headed into the San Francisco Marathon expecting a big race, and while my run didn’t go as I hoped, it was still a great day. I’ll be quick with the details about this one, because my race was fairly forgettable. What I’ll always remember about this one will be the gutsy runs of two Operation Jack supporters running their first marathons.

Real quick, I felt fairly good heading into this one. I really thought I was ready to break through with a sub-3:10 for the first time since May. Even if I didn’t hit that, I knew I’d be disappointed with worse than a 3:15. I wanted to run well on this course, I was more-or-less ready mentally and physically and I felt fairly decent.

The course is pretty hilly the whole way through, but especially the first half. There were a three or four steep climbs that’ll beat you up. However, there were also some nice declines to get your wheels turning. I ran the race with perfect balance between aggressive and conservative for the first 12 miles. I felt comfortable, I was turning miles in the 7:10 range consistently and I resisted every urge to go any quicker than 6:45 or so during the first five or six miles.

My average pace for the race fluctuated considerably with the inclines and declines and through 12, I was pretty close to on target for a 3:10. On paper, the second half looked quicker than the first and I thought I could negative split. However, I started to fatigue from the hills and a little bit before the half, I knew my day was done. There was a decline, and for the grade it was, I would normally turn at a 6:30 or so pace without much trouble. But all I was getting was 7:20 and I knew it was going to be a long second half.

Sure enough, I fell apart and had a rough go the rest of the way. I went through the half at 1:37 and change and finished in 3:21. I’m kind of frustrated because I’m running too many races up in this time zone. I know nobody cares but me, but it’s frustrating for me when I’m used to much faster times. Mentally, I just need to accept the fact that my times are going to be off. This is one of my biggest struggles this year and since I’m pretty competitive, I’ll probably battle with this the rest of the way.

The course was great. We got to run across the Golden Gate Bridge and I thought the course did a nice job highlighting the city. We ran down a street called Haight that was exactly what I think of when I think of San Francisco. One nice thing about this year is I get to see a lot of America, and that street ranks right up there with some of the cooler places I’ve seen. Probably not where I’d hang out, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Anyways, enough about me and my race. I really want to talk about Heather and Sarah and I want you to read this!

Heather is somebody I’ve known from an online running community for a few years. We’ve communicated for a while, I’ve given her a lot of advice about running over the years behind the scenes, and oh yeah, she’s a huge Operation Jack supporter. She’s from San Francisco and chose this race as her first marathon. I think she was going to run the race last year, but an injury got in the way. So she ran this one for Operation Jack, raising money in the process and making me grateful for people like her who believe in what I’m trying to do.

Her training went great. She worked hard and trained smart. I saw her numbers and she was really whipping herself into pretty good shape. Her times were getting good, she lost some weight and she was really ready to go. A year ago, she probably would have been somewhere in the mid-4s, but a few weeks ago, she started talking about going after a 4:05. I don’t think you need to shoot for the moon in a first marathon, but you should at least chase a decent goal. I told her that I really thought she could go sub-3:50, but I figured she should chase sub-4 as a decent goal.

She was ready for that sub-4, and I had no doubt she had the ability to pull it off. But you never know how the body is going to react in that first marathon over the final 10K. I saw her on the bridge on an out-and-back portion and she was cruising. I could tell she was right in the 3:50 range. I didn’t know how she would hold, but I was glad she wasn’t struggling early. The plan was I was going to finish and then run back on the course, find her and run her in. I had some motivational tricks up my sleeve just in case.

After I finished, I was cramping pretty bad, but I sucked it up and ran back to find her. No way could I go soft and miss this one-time experience. I thought I’d get about two miles out and then find her, but she caught my attention about 1.3 miles out or so. I was totally shocked. She was KILLING the course. I asked her what her time for the race was, because I needed to do the math to make sure she could get in sub-4. She said 3:37! I told her forget sub-4, let’s go get Boston! I did the math pretty quick and realized that she was actually a bit too far out and I told her that, but still — I was crazy impressed. She just needed to stay steady to bring home a sub-3:50!

I told I was proud of her for doing such a great job on the course and I could tell pretty quick that she couldn’t talk and she needed to stay focused, so I just kept on working on bringing her in. I asked her a few minutes later if she wanted to finish hard and pick people off and she told me no, she was already going as hard as she could. So I stayed steady and tried to push it a tiny bit to see how she’d respond. She didn’t have a ton left, but she had a little bit here and there and I stayed in front of her to keep her chasing me. She finished in 3:48:58. I can’t really come up with the words to explain how proud I am. It was awesome, definitely more than making up for my run.

But wait, there’s more! Another Operation Jack supporter, Sarah Loy from Massachusetts, also chose this as her first marathon. She found Operation Jack through the San Francisco Marathon website and really believed in what I’m doing, just like Heather. She did an incredible job fundraising and, like Heather, is someone I’m grateful to have in my corner this year.

She trained well and was primed to go after a BQ (3:40), but suffered a foot injury a few weeks ago and wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to run the race. I saw her before the race and she was telling me that she had a short training run earlier this week and her foot hurt so bad, she had to quit the run. She said she was going to try to run the marathon, but she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to finish.

I didn’t think she had a chance of finishing, although I certainly didn’t tell her that. When I was doing the back portion on the bridge, I said a prayer for her because I was hoping she’d be OK and that I’d see her in passing while she was on the out. I saw her pretty close to the end of that portion (just in the nick of time!) and she seemed pretty upbeat. I was pretty surprised and happy and slapped her a high-five.

She made it the whole way and finished her first marathon in 3:54. After the race, she told me it was a miracle and I agreed. I really couldn’t believe she finished the race. For the past few weeks, she missed a lot of runs and suffered through a lot of pain. To go out and nail a 3:54 in a debut under these circumstances on a difficult course was pretty amazing. I was really happy for her.

So, that’s San Francisco. Wasn’t thrilled with my race, but I was beyond thrilled with how Heather and Sarah ran, so all-in-all, it was a great day.

35 down, 26 to go. Next up, Choteau, Montana.


Me and Sarah at the finish. Her boyfriend was being funny and getting us to clown around for the picture.

Me and Heather. Awesome day!

Sweet gear!

Really looking forward to this thing getting filled!

Weekend Preview: San Francisco Marathon

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Well here we are, staring down the barrel of another weekend. Since the calendar says 2010, I guess that means I have a marathon to go run. This time, it’s San Francisco. With my initials, I’m totally excited to run the SF Marathon!

For first-time visitors, here’s the standard introduction. I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. As a result, I’m trying to make a difference in the autism world, so I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 34. This blog is where I ramble on about what’s going on.

Since it’s Friday, it’s time for my weekend preview, with a couple of random tidbits plus my weekly contest.

Why I Take Pacing So Seriously
I was the 3:50 pacer at the Missoula Marathon on July 11, the third time I’ve been an official pacer for a marathon this year (fourth time overall). I take pacing very seriously, because I know I’ll have a big impact on other people’s goal races. People typically thank me afterwards, but somebody posted this comment anonymously on the Missoula Marathon blog.

I would like to give two thumbs up to the Run Wild Missoula & The Missoula Marathon volunteers. What a great event you put together! I would really like to thank the 3:50 pacer dude SAM FELSENFELD…..I didn’t hear everything he was saying the last 4miles but he was amazing to have right there along side me. I had nothing left in me and had been ahead of him up until the last 4 miles or so. He just kept me motivated and told me he wasn’t going to kick it at the end so I needed to. That was enough, that was all I needed. My goal was to qualify for Boston and I did it. With his help as well as the help of a very dear friend who ran the last 6.2 miles with me! Than you Sam for your amazing ability to keep my head in the game. I will forever be grateful.

I’ve really been learning this year that it’s a lot more rewarding to run for other people than to run for yourself. Well, for me at least.

Weekly Contest
I have a weekly contest where people try to guess my time in the form of a small donation. Basically, if you think I’m going to run a 3:15, you donate $3.15. To make a donation, just click the “Donate Now” link at the top of any page on this site. Winner is the person who comes the closest without underbidding. If everybody underbids, then it’s whoever comes the closest. The prize is your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Last week, I was super-slow in the heat in Iowa and nobody donated the $3.42 it would have taken to accurately predict my time. Denamarie Baker was the winner, though, so she’ll have a fine article of clothing coming her way shortly. I’ll get to this week’s contest in a bit.

You Learn Something Every Day!
Yesterday, I learned that on a BlackBerry Bold, if your phone is locked and you hit a bunch of buttons, eventually it will dial 9-1-1. Silly Jack, trying to talk to the police!

What I’m Looking Forward To Most This Weekend
I’m running in San Francisco this weekend and my biggest fan is going to be there at the finish line waiting for me! No, not Mariah Carey. She’s my second-biggest fan. I’m talking about my wife! It’s a quick flight up there, and all I have on the calendar is a bunch of people to see at the expo on Saturday afternoon, a dinner on Saturday night and a marathon at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday. Aside from that, it’s going to be a vacation!

Actually, it should be a nice time. I think it will probably double the time we’ve spent together this year. Well, not really, but we’ll have a nice time in the city on Sunday afternoon.

OK, The Race
The weather is supposed to be nice and chilly, perfect for running for a marathon. The first half of the course is hilly, but the profile doesn’t look ridiculous. Somewhat challenging, yes. But for the most part, I’ve done fairly well on moderate hills this year. The second half looks favorable, primarily flat. After mile 20, it looks like there’s two good downhills to get me some momentum in the final 10K.

However, my legs have felt fairly dead this week. I’m planning on taking an ice bath on Saturday, which should help. And my travel is pretty minimal. So, I wouldn’t be surprised with anything between a 3:08 and a 3:18. I’ll be disappointed if I’m not sub-3:20, and really, I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get a Boston qualifier (3:15:59 or better).

So, I don’t know what to bet. $3.10? $3.16? Heck, I could totally blow it. I haven’t been exactly fast lately. But since Tiff is going to be there at the finish line, you can bet I don’t want to keep her waiting!

Have A Great Weekend!
I know I will! I’ll try to have a race report posted at some point on Sunday!

I'm Going To Stick With The Plan And See What Happens

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So when I originally created this site, I planned on writing a blog so everybody could kind of follow along with me as I go through the process of running 61 marathons for charity this year. In a way, I don’t really do that. I have a format (weekend recap on Monday, 10 random things on Tuesday, etc.) and I don’t really blog about what I’m going through. So today, I’m going to stray from the format and stick with the purpose.

I’m kind of conducting this as an experiment. I’m not going to plug it or promote it. I’m just going to post it and see what kind of feedback and traffic I get. NOTE: I changed my mind on that and promoted it in the afternoon.

Anyways, just in case you’ve never been here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. To try to make a difference in the autism world, and to try to help him have an impact on the world, I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 34 of the 61, I’m raising money and I’m bringing people in. So I think it’s working.

Right now, I’m kind of going through one of my infamous funks. I’m a little bit heavy, weighing 205 when I’m typically 200 and could be 195. It’s not that big of a deal, and physically I’m in good shape, but it weighs on me mentally because I know it’s slowing me down. Nobody really cares about my times but me, but when I don’t run to my potential, I feel like I’m not holding up my end of the bargain.

A lot of people tell me I must be glad I can eat whatever I want to this year, but in all reality, I can’t. My miles are way down (I think I’m averaging less than 50 per week, but I typically run 80+ when I’m in training), so I have to keep a careful eye on what I eat. I say that and I’m notorious for eating a lot of ice cream and cheeseburgers, but in reality, I keep my diet fairly healthy. That being said, I’m going to In-N-Out today, although I haven’t been in two weeks.

I’ve been a little slow lately, and I blame that partly on the heat and partly on the fact that I haven’t done speedwork in a little while. I struggled with inflammation in the IT band in my right leg, so I toned things down. That went away, but so did my speed. I was excited about hitting a track workout yesterday, but I went to both high schools within reasonable distance of my home and they were both locked. I was so bummed that I didn’t run. Then I couldn’t go to the gym after work because I had to pick my oldest son up from tae kwon do, so I planned on getting up early this morning and having a nice, hard workout.

But a funny thing happened … I got upset this morning because in reflecting back to last night, I was multi-tasking while playing with the kids. I was searching for travel arrangements for Alaska the weekend of August 14, because I’m running out of time, and some of the costs were pretty startling. I’m looking like I might not run that race, which really has me bummed, because I was really looking forward to seeing Alaska. So like I said, I spent some time searching last night while playing with the kids and I felt terrible about that this morning. I didn’t have the heart to run. So that’s three times since yesterday morning I had a workout I wanted to hit, but I didn’t. I’ll try again tonight after work.

One quick thing about Jack, while I’m talking about last night and the kids. He’s learned how to play Sesame Street games on the computer and he has a lot of fun. Even if he’s not talking, those games bring out learning and he has a good time. For all he goes through, I’m glad there’s something he can enjoy for a good 30 minutes or so at a time. If he finds something that makes him happy, it normally only lasts for a few minutes before he gets frustrated and wants to move on. I installed a new game for him last night and he had a good time playing it for a while. Later, he was hanging out on the couch and was more happy and calm that I can remember seeing him in a long time. It was nice to see him like that. He deserves it.

OK, that’s it for today. I’ll probably return to my regular format tomorrow with a weekend preview.

Ten Random Things For Tuesday

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It’s Tuesday, time for 10 random things. I could spend some time trying to write a catchy intro to get you read the rest of this, but let’s be real. It’s 10 random things. Either you want to read it or you don’t. If you don’t want to read it, I suggest you change your mind. And hey, Justin Bieber made my blog today!

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 want to try to have Jack have an impact on others in this world, and I wanted to put my legs to good use, so I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on track, bringing in money and people.

I’m through 34 of the 61 marathons for the year. Now, it’s time to get through 10 of 10 random things for today.

1. I’ve reached the point where I’m going to get serious about my weight. For the most part, I haven’t really cared, because I know I’m fit and I know I’m in good health. But my weight has been hovering for most of this year at around 203 to 205, and I know I can get down to 195. There’s no reason I can’t get the pounds off, plus it will help with the running. And on days like Sunday, when I went to the pool with the family, I don’t want to look flabby with my shirt off! So I’m going to drop weight, period. 195, I’m coming for you.

2. Almost contradictory to write this after that first item, but it’s National Ice Cream Month. I feel responsible to inform you of this. Even though I eat ice cream rather frequently, I consume fairly small portions and I eat low fat/low calorie offerings.

3. If you’re going to be in San Francisco for the marathon this weekend and you have no plans for dinner Saturday, check this out and let me know if you want to go. I’d love to see you there!

4. I got at least 20 mosquito bites at the start line of the University of Okoboji Marathon in Okoboji, Iowa last Saturday. I thought you should know.

5. Two weeks from today and my grandparents are moving! I see them maybe 8-10 times a year right now. They’ll be close enough for me to visit them at least once or twice a week. I can’t wait!

6. I liked hearing Michael Jordan say he wouldn’t have called up Magic and Bird back in the day. I’m no LeBron James fan, in case you couldn’t guess.

7. Water with lemon and Splenda makes lemonade. Keep that in mind the next time you’re at a restaurant and you don’t feel like paying $3 for a soft drink. Then send Operation Jack a dollar.

8. I was struggling coming up with ideas for random items, so I asked for help on Twitter. Somebody suggested running in the rain … I LOVE running in the rain. You know how it’s totally refreshing to take a swim after a run? To me, running in the rain feels like taking a swim while I’m running. While I love running in the rain, I can safely say from my experiences this year that I do NOT love running in sub-20 temperatures, hail, 30 mph wind, heat higher than 85 degrees or high humidity.

9. I’m a numbers geek, so I’m all excited about hitting mile 21 on Sunday. I have 27 marathons to go right with Operation Jack as of right now, so when I get to mile 21, I’ll have 26.2 x 26.2 left to go. I’m a geek and that’s how I see the world.

10. I don’t get Justin Bieber. I didn’t like Backstreet Boys or N’Sync back in the day, but I could understand why teenage girls liked them. Same with New Kids On The Block. But Justin Bieber? I just don’t get it.

Bonus item: I posted this news article on my Facebook wall. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

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