Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Recap: I Like This Path

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Oh, what a weekend — exhausting and HOT. But I had a great family day yesterday and through it all, I had wonderful experiences and witnessed more proof (not that I needed it) that I’m being led down a wonderful path. The Operation Jack train is still headed down the track and I got to spend a full day with my four favorite people in the world. It doesn’t get much better than that.

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 his honor and help him have an impact on the world, I’m attempting to run 61 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. I named the endeavor Operation Jack

So far, I’m through 34, I’ve raised a fair amount of money and I’ve introduced a lot of people to Train 4 Autism. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying to raise more money or reach more people, but it does mean that so far, I’d call this a success. Only 27 more marathons and I can take a nap!

This past weekend, I ran the University of Okoboji Marathon in Okoboji, Iowa. There’s really no University, but that’s an inside joke with the locals. The race was absolutely miserable to run in because of the weather, not that I expected a marathon in Iowa in the middle of July to be cold and overcast. It was very humid, in the 70s at the start and in the high 80s by the finish. I don’t know the exact temperature when I was done, but when I got to my hotel, it was 96 and it didn’t feel significantly warmer.

If you want to read about misery, check out my recap.

Why I say The Running Is The Easiest Part Of This
When I was walking to my car after flying home Saturday night, I started doing the math in my head. In the previous 14 days, I had driven about 1,200 miles in rental cars. I’d spent four nights in four hotels in four different states. I’d spent about 12 hours sitting in airports on layovers. And I spent three days as Mr. Mom. That’s why I say that the running is the easiest part of all of this. The three marathons in those 14 days were nothing!

But of course, in those 14 days, we also won $20,000 for Train 4 Autism. So it was all worth it.

How I Know My Race Was Truly Humid
I knew it was going to be humid, because I could feel it when I got into town and it’s humid in that part of the country. I can truly tell during a race by how soaked my clothes get from the sweat. If it’s not too bad, my clothing wicks sweat and will actually be pretty dry in the front.

But on Saturday, I was drenched from head to toe about 5 miles in. My shoes and socks were totally soaked, too. At one point, at about mile 22, I looked down and noticed I was leaving light footprints where I was running because my shoes were so soaked. I think it was humid.

Not Much Weekend-ness To Report On From Iowa
I flew in Friday, drove 3+ hours to where I was going, got some Taco Bell for dinner, then went to sleep about 30 minutes after getting my stuff ready for Saturday and calling home. On Saturday, after getting up at 3:45 (Central time) and running the race, I drove back to my hotel, spent about 20 minutes getting showered and checking out, then drove back to the airport.

I stopped for 15 minutes to eat at Taco John’s on the way back and eventually got to the airport 55 minutes before my flight. I flew home and walked through the front door at about 9:15 p.m. Exciting stuff, huh?

One thing about Taco John’s … I see that chain in a lot in my travels, but I had never eaten there. I never thought I’d utter these words, but I should have had McDonald’s instead. With my chicken burrito, which was mediocre at best, I got a big cup of tater tots that were the size of lifesavers. Seriously, tater tots with Mexican food?

At least they had Diet Mountain Dew. Side note: I don’t recommend drinking three 44-ounce cups of Diet Mountain Dew if you still have 2 1/2 hours to go to get to the airport. Just sayin’.

Sunday Fun Day!
Slept in until 8, lazy breakfast (Tiff’s homemade banana bread!), church with the family and then the five of us went to the community pool for a couple of hours. I dozed on the couch for a bit, watched a little ESPN while Ava took a nap laying on me, then had a mellow evening. The kids had fun playing in the backyard, they were good at dinner, Tiff made some really good salmon for dinner and I celebrated National Ice Cream Day with a bowl of peanut butter fudge swirl.

I’ve been longing for a day like that for a long time. It was nice to get it.


See that smile on my face? That’s because I was incredibly happy spending time with my four favorite people!

Speaking Of Ice Cream, …
For those of you who didn’t see on Facebook or Twitter, I totally forgot to eat ice cream last Thursday and my streak snapped at 165 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. Oh well. Please don’t hate me!

Fun Jack Story
Last night at dinner, we had fun playing a clapping game with him. He was clapping on and off, so me, Tiff, Ben and Ava started clapping when he was clapping and stopping when he stopped clapping. He figured out what we were doing pretty quickly and had fun being in charge and leading us. We did this for several minutes, and it’s a good thing for his development — it’s good reinforcement that there can be positive results from his actions.

After a few minutes, Tiff made him start saying “clap” and “stop” to get us to start and stop with him, so we added language into the equation. He had a lot of fun with it. He’s getting there. Slowly, but surely.

Grandparents Watch
15 days until they move to 20 minutes away from my house and 10 minutes away from my work. I … can’t … wait! I’m going to be super sad when their house sells, though. They’ve been in it since 1968, which was before I was born. I’m going up there on August 1. Might be the last time I’ll be there. I’m betting that I’m gonna cry.

That’s All For Today
I’ll see you back here tomorrow! Have a great Monday, everybody!

Race Report: University of Okoboji Marathon

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The dog days of summer continued for me Saturday at the University of Okoboji Marathon in Okoboji, Iowa. With high humidity and temps crawling from the low 70s at the start to the high 80s by the finish, I had a rough day on a rough day.

Mentally, I wanted to run well. When I woke up, I knew it was going to be a long, miserable day, but I still wanted to turn in a respectable effort. I suspected the weather would be similar to when I ran the Med-City Marathon in late May, and I wanted to do considerably better than I did that day when I struggled to a 3:57.

My plan for today was to keep things fairly under control early and hopefully have enough left to keep moving through the later miles. In the Med-City Marathon, I tried to take everything I could get early, then hang on as well as I could while it heated up. That didn’t work, and I ended up taking six walk breaks (the first six I had ever taken in 55 marathons to that point).

Today, I stayed fairly under control, moving well and not panicking when I couldn’t go as fast as I typically do. It was not a PR day, so I didn’t try to PR. There weren’t a lot of aid stations early, so I was concerned I was going to overheat too early. I can always tell how humid it is by how much I sweat. Sometimes, my clothing stays fairly dry. But I was completely soaked by about mile 5.

The sun started to come out fairly early, and after mile 7 or 8, we were exposed for the majority of the time. It got warmer and warmer, so I got slower and slower because I kept running by heart rate. I hit the half in 1:42, which is probably the slowest first 13.1 I’ve done this year, aside from Catalina and the three times I’ve been an official pacer.

By about mile 14, I just wanted the race to be over. I don’t normally hit that point until well past 20. It was hot, I was breaking down and I knew the second half was going to take forever, because I knew my miles were going to slow down considerably. I was so hot and sweating so bad that my shoes were soaked. I checked at one point and I was leaving light footprints on the asphalt from my wet shoes.

I really don’t remember a ton about the race, other than it was hot and I was beating myself up pretty badly. I knew heading into the race it was going to be a miserable experience and I was right. I didn’t pay much attention to my time — only my heart rate — but I could feel my body taking a beating. I was feeling very warm, my arms were feeling pretty heavy and my legs were getting pretty stiff.

I could tell that I was out of energy. I kept thinking to myself that my time was going to be terrible, but I didn’t care — I knew in my heart that I wrecked myself out there. I feel like part of what makes people jump on the Operation Jack bandwagon is that what I’m doing isn’t easy — it’s supposed to be tough. Well, on days like today, I really feel like I earned my money (well, Train 4 Autism’s money, but you know what I mean). This was truly a marathon and I left it all out there in the Iowa sun.

My finish time was 3:42:33. I’m embarrassed by the time, but I’m not embarrassed by my effort. I’ve had some good races this year. This wasn’t one of them, but I certainly executed better than Med City. As for the course, it was OK, but not great. Okoboji is a lake area in Iowa that people go to as a getaway vacation. There’s cool lake houses and lots of docks and people on weekend vacations. The scenery is decent with the lake and plenty of green, but it’s not spectacular. The race itself was on an open course. I wouldn’t recommend traveling to this race just to run it, but if you went to Okoboji for a vacation at the time of the race, it’s pretty low-key and aside from the heat, it was a fairly nice run.

So there you have it. 34 down, 27 to go. Next up, San Francisco!


I accidentally my camera set to video, so I got a one-second video of me at the finish line, not a photo. The resolution on that obviously wasn’t very good.

I'm Not Running 60 Marathons This Year

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You want your week to go by quickly? Miss a flight on Sunday and take a flight on Friday. Then, you’ll only have three days to get you work done. Throw in a few days of Mr. Mom and a $20,000 contest win for your charity and you have a complete blur. But here we are, Thursday. It’s time for a weekend preview blog, plus an announcement.

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 wanted to use my ability to recover well from marathons to try to make a difference in the autism world. I was planning on running 60 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. Train 4 Autism helps people raise money for the autism-related charity of their choice. I think it’s a great organization, which is why I’m excited to work towards helping it grow.

So far, I’ve run 33 marathons, brought a fair amount of people into the organization, and I’ve raised about $50,000 (including a $20,000 we just won in the Chase Community Giving contest.

Anyways, I said I was planning on running 60 marathons. Well, that plan changed. So now I’ll explain that.

I’m Not Running 60 Marathons In 2010
I’m going to make it 61. A couple of months ago, I got a request from an Operation Jack supporter in Alabama named Lance Haney to run the St. Jude Memphis Marathon with him. I told him I would if we could raise an additional $3,000. I hoped the possibility of adding a race would help raise money for Operation Jack. Then I started looking into the race and it really became something I wanted to do.

It’s a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is a leader in children’s cancer research. I hate autism, but I have no love for children’s cancer, either. I’ve heard that the race is put on really well and I think we’ll see patients when we’re there. How could anybody with a heart not want to be a part of that race?

Well, when we locked up that $20,000, I decided I’d officially add this one to the schedule. I’m already registered for Las Vegas the following day, so it’ll be an extra race — 61 now.

San Francisco Marathon Runners?
If you’re going to be in San Francisco, there’s going to be a dinner the night before. Not a fundraiser, just a get-together for a bunch of runners. It’s going to be at Gordon Biersch at 5:30 and we’ll all just order off the menu. A good chunk of the people there will be from a group of runners I’m a part of, but it was the same kind of makeup at my dinner in February and everybody seemed to mix pretty well.

I have information here. If you’d like to go, just e-mail me by July 22 because I need to call in a head count.

Weekly Contest
I have a contest every week where you guys guess my time in the form of a small donation. If you think I’m going to run a 3:15, you donate $3.15. Whoever guesses the closest without underbidding wins. Last week, I didn’t have the contest. Two weeks ago, the winner was Dina Williams, who plays every week and has won a couple of times now.

A lot of you still need us to ship you shirts. They’re coming … we’re just incredibly overloaded and not doing a good job shipping them out. Believe me, it bothers me a whole lot more than it bothers you and they’re coming. They really, really are. 🙁

Weekend Preview
I’m going to Okojobi, Iowa. A big part of that is that there’s not a lot on the schedule. Welcome to the lean, hot summer months. High of 91 on Saturday, low of 68. Possible isolated thunderstorms. Good thing the race starts at 6. Wait, that’s 4 a.m. body time. Oh well.

I have no idea of the elevation profile o the course, but it’s around a lake and it looks like it starts and finishes at the same spot. So, I’ll get any uphills back, and I can’t imagine it’ll be too hilly in Iowa. But I’m thinking the heat and humidity are going to make it a long day. I bet I won’t get to stop running until 3:22 after I start. We’ll see. So go ahead, make your guesses. What’s $3 and some change to a great cause? I know we just won $20,000, but let’s not quit now! To make your bet, just click here or click on the Donate Now! link at the top of any page on this site.

OK, That’s All For Today
Have a great weekend everybody! I’ll post a race report at some point Saturday.

Chase Recap: THANK YOU!

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Well, now that we’re about 1 1/2 days removed from the Chase Community Giving contest, I figured I’d write a post-mortem recap about it. It was an amazing experience and I think the whole process we went through is worthy of a blog.

Just as a real quick intro in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner and my middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I came up with an idea to try to maximize my ability to recover well from marathons and make a purpose out of his autism by running 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.

So far, it hasn’t been exactly what I expected, but I’ve been putting in my best effort and I know I’m reaching people, bringing people into Train 4 Autism, and, of course, raising money. I’m 33 marathons down, 27 to go.

That being said, we did it! We just finished this Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook and finished in the top 200, netting the Operation Jack Autism Foundation $20,000! That will end up being an extra $20,000 that we give to Train 4 Autism at the end of the year. AWESOME!

I want to start off by thanking a few people real quick. First, Operation Jack supporter Laura Sullivan alerted me about a week before this contest was going to begin, so I definitely owe her a huge thank you. I also want to give a big thank you to Sarah Stanley. Sarah also uses her running to push philanthropic efforts and she used her large reach to give us a big boost on Sunday afternoon when we were in danger of slipping out of the top 200. We needed some momentum badly and we got it at a critical time when social media is typically very quiet.

And of course, I have to thank Tiffany. It was awesome going through the highs and lows of this contest together. We make a great team and it was such a great experience to go through this with her.

I’m calling them out specifically, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t notice the efforts of a ton of other people. I saw it all go down on Facebook and Twitter and it just about overwhelmed me emotionally. I don’t know why, but I felt unworthy of the incredible outpouring of support. But I felt very appreciative. VERY appreciative.

I’m doing what I’m doing and a lot of times, I wonder if I’m reaching anybody or if anybody even cares. It’s tough to labor on through this for an entire year. Over the final week of this contest, though, I could tell that I have backing from people all over the country, many of whom I’ve never met, and it was amazing.

I’d scroll down my Facebook and see people posting and re-posting. I saw a lot of people pounding away on Twitter. The e-mail tool I built was used well. I’d beg for a push and people responded. For a while I felt like I was bugging people, but then it seemed like people were truly on the bandwagon and excited about it. I was watching hour by hour Monday early into the evening, and I finally just let go about 50 minutes before the voting closed. There was nothing left I could do to change anything. I felt like I was a lawyer waiting on a deliberating jury, but at the same time, I was pretty confident I had it locked up and I felt like the quarterback of the winning football team kneeling down to run out the clock. Watching the totals refresh on Monday night 30 minutes after voting closed was like watching election returns.

Knowing that I was able to rally 1,583 votes for this cause (that was the official final total) means a whole lot more to me than running 33 marathons between January 1 and July 11. It tells me that as I go alone to my trips and sit here alone behind my computer, I’m not really alone. I’m so grateful for all of your efforts. Actions speak so much louder than words and while people tell me they support what I’m doing, y’all showed it with your relentless push.

I believe in my cause, which is fighting autism. I keep things on the positive and I crack jokes here all the time, because that’s just the way I approach things. Deep down inside, I’m so upset about what Jack’s going through, I don’t really know how to deal publicly with it or talk about it. Tiff did a much better job of that writing a guest blog here on Monday. I’m numb from the pain and I don’t do a very good job of being open about it all. I keep it to myself and inside for the most part. But just to be clear, I absolutely hate what he’s going through and I hate what it’s done to our family. This has turned our world upside down and it has a big impact on Ben and Ava. I hate autism. I hate it. I’m going to do whatever I can to fight it for the rest of my life.

So anyways, I’m doing Operation Jack, trying to make a difference, even if it’s a small difference. Train 4 Autism might break through and become like Team In Training. Or, somehow, my efforts might be able to indirectly make life better for five children with autism. Either way, it’s all worth it.

The contest win was great. Getting the confirmation that I’m not alone and I have the support of people all over the nation was even better.

But the biggest thing is $20,000 for Train 4 Autism. Don’t forget that this contest was very, very real. That’s real money that’s going to have a real impact. I’m really excited and proud to be a part of Train 4 Autism. That’s my team, and I feel like I was able to help bring home a win for the team. We won and we’re going to be better off for it. As the verse at the bottom of my site says, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. We did not give up in this contest. And while this contest is over, I’m not giving up in the bigger mission. I will continue to fight autism and Train 4 Autism gives me a weapon.

Yesterday, Ben Fesagaiga, the founder of Train 4 Autism, included the following in an email to me:

The money is great — it can definitely be put to good use. As you know we direct just about everything that comes in back out to organizations that out athletes choose. This is what makes us different and, well, us. As proud as I am about supporting other organizations, the reality is we have very little resources to promote T4A. We rely mainly on the organizations that we support to in turn promote T4A. Most of them have done an outstanding job.

I recently did the SD R&R Half you remember me saying “Sam!!” as you shot past me on your way to finishing the full. That day I saw a sea of purple, as thousands upon thousands of TNT athletes from all over the country competed, and their supporters lining just about ll 26.2 miles, plus the finish area. I had a lot of thoughts go through my mind. Wouldn’t it be awesome if T4A had this kind of mass involvement and support? It’s inspiring, and at the same time intimidating as I finish the race and walk back to my car alone.

Also, Molly Rearick, the Director of Communications for Train 4 Autism, wrote:

We run on a tiny operating budget (9.5% of all funds we take in), so we are exited to be able to support more families affected by Autism with the money earned from the Chase contest. Because of the Felsenfelds’ passion for and dedication to raising Autism awareness, we will be able to reach more families and make a difference in more lives. I was touched to watch votes come in from around the world – from friends, family members, and complete strangers who believe in what Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism are doing. Thank you to everyone who realizes what a worthy cause this is!

This wasn’t just a vote contest. This was real and it’s going to make a difference. So thank you, all of you, for making this happen. None of us could have made this happen on our own, but we did it as a team and it’s going to make a real difference.

Weekend Recap: I Was Bound To Miss A Flight, Right?

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Normally, I run a weekend recap on Mondays and move into 10 random things on Tuesdays. But my wife, Tiffany, wanted to write a guest blog for yesterday, so I ran that instead. Plus, my weekend was inadvertently extended a day, so I’m just going to go ahead and run my weekend recap today. I have a tiny bit of information about the Chase Community Giving contest we’ve been involved in, but for the most part, I’m going to cover that in-depth tomorrow.

Just in case this is your first time being here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. Fighting autism is my cause and I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. It’s a great charity headed by great parents and I’m proud to be a part of it.

So far, I’m through 33 of the 60 races. It seems like I’m reaching people and raising money and getting people involved, so it’s worth the pain I’m feeling in my lower back.

If you’ve been following along at all, you know we’ve been in this Chase Community Giving contest, with an opportunity to win $20,000. The voting ended last night and it went down to the wire, but unofficially, we did it! Results will be official sometime around noon Eastern today and I’ll update this blog with a confirmation.

This was an amazing contest, though. Everybody came out of the woodwork and pushed so hard to make this happen. It was incredible, and the net result is going to be that Train 4 Autism will gain an additional $20,000 at the end of the year. This is one of those “this is why I do this” moments for me. And for all of you, who pushed so hard, that should be a “this is why I did that” moment, too. Y’all are the ones who made it happen.


Awesome!

Real quick, two TV stations up in Missoula did pieces on me this weekend. Here’s one of them. I’ll get the other one posted as soon as I get the link.

Bound To Happen?
If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year whether or not I thought I would miss a flight, I would have probably guessed yes. With tight schedules and about 45 or so weekends flying somewhere, chances are it would happen once.

Well, that once came this weekend. I flew through Spokane to get to Missoula, Montana, and it’s about a three-hour drive. I ran tight on time after the race and when I got into the car, I plugged in the airport in Spokane to get an estimated arrival time. I had enough time to eat lunch, so I quickly did that. I only had 9 1/2 hours of sleep the prior two nights and I had just run a marathon, so I wanted to load up on Diet Pepsi at Taco Bell and get some caffeine into my system for the drive.

Lunch took about 15 minutes and I got rolling on the drive. The GPS system said I’d be in about 40 minutes before the flight, but as is always the case, I made up some time on the drive. Unfortunately, my fat fingers hit the wrong airport and I ended up at some commuter airport, easily costing myself about 20 minutes.

I got to the airport 35 minutes before my flight. The rental return guy was going in slow-mo and took a good 6 or 7 minutes to get me taken care of. I made a mad dash to get my boarding pass, but it was about 2:51 and my flight was at 3:05 and the woman at the counter told me I was too late. And with my luck, it was the last flight out for the day.

Southwest had an option to get me home for $382, but that was way too much. So, I got to spend Sunday night in Spokane. The bummer of it all is that Tiff went out to see one of her best friends in Arizona who just had a baby and left yesterday morning. So, I didn’t get to see her and I won’t see her until Wednesday night. We had to make some adjustments with our arrangements for the kids, because we were both out of town between yesterday morning at 5 a.m. and yesterday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

Plus, I have to miss work on Friday to go to Iowa and I didn’t want to miss two days this week. I was able to work a little bit while traveling on Monday, but I couldn’t get a good, full day in.

In hindsight, I would have certainly hit the right button on the GPS and just driven through someplace and probably gotten to the airport more than hour before my flight. I probably would have been fine eating at Taco Bell and getting to the airport 55 minutes or so in advance — Spokane is a pretty easy airport to get through, nice and small.

US Airways was really nice about it and hooked me up at a hotel with a “distressed traveler” rate that was walking distance from the terminal. The hotel confirmed the rate and tried to overcharge me $30 when I got there, but I negotiated them down to “only” a $12 overcharge. The folks at US Airways were gone for the day since my flight was the last one of the day, so I was out of luck and stuck. I’ll be taking that up with the hotel’s corporate headquarters this week.

So I just stayed in the hotel, plowing away on my race report and my vote-getting campaign for Chase. At least the complimentary breakfast was good in the morning. I love those waffle machines that you pour the batter into. And I love me some four cups of coffee.

So yeah, it was bound to happen. I just wish it would have happened on a) a Saturday when b) there was another flight out that day and c) my wife wasn’t going out of town for three days before I could get in and d) it wasn’t causing me to miss a day of work in an already-short week.

Life. Gotta love it!

I Admit It, I’m A Dork
I went to Missoula, Mont. over the weekend, flying through Spokane, Wash. From there, I drove 200 miles, cutting through the top of Idaho. In case you haven’t noticed (60 marathons in a year, 163 consecutive days eating ice cream at this point), I like doing odd things. So, for a couple of weeks, I planned on running a mile in California before I left for the airport, then a mile in Washington, a mile in Idaho and a mile in Montana.

I did, because … why not?

Here they are:
– California
– Washington
– Idaho
– Montana

Not A Lot Of Excitement This Weekend
There’s really not a whole lot to report about from this weekend other than the missed flight. I got up, went to the airport, flew to Washington, drove to Missoula and had a TV reporter waiting for me at my motel when I got there (after I drove through Taco Bell). I got to my room after finishing the interview at about 9:30 p.m.

After running the race, I talked to a couple of friends in the finish area, did two interviews, went and visited a couple of friends at a bar for about 15 minutes before going back to my hotel to get cleaned up. Then it was the lunch/drive/missed flight. Life on the road isn’t too glamorous. EXCEPT when you drive from Spokane to Missoula.

I highly recommend the Missoula Marathon. It’s put on well, there were no logistical challenges and the course was absolutely beautiful. When you do it, do yourself a favor and fly through Spokane, not Missoula. That drive is absolutely amazing. Sure, I missed my flight because of it, but it was worth it. I took some pictures, but they don’t do that area justice. I want to go back next year just to bring my wife and show her the drive.

Anyways, here are some pics:


It’s nice out there.

It’s still nice out there.

Yep, it’s still nice.

Nice.

There were more tall trees lining those mountains than I could have imagined. There were some nice parts of the drive in Idaho where the water, but I guess I didn’t get any pictures. I guess you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was the nicest 200-mile drive I’ve ever taken.

By the way, speaking of my friends I talked to at the bar after the race, here’s a picture I took with Operation Jack supporter Chris Stores, a runner I’ve communicated with for several years.


One of these guys is me.

Pray For Me
I’m Mr. Mom until tomorrow night. I’m outnumbered, 3 to 1. We all do certain things well. I run marathons, my wife is Supermom. Actually, pray for my kids!

OK, That’s All For Today
I’ll be back here tomorrow with some thoughts about this Chase Community Giving contest. It’s done now, but still, to be in my shoes and experience what I experienced going through this was amazing and it deserves a blog. You guys are AWESOME. Period.