Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Recap: Lots Of Randomness

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I normally write a weekend recap on Mondays and 10 random things on Tuesdays, and that’s still going to be the case this week. But my weekend recap is about a million words and six pictures of randomness. So, if you like my random things blogs, you’re going to like my weekend recap today.

Real quick, I ran my 26th marathon of the year on Saturday in Fargo. I had a pretty nice run, going 3:10:00. If you want, you can read my race report here.

Also, a TV station up in Fargo did a nice piece on Operation Jack. But it’s not online yet. Hopefully I can get a link to it tomorrow.

Only In Fargo
Yeah, that’s an earthmover by the baggage claim. I told the guy at the rental car counter that I needed to take a picture of it, because you don’t see things like that in California. He was surprised at my assumption and said they probably have them at smaller airports. Really?


United thinks they need this to move my carry-on bag.

Post-Race Burger Review
I was starving after the race on Saturday, but nothing appealed to me. I saw Arby’s, Subway, Burger King and McDonald’s and none of them looked good. I tweeted that I didn’t know what to have for lunch. I was about to have Taco Bell, but somebody recommended a place called Culver’s for a good burger. Good burgers are always so satisfying on race days, so I gave it a shot.

I thought it was OK, but it was no In-N-Out or Five Guys. I had a mushroom swiss burger and fries. I killed it in about 30 seconds. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great. One awesome thing was that they had Diet Mountain Dew on tap. I love that stuff. I got pretty wired. And then I wrote this blog.


Certainly a better choice than a Big Mac.

Why I Raced On Saturday
Yesterday was my 11-year wedding anniversary with my wife, so I wanted to make sure I’d be home on Saturday night to spend yesterday with my best friend and my babies. I always gush about Tiff in here, but I won’t waste a whole lot of time doing that today. You all know happy she makes me and how lucky I am to have her. By the way, she made one heck of a homemade carrot cake for us as a surprise (that was the flavor of our wedding cake)! 🙂

What I will do is tell a little story about my wedding weekend. I was living in Kansas and we got married in California, so we had to do everything in one weekend, and that includes the bachelor party two nights before the wedding. I lost 40 pounds in the three months before the wedding so I would look good for the pictures (245 to 203!). Unfortunately, I, um, needed my friends to carry me in to my dad’s house at the end of the night. My eye accidentally got knocked into a doorknob during that process.

Can you guess where this one’s going? It was pretty swollen the next day, and it was black on the morning of my wedding. The makeup took care of the discoloration, but there was swelling. So much for those pictures … I looked like I was squinting in one of my eyes.

Moral of the story is obviously to not have your bachelor party two nights before the wedding. And if you do, make sure my friends Ben and Kevin don’t carry you in at the end of the night.

Video of the day:

I listened to this song on my iPod on my flight home and it made me think of my family. So I’m playing it today.

What I Didn’t Get My Wife For An Anniversary Present
This t-shirt I saw in a mall in Fargo:


Chicks dig gifts, but not gifts like this.

I Made History!
I surpassed my previous record of 110 consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt when I got a peanut butter waffle cone while I was switching planes in Denver on Friday. Actually, I broke my record moments earlier when I took a sample of white chocolate mousse flavored frozen yogurt at TCBY. But I took a picture of my cone instead. How dumb would a picture of a sample cup look?


This was the cone! I need to send this picture to the Smithsonian!

I’m at 112 days now and 215 out of the past 216. Speaking of ice cream, Team Maine emailed this picture to me on Saturday. What a beautiful t-shirt!


My wife could have bought this for me for an anniversary present.

I always say there is no I in team, but there’s one in “win” and two in “championship”. I’m an ice cream champion.

Gas Theory
OK, so I had Taco Bell on Friday after I picked up my race packet. Wait, that’s not it. If you read last Wednesday’s blog, you know that the price I’m paying for gasoline lately closely correlates with the times I’m running. I paid $3.06 right before I ran a 3:06, the I paid $3.18 right before I ran a 3:19 and then I think 3:05 before a $3.08. Or something like that.

Well, here’s what was at the gas station next to my motel in Fargo:


My motel was actually in Moorhead, Minn., but you get the point.

So, by my math, that’s basically a 3:10. Because two hours and 70 minutes is three hours and 10 minutes. And as you know, my time on Saturday was 3:10:00. You know what would have been even radder? If I was one stinkin’ second faster, because $2.699 is the tiniest amount you can possibly be under $2.700 and 3:09:59 is the tiniest amount you can possibly be under 3:10. Yeah, I know radder isn’t really a word, but this is my blog and I make the rules here.

I’ve been told that gas in Rochester, where I’m going this weekend, is $2.599. Hmmmm …

That’s All For Today, Folks
Thanks for making me your time-waster of choice! See you back here tomorrow!

Race Report: Fargo Marathon

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I’ve run more marathons than most people — Saturday’s Fargo Marathon was my 54th (26th of the year). But the more I run them, the more I realize how difficult and unpredictable they are. Saturday was no exception.

I dreaded this race this week, because the weather was supposed to be pretty rough. A few days before the race, the forecast was for temps in the 80s with thunderstorms possible. The day before, it was looking like mid-70s with 25 mph winds. Whatever it was going to be, I was mentally prepared to go out and suffer for 26.2 miles. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is.

Well, I caught a break. At the start, it was about 60 degrees with wind about 5-10 mph and rain. Not optimal conditions, but better than what I was expecting. I never even looked at a course profile, because I’d heard from a friend of mine named Chris who’s run the race that it’s incredibly flat. He was right.

I took off, taking whatever I could get out of my body and the course. As has been the norm for me lately, I went out by heart rate and didn’t worry about pace. I met a guy right before the start who asked me what I was gunning for, and as is the case nowadays, I told him, “Whatever my body will give me.” I knew I was putting time in the bank early, which isn’t the greatest strategy in the world, but it’s working for me with the way my body is adapting to my race schedule, so that’s what I did.

I stayed under a 7:00 pace for probably about 5 or 6 miles and then held steady below 7:05 for a little while. I had no idea when the weather was going to get bad, so my attitude was basically that the longer I went on and stayed in a groove, the more I could minimize the bad-weather curse I was expecting.

I started feeling the pain I’ve been feeling in my right hip and piriformis at about mile 8. By mile 10 or so, I knew that I was facing a tough second half because I was starting to hurt quite a bit. The miles were flying by quickly, but I was definitely not comfortable.

I hit the half in 1:32:55 on my Garmin. It was still in the low 60s, and while it wasn’t raining, it felt a little bit humid. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to the course, because I was paying a lot of attention to my body. I was feeling a fair amount of pain and my turnover was slowing a little bit, but I could tell my stride was good.

I started to slip a little bit and turn miles in the 7:30 range. 7:15 is what I need for sub-3:10, which is what I started seriously thinking about by 16 or so. I knew a huge chunk of the day was gone and what I had been expecting didn’t matter any more. I was in a legitimate fight with the clock and I suspected it was going to be pretty close.

When I hit six miles to go, I did the math and realized I needed to average about 7:25s in to stay sub-3:10. I was hoping to catch a groove like I did last week in Cleveland from 21 to the finish, but I didn’t. I went about as hard as I could, and the best my stiff legs could crank out were 7:30s or so. The sun came out when I hit 20 or so, which made the final 10K pretty tough.

By the time I hit 24, I needed to average about 7:20s. I knew I couldn’t afford a bad mile, so I cranked it up and got my heart rate into the high 170s (my marathon HR is 170, 10K is about 182 or so). When I hit 25, it still looked like I was going to need about a 7:15 to make it. I got up into the 180s and gave it everything I had. I couldn’t smile at the spectators or even turn my head, because I was so locked in.

I spent most of the mile right between a 6:30 and 7:00 pace and really thought I had it. I knew I was going to be within 10 seconds either way. We made the final turn and headed straight into the Fargodome for the finish. It was about 200 yards up and I took a glance at my watch and knew it was going to be way too close for comfort. My max heart rate for the run was 186 and I know it was in that last 100 yards. I didn’t leave anything to chance.

I went through the finish line hard, then stopped my watch, and I saw 3:10:01. Garmin times are always a little tiny bit off from the official time. I went and checked my results, and there it was: 3:10:00. So incredibly close to a sub-3:10. But I’m ecstatic with the run. I didn’t think I’d do much better than 3:20 in Fargo.

I’d call it a pretty good run. Painful, but that will go away and I’ll still be able to look back fondly on my effort. The course was pretty nice. I don’t know how to describe Fargo. It has the small-town feel. Not rural, but it seemed pretty laid back. We didn’t run through anything glamorous, but the entire course made for a pretty relaxing (mentally) run. I’d love a course like that for my long runs. The residents came out and were pretty enthusiastic and the support on the course was good.

And that’s pretty much it, marathon No. 26 of the year. Only 34 to go!


At the finish inside the Fargodome.

The back of the medal came inscribed with, “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. — Hebrews 12:1”

Weekend Preview: Race #26, Fargo Marathon

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It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for my formulaic weekend preview blog. Can you tell I’m not feeling very creative with my writing? I’d better get creative with my running, though, because I’m facing a tough marathon this weekend and I have no idea how I’m going to pull off a good run.

Just in case this is your first time here, welcome! And here’s my standard introduction: 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 community, I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. Saturday will be No. 26.

Heading into the weekend, I give a little bit of a forecast of the weekend’s race. I have a contest — you guess my time, and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. The way to make your guess is to make a small contribution of what you think my time is going to be. So, if you think my time is going to be 3:10, you make a donation of $3.10. To make a donation, just click here or click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site.

Last week’s winner was Dana Hansen of Long Beach, Calif. I used to work with Dana and she’s a runner and a triathlete. I was pleasantly surprised when I was walking through the parking lot at the airport on my way to Cleveland last weekend and I saw her guess come across on my BlackBerry. I know I get quite a few hits, but I never know who’s reading. I didn’t expect that Dana was following along, so it put a big smile on my face!

If you’re out there reading and I don’t know you’re out there reading, make a guess and give me the pat-on-the-back I crave! But first, keep reading, because I’ll give you some analysis on how I think I’ll do.

Bowling For OJ!
I take Jack to a facility called Advanced Hyperbarics for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. We’ve been going for six or seven months and we’ve noticed a lot of improvements in that time period. They’ve been really good to us and I really appreciate everything they’ve done.

Anyways, they’re having a bowling fundraiser to help benefit Generation Rescue and it’s actually pretty affordable for a fundraiser. It’s going to be on July 17 at Lucky Strike bowling alley at the Block of Orange — if you’re in Orange County out here near me, you know where that is. I’d love to get a team going for that. If you’re interested, let me know! Click here to download a PDF with information about the event.

I Earn A Medal On Saturday, She Deserves A Medal On Sunday
On Sunday, I’m celebrating 11 years of marriage to my best friend. Don’t tell my wife! Ha ha … we got married on May 23, 1999. I look back at that day and think about how we had no idea what we were getting into. We’re two peas in a pod and marrying her was the best decision I ever made.

Fargo Forecast
I honestly don’t know a lot about the course in Fargo. I’ve heard it’s a fast, flat course and I haven’t really looked at the course description yet. I know we finish in a dome, but that’s about it. I’m confidently attacking this as a course without any significant elevation changes.

BUT, the forecast is not good running weather. Last night, the forecast for Saturday sits at a high of 80, low of 68, 30 percent chance of showers. The race starts at 8 a.m., so I’ll be running until after 11 a.m. The best I’m really hoping for is low 70s with a fair amount of humidity. I head into every race gunning for a smoking time, and I’ll run this one by heart rate, but I know there’s no way I’m going to run a time that makes me excited.

If I’m a betting man, which I’m not (but I hope you are!), I’d go with about a 3:20. I’m thinking back to Miami, which was 70 degrees with 96 percent humidity, and I went 3:20:03. And there was Nashville, which was in the 70s and humid with showers at the end and I went 3:34 (although in all fairness, the race started early and I was late, so I had to start in the second wave and spend 11 miles dodging and weaving through slower runners).

So, my guess is 3:20. But I hope that’s high! If you’ve been following along, let this be the week that you finally bid!

Have A Great Weekend!
That’s all I have for today. Nothing much. Have a great weekend, everybody. I’ll post my race recap at some point on Saturday!

Ten Random Things For Tuesday Wednesday

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Normally I do 10 random things on Tuesday, but I did my Monday weekend recap yesterday because I wrote a book about United Airlines on Monday. So you’re getting Ten Random Things for Wednesday today. Not so keen on the alliteration charts, but it’s still something to help you be unproductive for a few minutes today.

1. This Friday is the day. If I can keep going, I’ll break my all-time record for consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt. Through last night, I’m at 108 days. My personal best is 110. I’m still thinking about how I’m going to do it, but I’m thinking about ice cream on top of waffles for breakfast.

2. Those people I saw in Cleveland are REALLY concerned about whether or not LeBron James is coming back. I heard lots and lots of chatter about it. I think he will. If he goes anywhere, he has to win a championship. If he stays with the Cavs, he’s the ultimate good guy for staying in Cleveland and then it’s up to management to give him a supporting cast. He’s already the face of the NBA. He’s not going to be any more marketable or make any more money anywhere else.

3. I know I talk a lot about how I eat In-N-Out, and I had that for lunch on Monday, but it’s not like I eat that every day. Yesterday for lunch, I had chicken tortilla soup, four pieces of whole wheat toast, a banana, and apple and some saltine crackers. I had chicken with rice and mushrooms for dinner last night. And tonight, for dinner, I’m having … oh, In-N-Out.

4. I’m really, really proud of my brother.

5.Look at the following:

Just yesterday, I was kind of bored and lonely
and a friend who knows about all my marathons
called me up and wished me luck this weekend. I
keep in touch with him, but we hadn’t talked in a month!

See how the first letters of those lines spell “Jack”? One time, in college, I wrote a column in the paper and asked for responsibility to handle the layout so I could edit it. I did, and the first letter of the top 25 or so lines asked a girl out on a date. I got the date, but it didn’t last. And that’s good — I met Tiffany four or five months later.

6. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of having to run your guts out to support Operation Jack you could, say, go bowling instead? Well if you’re in Southern California, save the date — July 17! The hyperbaric chamber facility I go to with Jack, Advanced Hyperbarics, is having a bowling tournament at Lucky Strike at the Block of Orange to benefit Generation Rescue. I’m going to be in Iowa for a marathon on the 18th, but I’d love to have an Operation Jack team there! Yes, you can participate in Operation Jack by bowling! Here’s a flyer — let’s get a team going!

AH has done a great job helping me and Jack and tons of other children with autism. I’d love to be able to show them some support back and have OJ representing! Send me an e-mail if you’re interested!

7. When I pay $3.129 for a gallon of gas, I consider that $3.13. Because really, it is. Anyways, I bought gas on May 1, the day before the Orange County Marathon. It was $3.06 a gallon and I went out and ran a 3:06 the next day. Then, on May 10, the first time I bought gas after running a 3:19 in the Grand Valley Marathon, I paid $3.18. Two days later, I spent $3.05 per gallon and subsequently ran a 3:08 in Cleveland.

I’m really hoping that oil prices drop and gas hits $2.59 around here.


Tough to see, but it’s $3.059, $3.179 and $3.049.

8. When I was in college, I used to like to take my clothes off and run through campus. I loved the thrill of it. My fraternity brothers kept telling me I was going to get in trouble one time if I got caught, but I just couldn’t stop. But finally, I drank Windex one day. That stopped the streaking.

9. I spent some time on the phone last night with United Airlines, working on rectifying my situation from last weekend. 15 minutes on hold, 20 minutes on the phone, still not resolved. But I’ll keep at this until they do me right. The lady on the phone last night was very nice, but it’s Wednesday, and the sky is still blue, and I still hate United.

Oh by the way, I found out that if I come across the same lady who forced me to check my bag, I can demand that I speak to her supervisor on the spot. And believe me, I will.

10. If you want to hear me say “um” and “uh” a lot, check out this interview I did with a sports talk radio station in Colorado last week.

I’m no math major, but I was on the math team back in the day and I know when I hit 10. So, that’s all for today! See you tomorrow!

Weekend Recap: Tough Start, Great Finish

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Since I went with my long rambling blog about United Airlines yesterday, I’m doing my weekend recap today. The best part of this was that I was able to write it on my flight back Sunday after I wrote yesterday’s blog, so that freed me up last night! But there are other good parts about this blog. So please read it!

I always start my blog out with a quick intro. I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m accomplish all three of those goals. I’ve raised money. I’ve raised awareness. And I’m through 25 of the 60 marathons.

If you run enough marathons, some will be pretty blah and some will be pretty memorable. Cleveland, which I ran on Sunday is going to end up ranking amongst the top 5 for the year, and I know I can say that even though it’s only May. When you combine the Operation Jack people involved and the way I ran, it really stands out. It was a great day.

Worst Way To Start A Weekend
After work on Friday night, I went to the “Fun Fest” at Benjamin’s school. It’s the school’s annual fundraiser, a carnival that’s attended by pretty much everybody in the school. All of his friends are there, a lot of parents we know are there. This is the fifth year in a row we’ve gone and he has a blast every time. Ava kind of had a good time (she’s too young for a lot of the stuff), but she still had fun with me. Jack was home with my mother-in-law for his therapy session.

I hung out with Tiff and we watched Ben climb the rock wall (he got WAY higher than he did last year, almost to the top!) and then we all had fun watching a demonstration from the tae-kwon-do studio Ben goes to.

So why was this the worst way to start the weekend? Because we always go and stay until it ends at 8 p.m. But my flight was at 8:04 p.m., so I had to leave early to get to the airport. It was a total bummer walking away and leaving them behind, knowing this is the kind of thing I’m missing by doing Operation Jack. I was homesick before I even left. Next year will be better.

Worst Way To Continue A Weekend
In case you didn’t read about my episode with United Airlines, it was pretty sweet of them to lose my carry-on. How do they lose a carry-on? Kind of reminds me of the movie Friday … “How do you get fired on your day off?” … they lose your carry-on when they unnecessarily force you to check it.

Nothing like taking a red-eye flight and then spending the next day aimlessly wandering around Cleveland trying to track down a carry-on suitcase. I kept telling myself it would make my blog easy to write. And sure enough, yesterday’s blog was a breeze to put together. But I could really do without that convenience!

It’s Tuesday, and the sky is still blue, and United Airlines is still lousy.

Continental Airlines, Holla!
Not only do they do it the old-fashioned way and have us board from the back of the plane first (instead of with the “zones” the other airlines give us, which I suspect has a lot to do with how much you pay for your ticket), they feed you for free! We got enchiladas on our flight home!

Shirt Of The Weekend
So I’m getting on the subway Saturday night, and a dude is getting off. He’s wearing a bright green shirt with white lettering and a white four-leaf clover. The shirt says, “Everybody Loves An Italian Boy.”

Not Irish … Italian. Go figure.

I Met People!
As is frequently the case, I got to meet quite a few people who are very supportive of Operation Jack over the weekend. I was a total zombie and forgot to take a picture with Cyndi Kolonick at the expo on Saturday, but I met her and her daughter. She’s been good to talk to, and it’s always fun to put a face to a name.

I also got to meet Erin Fortin and her brother Will. Erin’s been really supportive since last summer and it was great to meet her. Will was pretty cool, too. Erin is a grad student at the University of Colorado, going after a Ph.D in some kind of chemistry something-or-another. Will is in school up in Wyoming chasing a Ph.D in geophysics or something like that. I spent 6 1/2 years getting a journalism degree and almost didn’t graduate because I nearly failed a one-hour freshman geology lab class in my seventh fall. They got a chuckle out of that. Science, not my thing.


I met Will and Erin on Saturday, but forgot to take a picture. But then there was Sunday. This is us before Erin owned the Cleveland Marathon.

Sunday morning before the race, I met Kim Bouldin, who was running her first marathon. Through Twitter, I come in contact with all sorts of people who have common interests with me. There are a lot of runners and a lot of people in the autism world. Kim is a runner (actually, Kim is now a marathoner!) and she lives gluten-free and is pretty active in that community, which overlaps with the autism community. We’ve talked a fair amount over the past several months, so it was nice to meet her in person. She’s super-friendly.


Me and Kim before the race. I accidentally had my flash set to “off”, so the picture came out kind of poor and didn’t Photoshop too well.

I also spent a fair amount of time with Jenn and Jamie Fellrath and their kids Duncan and Moira. Jenn and Jamie were involved with Train 4 Autism before I started Operation Jack and I’ve been in fairly close contact with them for the better part of a year now. They’ve been super nice over email and they’re the same way in person. I felt bad, because we had lunch on Saturday and I was more-or-less falling asleep sitting straight up by the end of it (the joys of red-eye flights!), but they were a lot of fun to talk to. I’m not going to disrespect their privacy and talk too much about their kids, but Duncan and Moira were both wonderful. I really enjoyed the time I spent with them.


That’s the Fellraths on the left sporting some sweet OJ gear after the race on Sunday.

Who Wants To Race Me?
Operation Jack supporter Danielle Speckman ran the Sugarloaf Marathon on Sunday and we made a bet. I spotted her an hour. Her prior PR was a 4:40 I think, but she was probably going to realistically run anywhere between maybe even a sub-4, and about 4:30. As for me, well, I’m always all over the board. You never know. I can turn in a 3:06 or a 3:22 and neither would surprise me.

So here was our bet: I’m going to send her an Operation Jack t-shirt, period. If she won, then she would get the shirt for free. If she lost, then she had to make the $26.20 contribution required on the Sponsors page for the marathon level that the t-shirt requires.

She ran a huge PR and finished in 4:15. She’s pretty excited about it, and rightly so. But I had a good day and I won the virtual race by about seven minutes. Since it’s all for fun and all for charity, Danielle doesn’t mind that I beat her. Really, if you look at my recent times, it’s very reasonable she could have won.

Anyways, if any of you are racing and you want to virtually race me, let me know and I’ll do the same deal with you. I’ll set a reasonable spread based on how you run, and I’ll send you a shirt win-or-lose. But if you lose, you make a charitable contribution to a great cause. If you’re running a half-marathon, we can still do it. If you’re gunning for sub-2, maybe you spot me 1:10 for my full time. I’ll take it on a case-by-case basis. Let me know if you’re interested.

One more thing about Danielle … check out her legs!


Should I do this?

I’m Keeping Promise To Sarah Loy
Sarah is an Operation Jack supporter out in Boston and she begged me to post another picture of myself from my larger days. I promised I would and I’m a man of my word.


That’s a Kansas State University Alumni sweatshirt I’m wearing.

One Good Thing About Air Travel
I ran a marathon in Cleveland Sunday morning, ate lunch there after the race (orange chicken and white rice … I was actually moderately healthy!) and was in California before sundown. I had chicken burritos for dinner in my own home and saw my kids before they went to sleep. That kind of stuff always trips me out.

That’s All For Today
Yesterday’s blog was long enough. I should only do that on special occasions. Enjoy your tacos today!