Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

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This might be the wrong way for my wife to find this out, but in June, I’m bringing bunch of women to Boston. And they’re all her age or younger. Yep, I’m pacing the 3:40 group at the Utah Valley Marathon on June 12 and I’m looking forward to it.

That’s one of the things going on with Operation Jack. On Wednesdays, I write a “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” blog. It’s an easy excuse for me to be lazy and re-use a headline, plus the alliteration is catchy. I think.

In case you’re new here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I really hate that. I wanted to find a purpose for his struggles, plus I wanted to use my running to make something good happen, so I came up with this idea of running 60 marathons in 2010 to try to raise awareness and money for a great charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism. The idea looked great on paper, but now that I’m through 18 of the marathons, my body isn’t thoroughly convinced! But we’re creating new chapters all over the country, so it looks like it’s working!

I’ll get to Utah in just a minute (well, actually I’ll get to Utah on June 11). I’ll give a quick update on Jack, though.

He’s struggled a little bit lately, waking up several times in the middle of the night and battling what appears to be internal pain. One major problem with Jack is his inability to effectively communicate. So, if he has a tummy ache, he can’t tell us, but he’ll be upset and hit himself in the head instead. At that point, he has a headache in addition to his tummy ache.

We’ve been convinced for a while that he has internal problems, and we’ve tried gluten-free and casein-free diets. Tiff and I definitely keep him on the casein-free, but we haven’t noticed improvements with the gluten-free diet so he’s not on that. We’ve taken him to a DAN doctor, basically a biomedical doctor. We went to one before, but weren’t thrilled with the treatment. But we have an appointment on May 11 with a new one who comes very highly recommended from an extremely knowledgeable and trustworthy source.

Also, we’ve discovered that he likes weighted blankets and we have one of those herbal neck pillows that you heat up and that calms him down big-time when he’s upset. He’s still got a ways to go before he truly talks, but we’re seeing a lot of progress over the past several months. He’s MUCH more lively than he was last summer. Thank you, everybody, for all of your prayers.


This was Jack last night. He knows where I’m running on Monday!

Back To Utah
I’m pacing the 3:40 group on June 12 and I’m really excited about it. It’s supposed to be a very beautiful course, and I’ll be able to look around and enjoy myself a little more than normal. Take a look at the course profile. It looks like a pretty fast course. I’ll be aiming for a 3:39:59, though.

I’ve paced twice before, each of the past two years leading the 3:30 group at Surf City. I went 3:29:54 and 3:29:39 in those efforts and really enjoyed helping people reach their goals. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. 3:40 is the Boston qualifying time for women between 18 and 34, so any ladies who stick with me from start to finish will earn their way to my favorite race.

If you’ve been looking for a June race that’s fast and scenic but you didn’t have a running partner who would tell you bad jokes for 220 minutes, this might be a good one for you!

Orange County Marathon Pasta Dinner
If you’re in Orange County or running the Orange County Marathon, we’re going to have a pasta dinner at Buca di Beppo in Irvine (Tustin Marketplace) on May 1, the night before the race, at 5:30 p.m. It should be a good time. I know everybody seemed to enjoy the pasta dinner prior to Surf City on February 6, and I’m really excited about this one, because I don’t have to do so much busy work like I did last time.

I’ll probably have to get up and do a poor job speaking like I did last time, but I’m cool with that. I have more information here if you’re interested … please be interested! If you have any questions about anything, please let me know!

Also During The OC Marathon Weekend, …
We’re going to have a Silpada party. When I say we, I mean my wife and my mother-in-law. I’ll probably be home hanging out with the kids. But we’re going to have a Silpada party that’s going to be a fundraiser for Operation Jack. Silpada sells jewelry that my wife really likes. I don’t know how to describe it … it’s not like diamonds or anything like that. It’s decent stuff without the fancy stones.

Anyways, we’re going to have a party and we’d love for you to be there! It’ll be a good time and you can grab some finger foods and a quick Mother’s Day gift. Here is the Evite Tiff created for the event. If you’re an out-of-towner, there’s information on there about ordering if you want to.

My April Promotion
In April, I’m running seven marathons in seven states. So far, I’m through three and three. Since 7 is the number of the month, I’m trying to collect as many $7 pledges as possible. If you haven’t already done so, please check out the update I sent out at the beginning of the month.

That’s All For Today, Folks
I absolutely can’t believe I’m already carb loading again starting today. These weeks are flying by way too fast. See you tomorrow!

Ten Random Things For Tuesday

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I’m going with 10 random things for my blog today. I’m kind of random, so this works out well.

1. I have to give mad props to Zensah. They gave me a pair of compression pants to wear on flights and those pants my new best friend. My calves twitch a lot (sometimes pretty badly cramping) and my legs feel pretty torn up after I run 26.2, but I throw those things on and my legs feel a whole lot better. They’re still sore, but I don’t cramp with them on and the tightness on my sore legs feels awesome. It’s almost like a massage. I go from feeling pain to feeling sore. I love, love, love those pants and I highly recommend them.

2. I also highly recommend Wheaties Fuel. It’s some new cereal, I guess. I got a sample box after the race on Sunday and I wish I would have grabbed six of them. I had the box as a snack on the plane on Sunday and that stuff was delicious. I don’t remember what I really liked about it, but I remember eating it thinking, “Dang, I need to get me some of this as a snack!” Tiff, if you see it on sale at the grocery store, pick some up. I’ll totally eat it as a snack. I love it!

3. Speaking of the grocery store, I went on a field trip last night with Ava. Tiff needed a few things (actually, Jack needed a few things), so I took my little princess with me. We had a fun time. She bagged the apples and bananas, picked a lot of the stuff off the shelf and pushed around a little kiddie cart with everything we were buying.


My super shopper!

My wife’s super shopper!

4. You’ll notice there’s flowers in the cart. I got those for Tiff, just because. I don’t believe in buying flowers when I’m in trouble. “Hey babe, I’m sorry … so I shelled out some of our cash … ” Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. I have to think that wouldn’t be sufficient for Tiff, either. So yeah, flowers, and no, I wasn’t in trouble.

5. I only buy flowers from the grocery store. $10 for a dozen longstem roses. Sometimes $12. They’re flowers, Tiff likes them, so why waste money at a florist? Maybe I’m cheap.

6. On the subject of me being cheap, on Sunday night in the Denver airport, I was looking around the food courts, and I saw a fast food place where I could get a fairly decent looking chicken philly, fries and a pop for about $12. I don’t know. I know it’s an airport, but I thought that was pricey for fast food. Next door there was a Domino’s, and it was something like $10 for a mini. Or, there was McDonald’s, and to go large with my fries and drink (living large is how I roll), it would have been about $9. So I just decided to skip dinner, even though I was kind of hungry. I’m kind of cheap like that, and I couldn’t justify spending $9 on McD’s.

7. My ice cream/frozen yogurt streak is up to 72 consecutive days now. I’m almost getting close to my personal best of 110 days. If I can make it to May 21, I’ll break my record. May 21 will also be the 11-year anniversary of my bachelor party. I ended up with a black eye. Too bad my wedding was two days later. I’ll save that for another blog.

8. I can’t stand almost all of the reality shows my wife watches, but she watches one called Millionaire Matchmaker that I like for some reason. I don’t know what the reason is, but I like it. I hope I don’t lose my Man Card for that.

9. My wife cried over a Folgers commercial last night. She’s such a girl. She definitely has no Man Card.

10. I’m running the Orange County Marathon May 2, and my dad and stepmom are running the half marathon at that same event. I’m not so certain that he’s going to beat me to the finish, even though only has to go half as far as me. I want to come up with some kind of bet or something to help the charity. Any ideas anybody?

That’s all for today, folks. Rest in peace, Brother Sloan.

Weekend Recap: I Left Home To Go Home

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Kansas is the anti-Vegas. It’s a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there. Well, of course, unless you’re me. I moved away 10 1/2 years ago, but my heart is still there. I was fortunate enough to be able to head there this weekend. Oh, and I ran a couple of marathons and went to Dallas, too.

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’m trying to do something to make a difference in his honor, so on top of working full-time and doing the best job I can as a parent and a husband, I’m trying to run 60 marathons in 2010 to raise awareness and money for a charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism.

I’m on target so far, having completed the first 18. If you want to read about what pain feels like, you can check out my race reports from Saturday’s Olathe (Kan.) Marathon and yesterday’s Big D Texas Marathon.

The Running Is The Easiest Part
The logistics are tricky, and I’m really reaching a point where it’s tough to be away from my wife and kids. When I’m gone, I call up several times a day to say hi and see how things are going, and it’s really getting tough. It’s fun to see new places and meet new people, but it’s a lot more fun to play handball with Benjamin at his school than to get a text from Tiff telling me she played handball with Benjamin at his school. I’m the one who teaches him how to play that game well. I want to be there.

I guess Tiff and I knew what we were getting into, and we still believe very strongly in what we’re trying to accomplish. I talk about a lot of the positives of Operation Jack and the fun experiences I have, but in case you’re wondering if this is difficult and if it kills me to be away from the family so much — yes and yes.

If I Must Travel, It Might As Well Be To Kansas
I went to Kansas State University and lived in Kansas City after I graduated. I really love that part of the country and feel like I’m a Kansan at heart living in California. That was my first stop of the weekend, since I ran Olathe (a Kansas City suburb on the Kansas side of state line) on Saturday. In my book, it just doesn’t get any better than Kansas. I felt more at home than I do in California. It was wonderful.

I got to catch up with a good friend/mentor, have lunch with some good friends from college, see the places I used to shop at with Tiff when we first got married and visit with some of my pledge brothers and see one of their farms. Throw in a marathon, playtime with a pit bull and lunch at a GREAT barbecue restaurant named Oklahoma Joe’s and I’d call it a pretty solid 22 hours.

I got to hang out with another old college friend in Dallas and spend some time catching up, which was also fun. I get homesick when I’m gone, but if I’m going to be gone, it’s nice to last spend quality time with quality people.


You can’t do this in Orange County, Calif.

I don’t think they have any of these stores within running distance of my home, and I can run a pretty long ways!

I Hate United Airlines
I had a lousy experience flying to Virginia three weeks ago on United. They made me check my carry-on even though there was space in the overheads just because I was in seating group No. 4. I really, really hate them, but I think the feeling is mutual, because they seem to hate all of their passengers. They don’t even give out peanuts!

I swore I wouldn’t fly them unless I really had to, but I really had to this weekend (American’s rates from Dallas were ridiculous). I had a repeat of my incident being in seating group No. 4 flying back from Dallas yesterday. I had to check my bag, and when I got on the plane, half of the overheads were empty. I asked the flight attendant when I got on the plane if I could hold on to my bag, be the last person on the plane and put it in one of the empty spots if there was one. She said no problem.

Of course, by that point, the guy who took my bag already put my bag on the ramp down. I asked him if I could walk the eight steps down to grab it and he told me no. I’m sure it would have been way too much for him to walk down those steps, too. So I got to wait at the baggage claim last night when I got in instead of heading straight to my car. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wasn’t tired or anything. I only flew three times this weekend, I only ran two marathons, plus I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday night! I was only 19 hours into my Sunday when we landed.

My United Airlines Crew On Friday Was Not Smooth
So on my flight to Kansas City Friday, I went on (oops) United and switched planes in Denver. On our way in, we encountered some fairly rocky turbulence. Normally, they’ll tell us that we’re beginning our descent and we need to discontinue use of our portable electronic devices. Well, we were way above the 10,000-foot level they typically tell us to power down at, yet they abruptly told us to shut down right while we were going through that turbulence with no explanation. Not very comforting.

A little bit later, we were coming close to landing so the pilot told the flight crew to cross check and prepare for “an excellent” landing. In all the flights I’ve taken, I’ve NEVER heard that announcement as anything other than to “cross check and prepare for landing.” The “excellent” adjective seemed pretty odd, and even if you’re used to flying, you probably don’t want to hear anything out of the ordinary, especially during rough patches. This, too, was not very comforting.

But the part that was smooth as sandpaper came about five minutes before landing. There was no announcement necessary, but for whatever reason, the flight attendant came on and announced to us, “in the event of an emergency landing and evacuation, please leave your carry-on items behind.” ARE YOU KIDDING? They tell you that at the beginning of the flight when they go through the emergency card, but five minutes before landing? Again, I’ve NEVER heard that at the end of flight. And again, that was not very comforting.

We didn’t have an emergency landing or evacuation. I’m pretty happy about that, because I didn’t want to leave my carry-on bags behind.

Sometimes Small Gestures Mean A Lot
On the rental car shuttle in Dallas, the driver saw my Olathe Marathon shirt, so he asked he if I had run a full marathon, and I told him I had. He asked me if it was my first, and once he did that, the cat was out of the bag and Operation Jack came up in the conversation fairly quickly. He was impressed and asked my name so he could track my results, so I gave him an Operation Jack flyer.

He read it and later asked me about Jack and how he was doing and what our routine is like. I answered all of his questions and we chatted during the ride. When we got to the rental car area, he was unloading bags for passengers and collected a few dollars from some people. We were chatting and I was about to go, and he pulled out his wallet and gave me a $5 bill. “Normally, customers tip me, but I want to tip the customer this time. I think it’s great what you’re doing.” I graciously accepted it and was beaming on the inside. $5 isn’t going to make or break Operation Jack, but it sure did make my day.

Quick Housekeeping Items
Two quick things:
1. I’m making a gentle fundraising push in April to try to raise money in a painless way. I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month, so I figure that 7 is the lucky number (well, it’s been the painful number so far, but that’s a different story). So, I’m trying to raise $7 donations. Take a look at the April update I sent to the Facebook group if you haven’t already seen it.

2. We’re going to have a pasta dinner on May 1, the night before the Orange County Marathon, at Buca di Beppo in Irvine. I’d love to have as many of you there as possible. For more information, follow this link!

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough. Have a great Monday, everybody. See you tomorrow!

Race Report: Big D Texas Marathon

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In Sunday’s Big D Texas Marathon in Dallas, I think I finally realized that yes, this attempt at 60 marathons this year is going to be difficult and painful. On paper, the schedule is daunting, and I’ve never run a marathon that wasn’t tough. But I think I’ve reached the point that I’m going to have to accept and expect physical and mental struggles. I went 3:24:05 in the race, a time I’d consider to be my slowest of the year when considering the course and elements.

This race, my 18th marathon of the year, was pure pain from start to finish. Granted, I ran the Olathe Marathon in Kansas the day before, so there was no reason to expect this to be easy. But the one recurring thing that kept running through my mind was how much I was hurting.

The course itself was fairly nice, but unspectacular. We didn’t run by anything that you’d think of when you think of Dallas — no downtown or anything like that. It was primarily a pass through a bunch of older sections of town — mostly modest neighborhoods, but there were a few nicer neighborhoods and some pretty bad parts of town. We spent some time running around White Rock Lake, which was nice, and almost the entire race went down tree-lined streets. Probably not a destination race, but it was a nice run. There was a competition amongst the aid stations, so all the volunteers were enthusiastic and had a good time.

The weather started in the low 60s and worked its way up to the high 60s by the end of the race. It was fairly humid, but overcast. Not perfect running conditions, but I’ve run in worse.

As for my running, I got going and felt kind of OK. I had told myself before Saturday’s race that I would attempt to go no faster on Sunday than I did the day before. I’m not good at exercising restraint, though. I still went out gunning for 7:15 miles to try to get back into the sub-3:10 range that’s been eluding me since February.

I was inconsistent early on and my legs were fairly sore. I tried to not think about the fact that I had run a marathon the day before, because 26.2 miles is a long ways and there’s no sense psyching yourself out. My heart rate was a little low, maybe around 160 (my target marathon HR is 170), so I stepped it up and was able to run right around a 7:00 pace for the most part for a little while. I turned in some good miles, but I didn’t have enough in me to hang on to that effort. I hit the half in 1:38:05, six seconds slower than being on pace for another BQ (3:15:59 for me). I had zero confidence I could negative-split the course, though.

I kept plugging along, trying to find some fight to run hard. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a whole lot in me. The entire race hurt pretty bad physically and I spent a lot of time praying about things. I thought back to yesterday, how I started a new Train 4 Autism chapter in Kansas City. Tony Rezek is going to be that chapter’s president, and I caught his attention with my attempt at 60 marathons, not my 3:07 in Carlsbad. It’s the effort I’m putting in, not the times I’m pulling out.

I realized that pain is just part of the deal. It’s my job to do this, my job to run myself into the ground, but people will respond and join me and Train 4 Autism to fight the fight. So I kept on running. Physically, I was miserable. I never felt comfortable. Mentally, I was more-or-less fine, just trying to ignore how thrashed I felt.

At about 17.5 miles in, I got a pretty bad side stitch that reduced me to a shuffle. For those of you non-runners, a side stitch is a bad abdominal pain that feels like someone is stabbing you. It makes it hurt pretty bad to run and to breathe. Normally when I get these, they last a half-mile or a mile. Today, though, it didn’t go away until about mile 22. By then, I had really slowed and at that point, it’s tough to pick up momentum.

I think other people were struggling because I was actually passing folks over the final few miles. With about 1/2 mile to go, there was a man and a woman who I’d passed a few minutes earlier and I could see they were making a charge to pick me off by the finish. I stepped it up and got my pace into the mid-6s to hold them off. Not exactly the way I wanted to finish off 52.4 miles of racing this weekend, but I guess it was appropriate to burn until the end.

I went 3:24:05 according to my Garmin. Somehow, that was good for 20th overall out of 598 finishers. I saw Ally Phillips and her husband at the finish — she’s a Dallas resident and a great friend of Operation Jack. She ran the half marathon and was only a minute off her PR!

All-in-all, it was a tough run for me individually and I’m not thrilled with my time, but I think something inside me clicked. I’m learning to be content with my effort and the progress of Operation Jack regardless of how long it takes me to reach the finish line.

18 down, 42 to go. Time to try to get another chapter started!


Me and Ally about 30 minutes after the finish. I tried to smile, but I couldn’t make it happen. Yeah, it was that painful!

Race Report: Olathe Marathon

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I feel pretty blessed to be in the middle of this Operation Jack journey. It’s extremely exhausting, but I have a good chance at making a difference, and there’s really no better feeling. It’s nice to run fast, but it’s even nicer to not run fast and have a day like I did on Saturday in Olathe, Kan.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a marathon runner and a father of three and my middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise awareness and money for Train 4 Autism, a great charity I’m a part of. I named my endeavor Operation Jack after my little superstar. Today was race 17, the Olathe Marathon.

My plan going in was pretty simple. I wanted to run miles at around a 7:15 pace, stay as consistent as possible and hang on for dear life. That pace is not beyond my ability. But I’ve reached a point where my body is a little angry with this 60-marathon attempt, so I’m trying to find ways to get as much out of myself as possible.

I really enjoyed the course in Olathe. I’m biased, because I love Kansas back from the days I used to live there, but it was exactly what you’d expect running a marathon in the Heartland. We ran by a mall, through some nice neighborhoods and some older neighborhoods, past schools and parks and churches, then spent 10 miles running on an asphalt path through a wooded park area. I got to run about 1/4 mile from the first apartment I lived in with Tiffany after we got married.

For me, it was a dream course. For most other people, I’d call it a nice run, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend making it a destination race. It’s a small, local marathon with a fair amount of charm.

Anyways, I fought a little in the first mile or so trying to get into a groove. My heart rate monitor was inaccurate and I was trying to find a steady rhythm. I did, and I felt pretty comfortable with how I was running by the second mile. I started to feel a little bit of pain in my hamstrings by around 6, but nothing significant. I was ticking off miles at a pretty good rate and felt pretty comfortable with how my day was unfolding.

I really just wanted to end up with a 3:15 or better and get my first BQ in a month, but my stretch goal was to run a consistent race and get a sub-3:10 and pick up the confidence that brings. I didn’t hit the greatest tangents early and I could tell I was making the race longer than I needed it to be. My average pace was something like 7:13 at the half, but my time was right around 1:35:30.

I kept trucking along, but somewhere around 18 or 20 or so, I could tell that I had nothing left physically. I had no push and I had no power in my stride. My miles had been floating between 7:15 and 7:30 and they seemingly instantly dropped to the 8:00 – 8:30 range. Faster than a tortoise, but I knew it was the beginning of the end.

I started to feel hungry and I could tell I was getting dehydrated. I was thirstier than I normally am and my mouth felt pretty dry. There was no remarkable kick or late surge or anything like that. I think I stepped it up a tiny bit in the final mile, but it was nothing great.

I finished in 3:19:05, good for 29th overall, 6th in my age group. Not a terrible run and nothing I’m going to lose sleep over. Just something I’ll learn from as I continue to try to improve my nutrition.

One cool thing about the race was a buddy of mine from college named Dan Merker who ran the half-marathon sporting his Operation Jack tech shirt. It was only his second time running the 13.1 distance and he nailed his sub-2 goal. He knew me back in the day when I was the last person you’d expect to run 60 miles in a year, let alone 60 marathons in a year. I think I’ve had some impact on him taking up running, so it was pretty cool to be out there at race with him.

Also, the Kansas City Star ran an article about Operation Jack the day before the race, and a man named Tony Rezek saw the article. I ended up meeting up with him during lunch after the race and he’s going to start a new Train 4 Autism chapter!

So what can I say? I didn’t hit my time, but I don’t care. This was a successful race because of Dan and Tony. And I got to run 26.2 miles through a beautiful course in Kansas. Does it get any better than that?

17 down, 43 to go!


Me and Dan after the race.