Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Preview: Race #13, Catalina

by 8 Comments

Ahh, lucky No. 13. I’m superstitious, and I’m staring at some tough luck this weekend. For starters, I’m going Sunday to Saturday between races and only have five days to recover. On top of that, though, my race, the Catalina Marathon, offers BY FAR the most challenging course I’ve faced so far this year.

Guess My Time And Win Operation Jack Gear!
First things first, I’m trying to raise money, but I’m trying to do that as painlessly as possible. So I’m thinking an easy way is to have a weekly contest to guess my time. Basically, if you think I’m going to run a 3:15, you’d guess my time by clicking here or on the “Donate Now” link at the top of any page and donate $3.15. That’s pretty easy — less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

And when you make your guess and your painless donation, you’re putting a big grin on my face. If you support what I’m doing, please participate in this contest!

The winner will be the person who guesses the closest to my time without going under. If you win, we’ll send you your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Last week’s winner was Molly Rearick, who has a sweatshirt on the way.

The good news: I’m not too slow, so it’s cheap to guess. The better news: I’ll give you analysis about how fast I expect to run.

Catalina Marathon Preview
This race is going to be tough. I’ve looked at finishing times from past competitors. Guys running 2:55 to 3:00 in road marathons are needing as much as 3:40 on this course. It’s primarily on a dirt fire road, but I’ll be wearing trainers because the footing should be fine.

The troubles come from the hills. I don’t think I’ve had a climb more than 200 feet in any of my races this year. Catalina welcomes me with more than 800 feet of gain in the first 2.5 miles.

To give you some perspective, the Boston Marathon is famous for having rolling hills, including four challenging climbs at the end. Talk about training for Boston with anybody and they’ll talk about hills. A friend of mine in Miami is getting anxious about Boston and worried about his hill training. Here’s the course profile for Boston:


I’ve run this race twice. Those hills towards the end chew you up and make the downhill at the end difficult.

Now here’s the profile for Catalina:


This is not a PR course.

The widths of the 26.2 miles in these two images are the same. And the vertical scale is identical in both. So, when you look at the hills in the two course profiles, you’re comparing apples to apples.

This is not a 3:10 course for me. I’m going to try to keep it under 4:00 and I’d be thrilled if I pulled it off in sub-3:45. This race compares more to the two ultras I’ve run than the 40 marathons I’ve completed. In my first ultra, a 50K, I struggled on hills that were considerably steeper than this. It was my first experience to trail running and I learned that I wasn’t nearly as fit as I thought I was.

Just six weeks before I ran Boston in 3:01 last year, I went 5:37 in that 50K. I don’t remember what I hit 26.2 in, but it was probably somewhere around 4:40. That course was considerably tougher than Catalina, though.

Three weeks after Boston, I ran a 50-miler. The course was run at a higher elevation (4,500 – 6,500 feet) than Catalina (0 – 2,000 feet) and temps were about 85 degrees. Catalina should be in the 50s on Saturday. In that 50-miler, the hills were somewhat tame, probably comparable to Catalina. I did well early on, hitting mile 20 by about 3:00. I fell apart in the heat by about mile 23, though, and ended up needing 10:42 to finish the race.

Coincidentally, six days before that 50-miler, I ran a marathon in 3:11:37, just seven seconds quicker than I ran last Sunday. So, I’m heading into Saturday in somewhat similar condition. The difference will be cooler temps, lower elevation and more experience. So that’s why I think 3:45 is a reasonable A goal and 4:00 is a reasonable B goal. I’m setting my C goal at 4:30. Tiff will be out there and I’ll tell her to be at the finish line by the 3:30 mark, but not to start worrying until 4:30.

If I’m a betting man, which I’m not (how messed up would that be for me to win my own contest?), I’d go with $3.52 donation.

Oh, yeah, so I just mentioned Tiff will be there. We have babysitting! We’re truly going to be stuck on an island without the kids for 24 hours — it’s as much of a vacation as we’re going to get any time soon! We’re also going to get to meet Ally Phillips and her husband, who have been big supporters of Operation Jack since last summer.

The best part? We’ll be home Saturday night in time for dinner, and I will actually have an entire day off!

Don’t Forget To Enter The Contest!
It’s less than the cost of a box of Girl Scout Cookies, unless you think I’m going to struggle. But it’s definitely less than the cost of lunch at McDonald’s.

That’s All For This Week
I’ll post a race report on Saturday. Have a great weekend, everybody!

What's Up With OJ Wednesday

by 2 Comments

I’ve fallen into a weekly routine with my blogs and for the Wednesday version, I’m piecing together updates about Operation Jack for y’all. I decided to call it “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” because alliteration works and I can re-use the headline. So, on that note, it’s Wednesday — here’s what’s up with OJ!

SF Showin’ Love For SF!
OK really, it’s SF showin’ love for OJ, but the SF-SF thing worked there for the headline. The first SF I’m referring to is the San Francisco Marathon. The second SF is me (Sam Felsenfeld), although really, it’s Operation Jack in this case. The marathon featured me yesterday in its monthly newsletter as the “Runner Highlight” of the month, although at the core of it all, it’s an Operation Jack highlight.

This newsletter is posted on the marathon’s website, but it also went out in an email to everybody in its database. A lot of people found out about Operation Jack yesterday because of this, which could be a big help as the year goes on. I joked with a lot of friends yesterday that I did a fine job of sneaking my way into their inbox. Things like this are fun, but above that, they’re a big help.

Also, the marathon gave me pretty nice billing on its Official Charities page. So as I said, SF gave SF (and OJ) some love yesterday! I met the race director and some other staff members up in Napa over the weekend and they were super-nice people. I’m really looking forward to running in their race in July. I hope a lot of you join me and support a race that is working hard to support Operation Jack! If nothing else, you get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge — how rad is that?

Congrats To Molly Rearick For Predicting My Blow-Up In Napa!
I had a contest last week, and I’ll keep having it (I think). Basically, guess my time in my race for that weekend with a small donation (for instance, if you think I’m going to run a 3:12, donate $3.12) and whoever gets closest without bidding under my finishing time wins their choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Coming off of my 3:09 in Tampa, based on the course and my condition, I really thought I was going to be quicker in Napa. I was chasing sub-3, and I really thought I’d be good for a 3:06 or so. But I went 3:11, so Molly won with her guess of a 3:18.

Five Ways To Help
A lot of people jump follow along and ask me what they can do to help. Like with everything else, I know from every person I hear that from, there are probably a dozen more silently thinking the same thing. So, I’m going to throw out five different ideas. In a way, I guess I’m the team leader, since I’m visible and running the 60 marathons. But if I was doing this alone, it would be a colossal failure. I know this is a team effort and we’re all hoping for the same goal — growing Train 4 Autism to help countless children and families for years to come.

So, I’m asking that each of you try just one of these five ways to help during March. If you do, Operation Jack will have HUGE momentum heading into the second quarter! These five ideas get a little more difficult as you scroll down the list, but the first one is really easy!

1. Spread the word
Everybody knows somebody who is impacted by autism somehow or is a runner or who might find what I’m doing to be interesting. Please send one person to the site, invite them to become a fan on Facebook, join the Facebook group, follow me on Twitter, etc. I always say that I’m throwing a bunch of darts and some of them will hit the board. The more people you tell, the more darts we can throw!

2. Commit to run a race
I still have 48 left on the schedule and I love meeting supporters at all of the events. If you’re going to be in town at one of the races I’m doing, I’d love to meet you, and I’d love to have you run it in an Operation Jack shirt. I’m running marathons (26.2 miles), but most races also offer events as short as a 5K. Those work too!

3. Sport the gear
If you take a look at the Sponsors page, you can see the levels to get shirts, tech shirts, hooded sweatshirts, etc. They all turned out pretty nicely and the sweatshirts are really comfortable. I know, just in time for spring. But they’re comfortable! We use these as a fundraiser and you’re advertising the cause you when you wear the clothing.

4. 10×10
I’m not a fundraising expert, but I know I’ve gotten a bunch of requests over the years to contribute to support somebody who’s running a race. I go to a web page, donate $20 and move on with my day. I know it’s tough to do this, so I created a plan called 10×10. My hope is that $10 is a pretty easy donation to get. That’s about what lunch costs. I also hope that you’ll give it a shot. If you get 10 people to contribute $10, we’ll send you an Operation Jack tech shirt and t-shirt for free.

5. Start a Train 4 Autism chapter
This one probably take the most work out of any of these, but it’s not as hard as you think and we have people who will help you as much as you need. It doesn’t take a ton of work, and this is really what’s going to make Train 4 Autism grow. It’s also the one that you’ll notice the direct results from the most. If you have any questions, e-mail me and I’ll discuss it a little more.

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough though, huh? Have a great Wednesday! I’ll be back tomorrow with my weekend forecast. This one’s going to be tough. Big, big hills!

A Thorough Answer To A Common Question

by 4 Comments

When it comes to Operation Jack, there are lots of questions I get asked time and time again. Are you worried about your health? (Not since I started running!) Do you work? (Yes, full-time, and I even live at home with my wife and kids!) Sixteen? (No, sixty. Six-zero.) But there’s one I get asked more than any other, so I figured I’d use a Tuesday blog to answer it in-depth. That question? Where does the money go?

A lot of you are making donations and I know you trust what I’m doing, but many times I’ve been asked about where the money is going. I’ve put snippets on the site and I’ve answered people who have asked me, but I know that for every person who asks me, there are probably another 10 or 20 who wonder the same thing but remain silent.

Basically, Operation Jack is a capital investment followed by another capital investment. The initial capital investment is funding the endeavor. The reason I picked an unusual stunt (60 full marathons at an all-out effort in 2010) is to get attention for the cause. My dad asked me why I didn’t just run 10, or why I didn’t get a few other people to run some of the races for me. Well, because nobody cares if I run 10 — I did that last year!

For me, even though I entered the year with only 28 lifetime marathons completed, it’s reasonable for me to expect that I can complete these races. However, there’s a “wow factor” I’m counting on to generate excitement. 60, while not impossible, is unusual.

So far, the buzz has been there and I’m meeting my fundraising expectations. Without traveling to these races, I wouldn’t have the ability to raise the kind of money I’m shooting for (I’ll get to my goals in a little bit). Getting to the races is a requirement and flying costs money. But everything about this is being done as economically as possible.

I’m getting comped and discounted entries at virtually every race. I fly coach (and I don’t even pay the $10 extra to have Southwest automatically check in for me). I’m renting compact cars when I don’t have a ride in the towns I’m going to. And through the first 17 marathons, I’ll end up having spent five nights in hotels (some as cheap as $50/night) and nine nights in somebody else’s home. Believe me, I’m keeping costs down! And nobody is earning a dime.

I’m estimating the cost of the entire year to run somewhere around $20,000. We’re about 70 percent there, yet we’re very early in the year and still working to gain momentum. My goal for the year is $100,000, and I think that’s still definitely realistic. I’m breaking the year up into thirds, more or less.

The first third, I’m getting going and gaining some momentum while spreading the word. The following four months I’m expecting to be pretty tough. It’ll be warming up, not really marathon season (except for me, of course). Families will be taking summer vacations and things will slow. But I’ll still be working hard to build my base and maintain momentum. For the final 1/3, kids will be getting back to school, families will be getting into routines and fall marathon season will be approaching. That’s when I’m expecting us to really finish big and make it all happen.

Every extra dollar raised will go to Train 4 Autism. If we reach $100,000, that’ll be $80,000. The purpose of that money will be to facilitate growth. So, on the surface, that looks like only 20 percent goes to operating expenses and 80 percent goes to charity — not a bad ratio. However, Train 4 Autism is an organization that works hard to help folks raise money for autism-related charities. The turnaround compares to what I’m doing with Operation Jack. The money raised for expenses generates way, way more for the cause.

I’ve mentioned this quite a bit, but I really, really like Train 4 Autism’s model. It’s very similar to Team In Training, but it’s in the autism realm. One key difference is that it allows you to pick the autism-related charity that you wish to be the recipient of the funds you raise. You can’t throw a stone nowadays without hitting somebody who is impacted by autism or knows somebody impacted by autism. There’s a big need for Train 4 Autism to be big nationwide, and I’m hoping to draw people in from markets all over, and of course raise money to help expansion.

Back to the money that will be going to Train 4 Autism. When somebody raises money through Train 4 Autism, only 9 percent is reinvested to fund overhead, infrastructure and growth. Raising $80,000 for Train 4 Autism is the same as what the charity would receive from participants raising $888,888 through their fundraising efforts. This will be a huge towards long-term growth. I’m working on planting seeds with the people I’m bringing in. Hopefully, this money will water those seeds and we’ll see the growth for years and years. There’s really no telling how successful Train 4 Autism will be over the next 10 or 20 years, but there’s no question that the model works and there’s a market for it.

I’m not exactly certain how Train 4 Autism will use the money. My strength is running — not running a charity. But Train 4 Autism is a 501(c)3 and I know every leader within the organization. We’re all parents of children with autism and we’re chasing the same dream for Train 4 Autism. I don’t know specifics on how the money will be spent, but I know it will be used to help make these dreams become reality.

So, for now, that’s where the money is going. My estimate is that only 20 percent is going towards expenses. And that other 80 percent is going a long, long ways for a long, long time! If you ever have any questions about any of this, please email me or fill out the Contact Us form!

Have a great Tuesday!

Weekend Recap: Great Weekend!

by 6 Comments

What a weekend! It started with the kids and ended with the kids, included visits with old friends and meet-ups with new friends, and all-in-all, I was only away for 29 hours. If not for running my race poorly, I’d call it a pretty-close-to-perfect weekend!

Operation Jack Race 12
First things first — I ran the Napa Valley Marathon yesterday. It was marathon No. 12 so far for 2010, my third-fastest of the year. I went 3:11:47, but I was pretty disappointed with how I ran. I posted a recap here. I’m still sorting out the winner of the “pick Sam’s time” contest. I’ll update this later today with that info.

Science Fair!
Somehow, my wife and I helped our oldest son Benjamin get through the science fair on Friday. Last year, we totally messed it up. We were going to take him, but Tiff showed up fashionably late with him, because I spent a little too much time at the gym that day, and he missed it. The year before, I showed up fashionably late with him but everything was fine. Ben was really upset last year when he missed it, so Tiff vowed to him that he’d be able to actually be in the science fair this year.

The science fair was this past Friday night, so we guided him through his project. The big problem with that, though, is that I failed five science classes in high school and Tiff isn’t that much better with science than I am. She might actually be worse. But we helped him anyways. Seriously, it’s third-grade science.

His project was “Investigating Alternate Uses For Coca-Cola” and we did a bunch of experiments. I helped him write up the reports, but we asked the questions and made him come up with the answers. We could have come up with the answers for him, but I’m not the kind of parent to get into a competition with another parent to see which parent can do grade-school homework better. His project turned out fine, and it wasn’t necessarily world-changing, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a third-grade project. He had a blast and got a medal and got to participate in the science fair.

I wanted to take a picture with him with both of us wearing the medals we earned this weekend, but he misplaced his. Typical Benjamin, but I love him anyways.

Trip To Napa
We had originally planned to make this a family trip up to Napa, but because of the science fair, we couldn’t leave Friday (we would have had to drive) so I flew solo on Saturday. It was nice — I slept in at home on Saturday, had a nice, big pancake breakfast with the family and then hung out at home for a little bit. But eventually, I had to go take care of business and fly to Oakland. I had a sweet flight up on Southwest — the flight was about 2/3 empty!


Sweet! My own row!

Catching Up With New Friends
At the expo in Napa, I went to meet somebody I’ve talked to a bunch but never met in person. Unfortunately, she got sick and I missed her. I got to meet her husband, though. She had a booth selling running skirts at the expo, and he came down to man it. He’s a firefighter, so I asked him if it would be a bad thing if the guys back at the station knew he was selling running skirts at an expo. Yes, he said, they’d give him plenty of grief. I should have taken a picture and collected some ransom. But then again, who wants to get beat up by a firefighter?

Later, I met a man I’ve talked to a lot named Ron. He’s super nice and super friendly, and I’ve had a ton of respect for his positive attitude and outlook on things. I’ve always wanted to meet him in person, and finally, I did! He was as friendly as I expected. We chatted for a while, then hung out at the pasta dinner for a few hours. He’s crazy fast (2:54:15 last year in Napa at age 45!) and crazy smart (graduated from MIT!). Even better, though — he’s crazy nice. We also hung out for a bit after the race on Sunday. He “only” went 2:56!


One of these guys is really fast and really smart. The other guy is me!

Catching Up With Old Friends
On my way to the airport, I caught up with an old friend from high school named Bobby. I say “old friend” because we were talking about how old we’re getting. We graduated high school in 1992, which seems like yesterday, but we realized that this year’s high school seniors were born in the year we graduated. So we’ve decided we’re old.

Anyways, we had a good time catching up for a little while and I now have a place to stay when I run San Francisco in July. I’m running myself into the ground, but I feel pretty fortunate that I’m able to meet up with people like Ron and Bobby when I go out of town.

Sunday’s Post-Race Dinner
Last night I went out with the family and my parents to Souplantation (it’s Sweet Tomatoes, depending on what part of the country you live in). Nothing beats an all-you-can-eat buffet on race day, especially when you can make the food healthy. One of the highlights of the meal came when Jack didn’t like the looks of one of the pieces of focaccia bread he was eating. He raised it in his hand like he was going to throw it, but he didn’t. We panicked for a split second.

We should have panicked for about 15 seconds, though, because that’s how long it took for him to chuck it. It bounced off a booth that another family was at. I guess he thinks he can get away with stuff like that just because he has his own website, his own line of t-shirts, tech shirts and sweatshirts, plus close to 1,300 fans on Facebook. Silly guy.

Later, that family left and the next family to sit there was that of one of Tiff’s trainers from the gym named Dee. I’d never met her, but Tiff told me that was her, and she hid her bowl of ice cream. “Oh my goodness, it’s Dee! She can’t see I’m eating ice cream!” So I turned over towards her and said, “Are you Dee?” She said yes. So I pointed over at my wife and said, “Yeah, she doesn’t want you to know she’s eating ice cream.” I’ve got Tiff’s back like that.

That’s Enough For Today
I’m crazy tired (writing this on Sunday night). It’s bed time. Have a great Monday!

Race Report: Napa Valley Marathon

by 3 Comments

Heading into Sunday’s Napa Valley Marathon, I was pretty excited about the having a good run. I was overflowing with confidence, I felt good physically, I liked the course profile, and I was coming off a well-executed race in Tampa last weekend. But I put on a display of how NOT to execute a race strategy and I paid the price. My time was fairly respectable at 3:11:47, but I finished about six minutes later than I should have and it was a lot tougher physically than it should have been.

Based on my race last week, I really thought I had a legitimate chance at going after that elusive sub-3 (2:59:59). Everything was working against me in Tampa. I ran a 15K and a 5K the day before. I flew across country and was tired the entire weekend. The race went off at 6 a.m. Eastern time, which was 3 a.m. Sam’s body time, and I woke up at 12:40 a.m. body time. I was also coming off a marathon in Pasadena that really beat me up. But I went out with a semi-conservative strategy, ran a 3:09:44, and probably could have been a few minutes quicker if I had red-lined it and gone for broke.

So, since I was well-rested, running in my own time zone and feeling pretty fresh physically, I decided to go for the sub-3. My plan was to go out and hold at a 6:50 pace and not fluctuate regardless of what the course gave me. I thought that was at the edge of my capabilities, but I really thought it was possible. 6:52 is the pace required for a sub-3, so 6:50 would keep in range depending on the tangents I ran.

Before the start of the race, I didn’t feel as light on my feet as I thought I would. My confidence was down a little bit, but it didn’t really matter. I had enough confidence to try for it, so I did.

Miles 1-5: 6:59, 7:07, 7:07, 6:51, 6:55
Out of the gate, I’m trying to find a rhythm but it’s not there. The pace is fluctuating a little bit, but I’m not overly concerned, because there are some rolling hills early. I’m starting to think it’s really going to be a longshot by about two miles in. I had some tightness in my achilles and calves early, but that’s pretty standard for me for the first four miles or so, especially when I’m really pushing the pace. I felt like the pain was slowing me down, and I really wanted it to go away, because I wouldn’t be able to get into a zone if it didn’t. I was good by four miles in.

Miles 6-10: 7:32, 7:16, 7:19, 7:10, 7:16
I was doubting that I had enough by mile 2, and I never really had confidence that I’d pick it up, but I was hoping for a miracle. I knew there was zero chance by 6.5 miles in. By 6.75 miles in, my right foot was numb and I felt like my gait was a little off. It was better by 8.25, but then my left foot went a little numb. I was better within a mile.

But this is where I wrecked myself. I went into the race optimistic that I could chase the sub-3. But I didn’t have a backup plan. At this point, I was trying to settle into a 7:05 kind of groove. I couldn’t find any consistency, and when a race is underway, you can’t stop and figure it out. So I tried to step it up by heart rate and my body wasn’t responding. I had enough hindsight to know I should have been prepared to call it off at mile two before my body was really rolling and aim for that 7:05 pace. But I knew that all I could was run hard, so that’s what I did. That’s not a good way to run a marathon.

Miles 11-15: 7:21, 7:19, 7:15, 7:28, 7:08
So, I just continued running as hard as I could, trying to hit the best tangents I could. Not a great strategy, but it’s all I had. I really don’t remember a whole lot about this portion, other than the scenery was amazing. I had never really seen vineyards before, but I certainly have now. It was a very peaceful run through a beautiful, serene environment. Well, peaceful aside from the pounding my body was taking.

I got annoyed at one point by a woman who seemed like she thought she was too good to be concerned about anybody other than herself. When I run, I don’t litter. I always throw garbage (cups, water bottles, empty gel packs, etc.) as close to a trash can at an aid station as possible. There’s just no good reason to litter. Well, after we passed through the halfway point (I hit it in the high 1:34 minute), she looked at two pacing bands on her wrist, tore one off and threw it on the ground. That could have easily waited until an aid station, but she littered in the middle of nowhere, messing up a clean, natural environment.

Later, when we were by an aid station, she had a cup of water and took her sweet time drinking it, and that’s fine. We approached a volunteer holding a trash bag and she slammed it down on the ground about one step past her. A mile or two down the road, she had an empty gel pack in her hand. There was a trash can on her left. So she threw it down on the ground on her right. I don’t know if she though she was some superstar elite athlete who was too good to be ocncerned about anything other than her performance, but she wasn’t that special. I made it a point to beat her in the race and I did. But enough about that.

Miles 16-20: 7:40, 7:24, 7:15, 7:17, 7:41
Yeah, so I had nothing. I think mile 16 had a hill in it. I know mile 20 was a long, gradual uphill. I spent these miles knowing that I just had to keep knocking off the miles and get the day over with. I stayed true to my updated strategy of running as hard as I could, nothing else. And I learned the hard way about how terrible that strategy is.

Miles 21-25: 7:15, 7:23, 7:22, 7:30, 7:25
I continued to have nothing. These miles were pretty flat. I went through spurts where I got in a rhythm, but I didn’t hold it too well. The scenery was still awesome, and amazingly, I was picking off runners. I felt a little bit strong, but certainly not fast. I’m starting to get to the point where the weekly races are getting routine. Every mile in the 20s is something different to me psychologically, because the run is nearing an end. These miles seemed to go by pretty quickly. For most of the day, I thought I was going to run in the high 3:09s, but I knew when I couldn’t get moving on flat ground that it wasn’t going to happen. By 22, I knew I was looking at a 3:10 at best, but I could feel it slip away.

Miles 26, .35 (Garmin): 7:22, 2:21 (6:43 pace)
And I finished my 12th marathon of the year. I was glad to have the run done with because it just wasn’t clicking for me today. I get the consolation prize of a BQ with my 3:11, but I’m not thrilled with how the day turned out. I really feel like I could have run a 3:05 or so today, but I blew it. I don’t think I’m really going to dwell on it too much, because I know that if I can run a race poorly while obviously not 100% and still turn in a 3:11, I’m doing something right. I’ll get another chance to run hard in a couple of weeks, but next week is Catalina, a difficult, hilly trail race that I’ll be lucky to run sub-3:45 on.

I know I need to get back to basics and take better care of my body. I could be and should be in better shape. I need to lose weight. I need to work on my core and upper body. I’m going to start taking my fitness a little more seriously, because there’s no good reason not to.

And that’s about it. 12 Operation Jack marathons in the books, 20 percent done! Only 48 to go!


Me and my friend Ron Duncan after the finish. Ron struggled, too. He was trying to best his PR of 2:54:15, but he “only” ran a 2:56!