Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Preview: Race #12, Napa

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It seems like just a few days ago I was enjoying a great run in the Tampa Gasparilla Marathon. Is it already time to take a close look at my next race? Oh yeah, this is the joy of Operation Jack. My legs finally started feeling better yesterday. I’m carb-loading starting today. And I’m running the Napa Valley Marathon on Sunday.

First real quick, I’m trying something new as a fundraiser and contest all rolled into one. Guess my time this weekend in the form of an easy donation — donate $3.12 if you think I’m going to run a 3:12 or donate $3.03 if you think I’m going to run a 3:03. If you’re the closest without guessing too fast of a time, I’ll send you your choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or an Operation Jack sweatshirt. If there’s a tie, I’ll randomly select a winner.

To make your donation, click the “DONATE NOW!” link at the top of any page on this site. Or, just click here. It’s super-simple, it’s less than the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks (unless you think I’m going to be really slow) and it helps Operation Jack. So please, show me some love! Here’s my guess about how fast I’m going to run and why:

Race #12: Napa Valley Marathon
I really wanted a good confidence boost last week in Tampa, not only because I haven’t been too thrilled with how I’ve been running, but because I wanted to feel comfortable giving Napa Valley a good run.

I knew I had a few things working against me last week. First, I was coming off of a 3:15. I had to fly from coast to coast. I ran a 15K and a 5K all-out the day before. I didn’t enough sleep the two nights prior. And the race went off at 6 a.m. Eastern, which was 3 a.m. according to my body, and I was up more than two hours before the start.

There’s plenty of physical aspects to a marathon. But there’s a big mental aspect to it, too. And to have run a semi-conservative 3:09 under those conditions, as I had planned, gives me all the confidence in the world heading into this weekend’s race.

In thinking back to last week, I think I could have been 2 to 3 minutes faster. I also think the run made me a little bit stronger. I’m obviously not 100 percent, nor will I be before next year, but I think I have a pretty good chance at running my fastest race of the year this weekend.

The course in Napa, from what I’ve seen, looks like it has some moderate rollers and has a small downhill net. Slight inclines don’t faze me right now, and I’m feeling pretty strong on gradual downhills. In Pasadena, I wasn’t very motivated, but there was one mile at about 12 on the south side of the Rose Bowl that was a very slight downhill. It felt essentially flat with a tiny, tiny bit of boost. I looked at the chart and it looks like the mile had a bout a 20-foot drop. For about the only time that day, I felt like I was in a zone and I turned a 6:53 mile. That’s one second slower than a sub-3 pace.

So, I know I can turn my legs a little bit. I think I got a good speed workout in last Saturday in with the 15K and the 5K. I’m feeling stronger physically, like I can keep my effort for the duration of the race. I’ll be well rested — I should be able to get eight hours of sleep Friday night and seven hours of sleep Saturday night. My flight is only an hour and I’m not switching time zones. I think the course is something I should be able to run well on. Oh, and I have a little bit of confidence for once.

I haven’t decided on my goal pace yet, and I probably won’t until about 1/2 mile in. But I’m planning on giving sub-3 a long look early on. I’ll dial in to a 6:50 pace and see how it goes. If I can stay there, I’ll give try stay between 6:45 and 6:50. Any faster and I’ll blow up. Any slower and it’ll just end up being another close call. I think it’s at the outside edge of what I’m capable of. I’ll be able to tell within a mile or two if it’s impossible, and if so, I’ll dial back and try to tick off miles consistently between 7:00 and 7:05. The weather forecast says high of 60, low of 44, so I expect it to be pretty ideal. There’s a possibility of showers, but I’m not at all worried. Weather should be very good for running.

So stretch goal for this week is sub-3. B goal is sub-3:05. C goal is a 3:07:20, which would be my fastest time so far this year. I really feel that all things considered, I should be able to pull off that C goal. That’s not a gimme — of my 39 marathons, only six have been that fast. But at this point, I expect at least that much out of myself.

If I was participating in the contest I mentioned at the top, I’d probably pledge $3.06. But that’s just me. As I’ve learned 39 times, running 26.2 miles as hard as you can is not easy and there are no guarantees.

Post-Race Dinner
Souplantation! That’s like Sweet Tomatoes depending on where you live. They have tomato soup and grilled cheese focaccia bread right now! And ice cream! I love these nearby races because I don’t miss much time with the kids. We’ll get to over-indulge together on Sunday and I can’t wait. Ice cream for dessert, of course!

That’s All For This Week
I think I’ve left you with enough to read. Please participate in the contest to guess my time! It’s super easy and it gives me a big boost when I see your guesses come across … thank you in advance! And have a great weekend!

Train 4 Autism Marathon Series!

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I’m pretty late in announcing this, but I just got it finalized last week and I use Wednesdays to give Operation Jack updates. We’re going to have a series of three Train 4 Autism races, featuring marathons and half-marathons. The good news? I’ll be offering prize money for the overall series championship. The bad news? The first race is a month from today. Like everything associated with Operation Jack, though, participation trumps everything else, so you don’t want to miss a race!

Here’s how it’s going to work: I’m working with Charlie Alewine, who puts on a series of low-key races, and we’re going to stage races on April 3, August 8 and December 27. The December 27 race will be the 60th and final race I run for Operation Jack! The races will work as a fundraiser, but we’ll also offer $750 in total prize money. FULL DETAILS HERE

There will be a half-marathon and a marathon at each event. Series points will be awarded for the top five finishers at each event (5, 4, 3, 2, 1). Beyond that, each finisher will receive 10 series points for participation. So, the fewest amount of points you can earn for completing all three races is 30 (10×3) and the most is 45 (10+5 bonus, x3).

The first tiebreaker will be total races completed and the second tiebreaker will be average time. So, if somebody wins the first two races and doesn’t show for the third, and somebody else shows up and finishes dead last in all three races, they’d both have 30 points (10×3 and 15×2). Since the first tiebreaker is total races completed, the runner finishing dead last in all three races will end up ranked higher in the series.

Prize money will be $250 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place and $100 for 3rd place in the marathon series and the same in the half-marathon series. And of course, by showing up to race, you’ll be supporting Operation Jack.

The races are low-key and low frills, but you’ll get a tech shirt and a medal.

Weekly Contest Idea
Give me some feedback on this. I’m always scratching my head for ideas, so fortunately, other people are actually thinking. My friend Jen Morgan came up with one yesterday and I’m going to give it a shot for a week and see if it flies. I’ll mention it again tomorrow, but here’s the deal … make your guess as to what you think my time will be in my race this weekend and whoever is closest without guessing too fast of a time will win their choice of an Operation Jack tech shirt or sweatshirt.

Now here’s how you guess: Click on the Donate Form and make a donation in the amount that you think my time will be. If you think I’m going to run a 3:13, then donate $3.13. If you think it’s going to be a 3:08, donate $3.08. Whoever gets the closest without guessing too fast of a time will win. I’ll do a random drawing if there’s a tie. I’m figuring it’s an easy way to make a contribution and I’m hoping that collectively, enough of you will play along to make a difference over the course of the year. I’ll talk about this again tomorrow, but go ahead and start making your guesses now!

I’m Going To Leave It At That For Today
That’s enough for today. I know the shorter I keep this thing, the more likely y’all are to read to the bottom. And if you don’t read to the bottom, you won’t know that my ice cream streak is at 31 days now! Have a great Wednesday, everybody. I know I will — I’m hitting In-N-Out for lunch!

I Can't Believe I'm Blogging About Chelsea Lately

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I might lose my Man Card for admitting this, but I started watching Chelsea Lately on E! a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was funny. I didn’t watch it every night, but I saw it a couple of times and I really liked it. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, though.

The show is kind of a cross between a gossip show and a late-night talk show. The host is Chelsea Handler, a comedienne I’d never heard of before. I’m kind of clueless on a lot of pop culture things, so maybe she’s pretty famous. I don’t know. But she’s really funny, at least to me. She has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor. She’s pretty witty and I could watch her every night. I could care less about the stuff she talks about, but I like her jokes.

I don’t know much about the show, but it seems she has a few sidekicks on the show and they’re OK, but together, they complement each other pretty well and it’s a good show. I won’t tune in again, though, until a legitimate apology is issued through the media for their discussion on “pajama jeans” last Wednesday.

They joke about all sorts of things, and since each person on the show has a different sense of humor, the approach on the same issue is a little different and it’s funny to hear them go back and forth. They were talking about “pajama jeans,” which apparently is a pair of pajama pants that’s designed to look like denim. It’s an idea made for one of those “Not sold in stores!” commercials on cable television that probably won’t be successful.

My memory of the show is a little foggy, but the lazy, vulgar woman at the roundtable thought they’d be cool, because she doesn’t care what people think of her and they seemed easy. The guy wouldn’t be caught dead in them. I can’t write it to come across funny, but they did a good job with their jokes on the show.

But then there was the woman sitting next to Chelsea Handler, who tried to be sharp and witty, but wasn’t too funny. She went way too far, in my book. She started saying she wouldn’t wear them, because they’re something a special-needs kid would wear. And she went on and on for a good minute or so. I was sitting there watching with my wife, and we were both shocked at what she was saying.

If you say that one time, it’s a big screw-up. But she was just ripping into special-needs kids for way too long. I’m biased, obviously, because I have a special-needs kid, but that kind of humor went out of style with parachute pants in the 80s. We just sat there with our jaws dropped, totally stunned.

After a minute or so, Tiff told me she didn’t think it was a very funny show. I totally agreed and changed the channel. I sent a pretty long email to the show the next day. I thought I might actually get some kind of response, but I didn’t. I know not every letter writer is going to get feedback, but I know that somebody there read what I wrote and I am actually surprised they didn’t get back to me. I’ve been checking online to see if there was any flack from it, and there wasn’t. It kind of annoys me that something like this would happen and nobody spoke up on it.

I don’t care if nobody with the media’s ear picked up on it, though. I did, and I think it was terrible. I did a little bit of reading on Chelsea Handler, because I don’t know much about her. Apparently, she’s pretty close friends with Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. As most of you probably know, they’re very actively involved in the autism community because McCarthy’s son has autism. In my letter to the show, I mentioned that if those two were on the show that night, they probably wouldn’t have laughed at the special-needs jokes.

Chelsea didn’t look like she was laughing all that much during those jokes, but she was smiling a little bit. I told Tiff that maybe she was just kind of shocked and didn’t know how to react. Whatever the case, I haven’t heard a thing about it, and until I do, I’m not watching the show. I hope there’s a lot of people out there like me doing the same thing.

Weekend Recap: Say Hello To My Little Friend!

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Monday is always a weekend recap for me, and once again, it was pretty memorable. Scarface, stale Twinkies and a solid marathon. What more could I ask for?

First real quick, I ran some races this weekend. Yesterday, I ran the Tampa Gasparilla Marathon and was really happy with my race. On Saturday, I ran the Gasparilla 15K and the Gasparilla 5K. I was OK with the 15K, but pretty disappointed with the 5K.

I Think Tiff Might Kill Me For This
My flight was early (6:45 a.m.) on Friday morning, so I wouldn’t be around to help with the kids getting ready for school. Tiff normally sets her alarm for 5:30 a.m. and has everything rolling when I get in from my run at 6:30 a.m. I leave with Jack at 7:25 and she takes Benjamin and Ava to school. Since she was getting all three kids ready and leaving early with them to get Jack to school, I didn’t know what time she needed to set her alarm for, so I asked.

She said she only needed an hour to get everybody and out the door, which struck me as odd. She sets her alarm for an hour before anybody other than me even gets out of bed every day! She’s working hard every day at 5:30, or so I thought. Apparently, she likes to hit the snooze button for 45 minutes! For reals? I set my alarm, it’s a 10-minute snooze and I get out of bed a minute after it goes off. If I spend more than six minutes, I might not have time for my run. Is 45 minutes normal?

I was shocked and cracking up. She was laughing too, telling me that not everybody has as much energy as me. Maybe I just steal some of hers? Don’t sell her short, though — she works extremely hard and is an amazing mother and wife. I won’t put up with anybody stereotyping her as a lazy housewife, because she works way harder than me. But she snoozes for 45 minutes every day!

While we were laughing, she told me, “Don’t you DARE put this on Facebook!”

Don’t worry, babe … I didn’t!

Good Luck/Bad Luck Flying, Pt. 1
I went to Tampa with a runner friend of mine named Rachel. I booked seats 15A and 15C with the hope that nobody would take 15B and we’d get some space. On the first leg of our flight, we lucked out! Yeah! I was bummed, though, because we were on Frontier Airlines — they advertise that they have DirecTV on their flights, so we chose them and risked a shorter layover to have the TV. But they charge $6 per segment, which the other airlines with TV that I’ve been on (Delta, Jet Blue) don’t do. So I wasn’t very happy.

On the second leg, a large man who didn’t smell very good sat between us. And the people in front of us had some food that really stank. And somebody had gas with about 30 minutes left on the flight. And they made me check my carry-on bag because I couldn’t jam it into the metal sizer at the gate. Never mind that It fit in the overhead on the first leg. Or that I was squeezing it down and might have made it before she told me to quit. I got to check it. And of course, it got torn up a little bit.

Between that and DirecTV and the fact that they don’t even give you peanuts, I’m not a big Frontier fan. I don’t intend to fly them again.

Say Hello To My Little Friend!
I am no longer in the “I’ve Never Seen Scarface” club. I watched Scarface on DVD on my laptop on the flight from Denver to Tampa. I can’t believe I had never seen that. What a great movie!

Say Hello To My Little Friend!
I got to meet my biggest supporter, Jen Morgan, on Friday night at a dinner at Macaroni Grill with a bunch of other runners. Well, she’s figuratively my biggest supporter. Literally, she’s probably my smallest supporter. She’s been a great help, though, and I went over that last week, but a weekend recap wouldn’t be complete with mentioning that I got to meet her!


Captain Morgan and Sam Adams.

Ultimate Bachelor Pad
We stayed at Rachel’s brother’s house in suburban Tampa. It was an absolute bachelor pad. Nice leather couch in the front room when you walk in. Old leather couch with cracked cushions downstairs by the TV. Weight bench partially blocking the TV. Master bathroom is torn up and out of service, but the guest bathroom is OK. Well, aside from the toilet handle you have to jiggle so the water doesn’t run forever. No soap or body wash in the shower, though. Good thing I brought my own!

Stale Twinkies in the cabinet (don’t how Twinkies get stale, but they did). Pop and liquor in the fridge. Porch light doesn’t work. Lights aren’t hooked up to switches. There’s a motorcycle in the garage getting fixed up. The rain gutter above the garage door needs to be repaired. But there are two things that are working perfectly fine … the pool and hot tub in the back yard.

It was amazing.

Would I Trade In-N-Out For Cracker Barrel? Tough Call
Y’all know how much I love In-N-Out, but I also really love Cracker Barrel. And I think the closest one is about 400 miles from my house. I don’t get the opportunity to eat there very often, so when I get the chance, I take it. I always get Momma’s Pancake Breakfast. Always. I’ve had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I was in Wichita one time — I’d run the Kansas City Marathon that day and I was running the Wichita Marathon in the morning. I ordered Mama’s Pancake Breakfast for dinner, and when the waiter brought it out, he asked in his Southern drawl, “Ya ready ta get yer belly full?” As if! Did he know who he was talking to?

Anyways, here’s the pancakes from Saturday:


This is why I run.

Quick Zensah Shout-Out
In a blog in early January, I wrote about how my legs were really bugging me on the flight back from Houston on race day. Well, one thing led to another and Zensah sent me a pair of compression pants to help, and they’re definitely one of my new best friends.

I wear them after marathons regardless of whether or not I’m flying and I really love them. The compression almost works like a massage and I haven’t cramped at all since I started wearing them. A triathlete friend of mine told me they help prevent blood clots from forming when I wear them after marathons. I failed seven science classes in high school, so I’ll have to take her at her word, but it sounds good to me.

Whatever the case, I love them and I definitely recommend them.

Good Luck/Bad Luck Flying, Pt. 2
On the way back, they asked me to try to squeeze my carry-on bag in the metal cage to see if it would fit in the overhead compartment. I’ve only flown with it on 18 flights this year (before Sunday). I’m pretty sure it fits and if it doesn’t, it’s the cage that’s the problem, but whatever. I understand. Sure enough, it fit. Take that, mean Frontier lady.

Of course, on my second flight, they ran out of space in the overhead compartments right as I was getting on the plane and they had to check it. I was the first person out of luck. Lucky me. But on the bright side, they had DirecTV with NBC on the flight, so I got to watch the hockey game! Oh wait, out of all the channels on the TV, NBC was the only one that wasn’t coming in. So we watched the ticker on ESPNEWS. And apparently, the Canadians won in overtime. I saw the score switch to 3-2 while I was writing this blog. Thrilling.

On that five-hour flight, I had a kid sitting directly me who wouldn’t stop kicking the seat. Yay me.

OK, That’s Way Too Much From This Weekend
If you got all the way to the bottom of this, you’d better get back to work before you get in trouble with your boss. Have a great Monday!

Race Report: Tampa Gasparilla Marathon

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Heading into Sunday’s Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa, I had a ton of confidence. I just knew I’d go sub-3:10. I had plenty of reasons to think I wouldn’t — I only went 3:15 last weekend, I ran a 15K and a 5K yesterday, and the race started at 6 a.m., which was 3 a.m. according to my body time. But I knew I would. And I did.

I run by heart rate, but I’ve had some struggles and I wanted to switch it up this week. I know I’m capable of better times than I’ve been running. I’ve noticed a pattern in my marathons, and I noticed it in my 15K on Saturday — the first few miles are quick and easy and my heart rate is low, but I haven’t been hanging on to speed too well. I noticed in my 15K that I we able to keep a strong effort the whole way through, and my heart rate was a little low when I paced the 3:30 group in Surf City on February 7.

So, my strategy was to go out, try to hold miles in between 7:06 and 7:10 and go sub-3:10. I was really hoping to beat 3:07:21, my fastest time of the year so far, but I really wanted sub-3:10. I need some confidence and I knew I could do it, even if I was sleepy and I ran a couple of races yesterday. I can run a sub-3:10, and I’m sick of 3:12s and 3:13s and 3:15s.

As a side note, I had a couple of things on my mind Sunday. First, it’s the 17-year anniversary of the day my brother Josh got in a terrible car accident that nearly took his life. He was hit on the driver’s-side door of his Acura Integra by a full-size pickup truck. The speed of the truck was 46 mph at the time of the collision. He’s my only brother and I’m lucky to still have him. When I think of February 28, I think of him. And on February 28, I wanted to run a good race in his honor.


Me and my brother after the Long Beach Marathon last October. He ran the 1/2, a pretty amazing accomplishment considering the number of hip and knee surgeries he’s had as a result of February 28, 1993.

Also, I have a supporter named Jen Morgan who was running this race. She’s been great with fundraising and spreading the word and was really looking forward to this as a goal race. I viewed this as her race, and for all she’s done, I owed her a strong run in her race on her course.

So anyways, that’s enough of a buildup. At 6 a.m. sharp, we got rolling. I battled traffic early on and had a little bit of pain in my calves and achilles early, so I took a couple of miles getting into my rhythm. I focused on my pace, not my heart rate, and tried to stay as consistent as possible. The early part of the race was through a nice part of Tampa, but I didn’t get to see it, because it was dark. One thing I did see for the first time in any of my 39 marathons was a man juggling fire. Interesting.

Miles 1-5: 7:15, 7:10, 7:10, 7:08, 7:12

After this point, I felt like I found my groove and I established some consistency. I started to feel some pain in my hamstrings and glutes, but it was nothing more than fatigue. This being my 11th marathon of the year and it’s only February 28, that’s to be expected, I suppose. The marathoners split from the half-marathoners at around 7, so I got some space, which was nice. There was a slight gradual uphill (very slight, like a ramp) and a light headwind in mile 8, so I was a tiny bit slow, but still pretty happy about how I was rolling. I don’t remember a ton about this stretch. I know it was an out-and-back and I started seeing the leaders, then folks who were a little slower.

Miles 6-10: 7:08, 7:10, 7:15, 7:06, 7:06

Somewhere in the next few miles, maybe at about 10 or 11, I saw Morgan and she was a tiny bit behind the 4:00 pace group — about 20 seconds. Her goal was sub-4, so I was a tiny bit concerned. I was hoping to see her with the group. But she said she was doing well when I asked her, and a marathon is a long race, so I trusted her. We mixed back in with the half-marathoners at around 11 or so. They were considerably slower, since they were about 3 or 4 miles behind with the same elapsed time, but I had enough space to pass. I get a charge flying by people and I kept cruising without many problems. I think I hit the 1/2 in about 1:34 flat.

Miles 11-15: 7:05, 7:04, 7:08, 7:11, 7:12.

We split back up again at about mile 15 or 16 and headed down a street called Bayshore that lined the bay. Not tremendously exciting, but it was pleasant. I had plenty of open space at this point, which made the aid stations easy, but it makes it tough to stay strong. I had a pretty good rhythm, but I started feeling some fatigue. One thing about my strategy that I knew but didn’t really dwell on until about 17 miles in is that I was pretty confident I had the ability to pull it off. But there wasn’t much room for error. If I broke down, my time would really suffer.

I started thinking about my family, because it was about 5 a.m. back home. They were all sound asleep! I started thinking about Morgan, because I really wanted to run that sub-3:10 on her course, and I really felt I was on track. And of course, I thought about my brother as it closed in on 8 a.m. local time. That’s what time his accident was, although his accident occurred at 8 a.m. in California. I saw him in his car afterwards that day. Some things, unfortunately, I’ll never forget.

We ran a loop around a park at around 19 and I saw something else I’d never seen in a marathon — a mime directing me on a turn! Interesting.

Miles 16-20: 7:14, 7:12, 7:14, 7:13, 7:09

After we finished up at the park, it was just a straight shot home. The finish was about a 10K away. I wasn’t watching my elapsed time too much, but I checked a couple of times and it looked like it was going to be about a 3:08 kind of day. I saw Morgan when I was at mile 21. She was still about 20 seconds behind the 4:00 pacer, so I know she was hanging back, waiting to push it. She said she was going to make a move at 20. I told her, “Go get your time, I’m getting mine!”

I think I spoke too soon. At about mile 22 I hit some moderate headwinds. Not too strong, but enough that they slowed me down a little bit. At around mile 23, the lower part of both quads started to feel a little bit wobbly. I wasn’t looking at elapsed time, but I thought I was looking at a 3:08 or 3:09. I knew it was guts time, that I was going to have to tough it out. I was definitely going to have to empty the tank.

Miles 21-25: 7:18, 7:16, 7:28, 7:32, 7:25

I started looking at elapsed time with about a mile to go and knew I had to fight the pain and maintain my stride, because I could tell I couldn’t increase my turnover. I’d worked too hard and executed my race too well to not hit my goal. You can’t let 25 miles go down the drain over one poor mile. And this was my only chance to deliver on Morgan’s course and to hit my goal on my brother’s day. I didn’t have a ton of kick, but I had enough and moved pretty well in that 26th mile. I saw the finish up ahead and knew that it was going to be a close call. I’m confident I gave it all I had today.

Mile 26, final .35 (Garmin): 7:11, 2:16 (6:28 pace)

Final time: 3:09:44. My second-fastest of the year, 10th fastest out of 39 overall, and my 17th Boston qualifier. Is it as fast as some races I’ve done? No. But as I always say, I’m hard on myself and it’s all relative. Today, I’m happy. I went hard, executed my race and got the job done. I can head into Napa next week with a little bit of confidence. I’m not going to decide on my goal until Thursday’s blog, but I expect more out of myself up there.

Side note: After the race, I waited to see Morgan finish. I saw five or six people wearing Operation Jack t-shirts and I knew that was her cheering squad. It was totally awesome to see them in those shirts. Words can’t really describe it, so I won’t bother trying to write them. But we waited, and she came in with a 3:57. And my brother had a good workout at the gym. All-in-all, a great day!


Me and Morgan, Gasparilla conquered!


Me and my good friend Rachel, who ran the 1/2 in 1:50 as a training run. She took it easy today, because she’s still recovering after winning a 100K race last Saturday. Yeah, that’s 62 miles.


Look at all these awesome shirts!