It's Been A While, But I'm Back!

Erin, I promised you yesterday I’d write a blog for today, and how could I let you down? You didn’t make any special requests for subject matter, so I’ll just go with something light, like politics. Or, maybe I’ll talk about my recent running, what I did on my summer vacation and how there’s only three degrees of separation between Operation Jack and Sandra Bullock. Yeah, I’ll probably stick with the safer topics today and save the politics for later.

New Here At Operation Jack?
I haven’t blogged in three weeks (that whole “busy” thing) and there are a lot of new fans on Facebook, so some of you might be coming here for the first time. If so, here’s a quick explanation of what Operation Jack is: I’m a father of three (Benjamin, 8, Jack almost 6, Ava 3 1/2) and a marathon runner. Jack is severely autistic. I’m going to try to run 60 marathons in 2010 to try to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. I’ve only run 25 marathons in my life, but based on my training, I think it’s realistic to give this an attempt.

Running Update
So, how do I train for running 60 marathons? By running 17 miles over the past five weeks? I sprained my ankle pretty badly WALKING THROUGH A PARKING LOT AFTER LUNCH and I’ve been working to get it back to full strength. I need to be healthy for next year, and if I start with the ankle in bad shape, it won’t get any better and an already-long year will get even longer. So, I’m taking care of it (and battling frustration) now. I’m also battling tendinitis in my right knee, but that’s more of a nuisance than a problem.

I went four weeks without running (per my physical therapist’s orders) and finally got the green light to run a week ago. I ran two miles at the track on August 23, three miles in a flat area locally on August 25, five miles on that same flat course on August 27 and SEVEN this morning!

I have no issues with the running. Speed is close enough, maybe a little slow at lower heart rates, but fine at marathon effort and faster. My cardio fitness is a bit down, but I’m not concerned. That’s rust that will shake off fairly easily once I have the green light to go full throttle.

I started riding the bike at the gym a couple of weeks ago, which is incredibly boring, but it helps me keep from going crazy. Fortunately, though, my physical therapist gave me a semi-green light this morning to keep rolling. I can go 10 tomorrow, 7 Wednesday, 10 Thursday and 7 Friday, and I can run on the hills I’m used to running on. I have my exercises I need to do at home, and I’ll do them. If she’s gonna hook me up and let me run, I’ll do what she tells me to do! The tendinitis in my right knee is a little frustrating, but I’m working on it and it’ll be fine. I’ll be back in routine and in good shape pretty soon.

I’m running the Long Beach Marathon on October 11, and hopefully with my wife, who is attempting her first marathon (as long as injuries don’t get in the way) and aiming for a 3:40. I really hope she runs it, not only because I’m REALLY looking forward to running a marathon with her, but because I’m not in the mood to test myself in six weeks. But if I must, I will.

Ice Cream!
For those of you who have been here before, you know I have a soft spot for ice cream. Well, the streak is still intact. With some vanilla ice cream at lunch yesterday and some caramel/prailine type of Dreyer’s Yogurt Blends last night, I’ve now had ice cream or frozen yogurt 68 days in a row.

What I Did For Summer Vacation
I see all the Facebook status updates from people about taking this vacation or that trip or chilling at the pool or whatever. I don’t do that. I guess it’s just part of life, but I’ve spent the whole summer on the computer, working. Part of me knows there’s not much I can do about it — working too much is part of the joy of living in Southern California and feeding five mouths. But part of me gets upset because I feel like I’ve let my 8-year-old son Benjamin down this summer.

We’ve done some fun things together, but nothing major and it’s not what I would have hoped for a couple of months ago. But I just now asked if he’s had a fun summer and he said he has. If he’s happy, I’m happy. Well, kind of. I know never is a long time, but I don’t think I’m ever going to do side work like I’ve been doing again. It’s just not worth it. I missed this summer and it’s not going to be too long before he’d rather hang out with his friends than his dad. It’s been an upsetting summer, but I can’t go back in time. And of course, next year is going to be tough.

I talked with Tiff (my wife) over the weekend and I’m going to do whatever I can to bring them along to races next year. Not all of them, but at least some of them. There are several that are within driving distance that will be family trips (San Francisco, Tucson, Phoenix, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, San Diego, etc.). We also decided that I’m going to make serious attempts at getting Ben and Tiff to fly to various races with me. He’s going to remember 2010 forever as the year his dad ran a marathon every weekend. I have an opportunity for him to remember it as the year he got to go to a bunch of cool places (hopefully one per month or two every three months) instead of the year he never saw me. Might as well do it the right way.

Does Anybody Want A Free Operation Jack T-Shirt?
We have t-shirts and other gear coming in September. I know, September is tomorrow, but it won’t be tomorrow. Still, they’re coming soon enough. So, help us out and make a donation and get yourself one! We’ve received our exemption from the IRS, so your contributions are tax deductible. You can get more information on our Sponsors page. You can also get clothing at a discount if you’re signed up for a team.

These were designed by a friend of mine, Tara Larivee. She’s super talented and (my favorite part) is helping for free! She designed the Operation Jack website, and in my opinion, she did it rather well. During the day, she works for West Coast Choppers as Web/Art Director and leads all of their design efforts. Jesse James has good taste (heck, he married Sandra Bullock), and he made it to the final four on the Celebrity Apprentice, so you know Tara does great work if he hired her!

Anyways, I figured I’d give her a little bit of a plug for everything she’s done for Operation Jack. If you need any graphic design work, drop her a line through her site. But don’t bring her so much work that she doesn’t have time to volunteer here!

Oh yeah, the free part. If you want a free Operation Jack t-shirt, post a comment here to let me know you want one (or to any subsequent blog I post this week) and I’ll pick a winner at random at the end of the week. Next week, I’ll give away a free Operation Jack dri-fit/technical shirt.

Who Has Friends?
OK, at this early stage of Operation Jack, I’m trying to spread the word as much as possible. Eventually, I’ll start showing easy ways to raise money, but right now, I’m not worried about that. I just want as many people as possible to jump on the bandwagon.

A super-easy way to help right now is to send people to the Facebook fan page. Just doing simple math with hypothetical numbers, supponse only 1 out of every 50 people who become a fan of Operation Jack actually participate, and only 1 out of every 5 people who actually participate raise money for Train 4 Autism, and the average person who raises money raises $250. Using those conservative numbers, each person you get to the fan page is worth an average of $1, and that’s assuming none of them ever bring anybody else along. Raise $50 by simply suggesting the page to 50 friends.

What’s The Point?
This morning on my run, a woman was walking her dog off-leash. She was holding the leash in her hand and the dog was about 50 feet behind her, doing its own thing. We weren’t on the busiest street, but cars fly by at about 35-40 mph at least once a minute. What’s the point in the leash, why would she put her dog at risk and why would she put other people at risk? I don’t get it.

I Guess I Had More To Talk About Than I Thought
I knew the things I wanted to talk about, but I’m running out of space. Well, my space is actually infinite, but I’d probably lose readers if I went beyond 10,000 words.

Tomorrow (well, tomorrow, or the next time I blog), I’m going to talk about Platoons, what I’ve got cooking with a great service called GoWagon.com, a few races that I’m trying to build teams for, plus a few more things.

If any of you have any subjects you want me to discuss, let me know.

Video Of The Day
Since I’m talking about Benjamin today, I picked a video that he’d like. He loves the show Wipeout, and, well, this one is pretty funny.

Four More Days Until A Three-Day Weekend!
Yep, it’s already Monday and this week is flying by! Have a great day!