Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Weekend Preview: Race #26, Fargo Marathon

by 17 Comments

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

Just in case this is your first time here, welcome! And here’s my standard introduction: I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. To try to make a difference in the autism community, I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. Saturday will be No. 26.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comments

  2. Seems like when I ran Fargo, it was earlier in May to avoid weather like this. But they’ve also gotten snow on race day in Fargo, so maybe that’s why they moved it back some. In any case, good luck!

    Reply

  3. Hey, you know what, I was told OKC was flat and fast. All lies. (not that I’m bitter about my terrible race that day or anything, noooo)

    Good luck in Fargo!

    And happy early anniversary to you and Tiff! Hope you guys have a wonderful day and get to celebrate.

    Reply

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  5. Good luck! And happy anniversary! I bet you will surprise yourself – you seem to be doing that a lot lately 🙂

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  15. How could you share a story about your wedding anniversary and somehow conveniently forget to share anything about your bachelor party? Hmmmm…. Interesting.

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