Normally, weekend recaps are the subject of my Monday blog. But since the Boston Marathon was yesterday, my weekend didn’t end until I got home late last night, so I’ll go with the weekend recap as my theme today. I’m warning you in advance, though — there’s a lot of pictures in here, because I told a lot of people over the weekend that I’d put them in the blog.
Real quick first, though, I ran the Charlottesville Marathon and struggled with a 3:21 on Saturday (recap here) and I ran the best race of my life yesterday in the Boston Marathon (3:03, recap here). It wasn’t my fastest, but it was my best. Period.
After the race yesterday.
Also, I snuck in a really brief blog about my wife yesterday. If you support Operation Jack and what I’m trying to accomplish, please take a minute and read what I wrote. She means the world to me and she’s a behind-the-scenes rock that Operation Jack wouldn’t be possible without.
Oh, one more plug I have to make. I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month. Since 7 is the number of the month, I’m trying to collect as many $7 donations as possible. I’m not where I want to be yet, so if you can spare the cost of a cheap lunch to support a great cause, check out the fundraising page or read the update I sent to the Facebook group at the beginning of the month.
OK, so here was my weekend. I hope you’re entertained by the truth, because it’s easier to write than fiction.
Thursday Night
I took the family out to Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes, depending on what part of the country you live in). My kids love it and I had to leave them for four long days, so I wanted to have some fun before I left. We had a good time, and that night, I left for the airport to catch a red-eye. I only got about two hours of sleep on the flight. Bummer.
Friday Morning & Afternoon
I was heading to Charlottesville, Va., through Atlanta. In Atlanta, my flight was overbooked, and they offered 400 Delta Dollars to anybody willing to add five hours to their layover. I did this and now I’ll be able to take Tiff along on a future trip sometime. It eliminated my nap I was planning on in Virginia, but it gave me a chance to leave the airport and visit my mom, who lives in Atlanta.
The first of many pictures with redheads this weekend.
I hadn’t seen her since December, so she was excited to see me. We went to lunch with her husband at a Chinese buffet. It stank in there, but the food was pretty good and it was nice to visit, albeit briefly. Oh, I also got two free meal coupons from the airlines, so I picked myself up a breakfast sandwich and a frozen yogurt waffle cone. Beautiful. While I was walking to get my cone, my brother called me and told me he scored tickets to the Red Sox game on Sunday. Double beautiful.
On the flight from Atlanta to Charlottesville, our flight attendant on our puddle jumper told us it was her first flight and asked us to bear with her. I’d MUCH rather hear that from the flight attendant than the pilot!
Friday Evening
Here’s where I get to give props to my fraternity, Phi Delta Theta! I was a Phi Delt at Kansas State, and in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, the Phi Delts supported me. They ran a 5K on Saturday that benefitted the Virginia Institute of Autism and they did so wearing custom Operation Jack/Autism Awareness/Phi Delta Theta shirts. They hosted a pasta dinner at the house on Friday night, so I went over and met the guys and had a nice time.
Me at the Phi Delt house with their philanthropy chair, Pat Dale.
I stayed in a total fleabag motel. I meant to take a picture of the room, but I didn’t. It was pretty gross, though. I knew better than to go barefoot in the room, so I walked around in my socks and they got dirty.
Saturday Morning/Afternoon
After running the race, I went to Waffle House. I’d never been. And I’m probably not going back. I wasn’t impressed. Food was blah and I would have totally rather gone to IHOP. But I tried it and I no longer have that curiosity.
After that, I went out to Monticello, but they wanted something like $15 for a ticket just to walk around on the trails there. So I left, because I didn’t have a ton of time. But it’s a very beautiful location.
Thomas Jefferson sure did pick a scenic spot.
If that first picture didn’t convince you, how about this one?
Before I hit the airport, I made good use of a coupon I got in my goodie bag.
I looked pretty cool with two 7 oz. cups of frozen yogurt on my table while I pounded out my Charlottesville race report.
Saturday Night
I wanted to watch the Mets-Cardinals game on Saturday, but it started 15 minutes before my flight left Charlottesville. I had a layover in Philadelphia, got into Boston, took three T trains and then a shuttle to get to my hotel. I called Tiff, unpacked, got a little bit of work done, then went to get some pizza. I came back, ate my pizza, called Tiff again and talked for a while, then called it a night and crawled into bed and watched the last hour of the Mets-Cardinals game. Yeah, that one went 20 innings.
Speaking of my layover in Philly, I had an interesting experience in the men’s room. I walked in, and there’s a man using a urinal shouting, “THIS IS PERSONAL! THIS IS PERSONAL!” He was just talking to himself, peeing. I was a little leery, so I went way to the far end away from him, and he started saying something else, and I noticed he had a bluetooth in his ear.
Note to dude: Wrong place and time to have that phone call.
Sunday
Got up, took an ice bath. Went to town and met people for breakfast. Went to the expo. Went across the street and met people for lunch. Went straight to Fenway to meet up with my brother and my friends Mike and Katherine. Went straight to meet people for the pasta dinner. Went straight to the hotel and about 13 hours had passed since I left. How did that happen?
Two cool notes about Sunday:
1. I was sitting at lunch and a guy came up to the table out of nowhere and asked me if I was Sam. Well, Sam I Am! He told me he’s been following along and he admired what I was doing and he asked to take a picture with me. I thought that was pretty cool. And I took the picture, of course.
2. Our seats at Fenway were standing room only ON TOP OF THE GREEN MONSTER! Does it get any better than that? I don’t think it does.
At breakfast with a runner named Meg, who said she’d really been wanting to meet me. That’s the first time anybody has ever told me that. I bet she was disappointed!
At breakfast with a runner named Katie, who I’ve talked with a bunch and finally had the opportunity to meet.
At the expo with Jen Morgan and Ally Phillips, two redheads who are incredible Operation Jack supporters.
After lunch with a runner named Julie who I finally got to meet. She’s super nice and I had a great time talking with her and her boyfriend.
Katherine said she wanted in Tuesday’s blog. So here she is. We’re ON TOP OF THE GREEN MONSTER!
Me with a bunch of my runner friends at the pasta dinner. We’ve all known each other for a few years, so it was good to hang out for a couple of hours.
Monday
We’ve been over the whole “Boston Marathon” thing that I ran yesterday. After the race, I had lunch with my brother, my friend Mike, and four other people I want to make a quick mention of.
One was a friend named Brittany, who used to be one of Jack’s therapists when he was 2 and 3. She moved back to Boston, so she came to the lunch on Sunday, then came out to the race with a homemade sign! Her parents also came out to the race and they also joined us for lunch on Monday.
Also, I had a great time meeting three new people, Danielle, Melissa and Sarah. They posted pictures on Twitter on Sunday night of a sign they had made for me. I was blown away, because I had never communicated with them at all. I know what I’m doing has a “wow” factor, which is why I’m doing it, but I don’t view myself as anything special, because to me, I’m me, and all I’m doing is making use of what I’ve been given. So when I saw that picture, I was pretty floored. I got in touch with them and insisted that we find a way to meet up. So they came out to lunch after the race and we had a good time chatting for an hour or two (I lost track of time).
Me and Brittany.
Me, Danielle, Melissa and Sarah.
When Tiff picked Jack up from school yesterday, he immediately reached for the Boston hat and put it on!
And then I went home. Finally. I missed my babies.
What a great trip Sam! So proud of you!
Glad your race went so well in Boston.
Congrats!
So happy people are out there to cheer you on, since us here on the west can only cheer from the background. We had a great turn out at the Coaster Run and got a lot of opportunity to talk about Operation Jack!
Happy Tuesday!
Shelly
I can’t believe someone asked if you’re Sam, and got it right. What are the chances? They must have asked millions of people before you and finally got lucky. If you had gone to some other city last weekend they’d probably still be at it.
Congrats again on your best race, and ones that weren’t the best which are still almost infinitely impressive.
You continue to amaze me. That is all.
I’ve been so inspired by all of your accomplishments, Sam, but your weekend experiences were something else. Congrats on an amazing Boston. $7 didn’t seem fitting enough, but I did stick with a 7 theme. Good luck with your fundraising.
Thanks for sharing all of your adventures with us!
– Jen (@PhilanthropyInk)
I’ve been so inspired by all of your accomplishments, Sam, but your weekend experiences were something else. Congrats on an amazing Boston. $7 didn’t seem fitting enough, but I did stick with a 7 theme. Good luck with your fundraising.
Thanks for sharing all of your adventures with us!
– Jen (@PhilanthropyInk)
Ha! Love all the pictures–looks like a great weekend. Congrats again on the awesome performance in Boston–that’s great. And yes, accept the rockstar runner status, just accept it 🙂