Weekend Recap: Tough Start, Great Finish

Since I went with my long rambling blog about United Airlines yesterday, I’m doing my weekend recap today. The best part of this was that I was able to write it on my flight back Sunday after I wrote yesterday’s blog, so that freed me up last night! But there are other good parts about this blog. So please read it!

I always start my blog out with a quick intro. I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m accomplish all three of those goals. I’ve raised money. I’ve raised awareness. And I’m through 25 of the 60 marathons.

If you run enough marathons, some will be pretty blah and some will be pretty memorable. Cleveland, which I ran on Sunday is going to end up ranking amongst the top 5 for the year, and I know I can say that even though it’s only May. When you combine the Operation Jack people involved and the way I ran, it really stands out. It was a great day.

Worst Way To Start A Weekend
After work on Friday night, I went to the “Fun Fest” at Benjamin’s school. It’s the school’s annual fundraiser, a carnival that’s attended by pretty much everybody in the school. All of his friends are there, a lot of parents we know are there. This is the fifth year in a row we’ve gone and he has a blast every time. Ava kind of had a good time (she’s too young for a lot of the stuff), but she still had fun with me. Jack was home with my mother-in-law for his therapy session.

I hung out with Tiff and we watched Ben climb the rock wall (he got WAY higher than he did last year, almost to the top!) and then we all had fun watching a demonstration from the tae-kwon-do studio Ben goes to.

So why was this the worst way to start the weekend? Because we always go and stay until it ends at 8 p.m. But my flight was at 8:04 p.m., so I had to leave early to get to the airport. It was a total bummer walking away and leaving them behind, knowing this is the kind of thing I’m missing by doing Operation Jack. I was homesick before I even left. Next year will be better.

Worst Way To Continue A Weekend
In case you didn’t read about my episode with United Airlines, it was pretty sweet of them to lose my carry-on. How do they lose a carry-on? Kind of reminds me of the movie Friday … “How do you get fired on your day off?” … they lose your carry-on when they unnecessarily force you to check it.

Nothing like taking a red-eye flight and then spending the next day aimlessly wandering around Cleveland trying to track down a carry-on suitcase. I kept telling myself it would make my blog easy to write. And sure enough, yesterday’s blog was a breeze to put together. But I could really do without that convenience!

It’s Tuesday, and the sky is still blue, and United Airlines is still lousy.

Continental Airlines, Holla!
Not only do they do it the old-fashioned way and have us board from the back of the plane first (instead of with the “zones” the other airlines give us, which I suspect has a lot to do with how much you pay for your ticket), they feed you for free! We got enchiladas on our flight home!

Shirt Of The Weekend
So I’m getting on the subway Saturday night, and a dude is getting off. He’s wearing a bright green shirt with white lettering and a white four-leaf clover. The shirt says, “Everybody Loves An Italian Boy.”

Not Irish … Italian. Go figure.

I Met People!
As is frequently the case, I got to meet quite a few people who are very supportive of Operation Jack over the weekend. I was a total zombie and forgot to take a picture with Cyndi Kolonick at the expo on Saturday, but I met her and her daughter. She’s been good to talk to, and it’s always fun to put a face to a name.

I also got to meet Erin Fortin and her brother Will. Erin’s been really supportive since last summer and it was great to meet her. Will was pretty cool, too. Erin is a grad student at the University of Colorado, going after a Ph.D in some kind of chemistry something-or-another. Will is in school up in Wyoming chasing a Ph.D in geophysics or something like that. I spent 6 1/2 years getting a journalism degree and almost didn’t graduate because I nearly failed a one-hour freshman geology lab class in my seventh fall. They got a chuckle out of that. Science, not my thing.

Sunday morning before the race, I met Kim Bouldin, who was running her first marathon. Through Twitter, I come in contact with all sorts of people who have common interests with me. There are a lot of runners and a lot of people in the autism world. Kim is a runner (actually, Kim is now a marathoner!) and she lives gluten-free and is pretty active in that community, which overlaps with the autism community. We’ve talked a fair amount over the past several months, so it was nice to meet her in person. She’s super-friendly.

I also spent a fair amount of time with Jenn and Jamie Fellrath and their kids Duncan and Moira. Jenn and Jamie were involved with Train 4 Autism before I started Operation Jack and I’ve been in fairly close contact with them for the better part of a year now. They’ve been super nice over email and they’re the same way in person. I felt bad, because we had lunch on Saturday and I was more-or-less falling asleep sitting straight up by the end of it (the joys of red-eye flights!), but they were a lot of fun to talk to. I’m not going to disrespect their privacy and talk too much about their kids, but Duncan and Moira were both wonderful. I really enjoyed the time I spent with them.

Who Wants To Race Me?
Operation Jack supporter Danielle Speckman ran the Sugarloaf Marathon on Sunday and we made a bet. I spotted her an hour. Her prior PR was a 4:40 I think, but she was probably going to realistically run anywhere between maybe even a sub-4, and about 4:30. As for me, well, I’m always all over the board. You never know. I can turn in a 3:06 or a 3:22 and neither would surprise me.

So here was our bet: I’m going to send her an Operation Jack t-shirt, period. If she won, then she would get the shirt for free. If she lost, then she had to make the $26.20 contribution required on the Sponsors page for the marathon level that the t-shirt requires.

She ran a huge PR and finished in 4:15. She’s pretty excited about it, and rightly so. But I had a good day and I won the virtual race by about seven minutes. Since it’s all for fun and all for charity, Danielle doesn’t mind that I beat her. Really, if you look at my recent times, it’s very reasonable she could have won.

Anyways, if any of you are racing and you want to virtually race me, let me know and I’ll do the same deal with you. I’ll set a reasonable spread based on how you run, and I’ll send you a shirt win-or-lose. But if you lose, you make a charitable contribution to a great cause. If you’re running a half-marathon, we can still do it. If you’re gunning for sub-2, maybe you spot me 1:10 for my full time. I’ll take it on a case-by-case basis. Let me know if you’re interested.

One more thing about Danielle … check out her legs!

I’m Keeping Promise To Sarah Loy
Sarah is an Operation Jack supporter out in Boston and she begged me to post another picture of myself from my larger days. I promised I would and I’m a man of my word.

One Good Thing About Air Travel
I ran a marathon in Cleveland Sunday morning, ate lunch there after the race (orange chicken and white rice … I was actually moderately healthy!) and was in California before sundown. I had chicken burritos for dinner in my own home and saw my kids before they went to sleep. That kind of stuff always trips me out.

That’s All For Today
Yesterday’s blog was long enough. I should only do that on special occasions. Enjoy your tacos today!