What I’m eating, what Jack’s eating, living on the edge and cracking bad jokes. Yep, that’s my weekend in a nutshell.
Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to do something to try to make a difference as one way of dealing with this and making sure he has an impact on the world. So, I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year in his honor to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism.
I named the endeavor Operation Jack, after my son, and this weekend I ran marathon No. 54 of the year in San Antonio (read my recap here). Seven more to go!
Don’t Try This At Home
Yesterday after the race, I went to lunch and had a nice time with a group of people I was with. I let time slip away from without realizing how tight my schedule was getting. After paying the bill, we went to the house I was staying at and I was able to shower, pack and get out the door within 15 minutes. We hit a little bit of traffic on the way to the airport, though, and I was convinced I was going to miss my flight.
There were 28 minutes until departure, and we were still a little ways away. So, I texted my wife Tiffany and told her I was probably going to miss my flight. I didn’t have my boarding pass, and airlines usually don’t let you reprint those with less than 30 minutes to go. For some reason, I was unusually calm about the situation. Normally, I’d be stressed, but I realized it was totally out of my control, so why worry?
I had a 3:05 departure and I got dropped outside of Southwest at 2:45. I went to the self-serve kiosk and with my luck, I had to stand behind the guy who couldn’t figure out how to retrieve his reservation. So, I did a power walk up towards the front by the agents and surprisingly, the system let me re-print my boarding pass.
Meanwhile, Tiff is texting me telling me not to worry, that if I missed my plane, she wouldn’t be mad. She didn’t want me stressing. I did a mad dash over to security, and I was going to ask to use the first-class line, because I had about 15 minutes until my flight, but there was no first-class line. So I waited and got through in about three minutes.
There were about five x-ray lines, so I picked what I thought was the shortest one. I was ready to fly through — I had everything in hand that needed to be out of my bag before I even walked in the terminal. There was a couple struggling to get everything into their bins, but they let a couple of guys go in front of them. I had my stuff ready to go and was about to go next and speed the process along, but they figured it out and I had to wait for 45 seconds that seemed like 45 minutes.
I got through security and ran through the terminal (always fun to do on marathon days) to get to the gate. I asked the agents if I missed the flight. They asked me my last name and I told them. They said I was good. I kept running to get in line, they took my boarding pass and I was in the jetway. I texted Tiff at 2:56 and told her I made the flight. She was pretty happy, to say the least.
So, in case you were wondering, yes, you can show up 20 minutes before your flight in San Antonio and still get on your plane. But take my word for it and don’t try it yourself!
I like to take pictures of food
I like to take pictures of food and I like cheeseburgers. If you’ve been here before, you know that. Several months ago, Lisa Hernandez told me that when I was in San Antonio, I had to go to a place called Chris Madrid’s for a cheeseburger. You might remember Lisa — I personally delivered In-N-Out to her in February in Austin. We’ve talked a little bit since then and she’s really nice. So, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to eat a cheeseburger recommended by somebody who has enough taste to have In-N-Out flown in.
So, I met up with a good group of people, including Lisa, and had a great cheeseburger. And of course, I took a picture of it.
I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a burger today.
Jack Update
Well, I talked about what I’ve been eating. More important than that is what Jack’s been eating. As you know, we changed up his routine after visiting a DAN doctor in the spring. We had him on a casein-free diet based on his reactions to various foods. We switched him to gluten-free, though — that’s what he needs. We also have him on a pretty tight supplement regimen. Between shots and creams and things we give him orally with a syringe and things we sneak into his drinks, he gets 27 different things.
It’s a huge job for Tiff, who leads the effort on this in our home. She has a ridiculous chart on the fridge so we know we don’t miss anything. She’s become close enough with the people at the compound pharmacy that she bakes them banana bread. We knew doing this for Jack would be a huge undertaking, but she committed to do this for at least a year to give him a chance.
So far, after a few months, his insides have really improved. He’s in a lot less pain, which has reduced the meltdowns and frustrations. All-in-all, he’s been a lot happier. That helps him in all aspects of his life. He sleeps better, he interacts with us better, he does better in his therapy. It’s been a great decision so far.
One thing that we’re really excited about right now is that he’s starting to be a little more willing to try various foods. Last week, he tried two new foods for the first time — brown rice and baked chicken breast. He’s a pretty picky eater and for years, we’ve watched him get just about all of his protein from pepperoni, salami and hot dogs. I talk about how I like to eat cheeseburgers, but all-in-all, Tiff and I eat pretty healthy and we hate seeing him eat such bad foods. This came as a wonderful surprise for us.
On a much less exciting note, we have an IEP for him this week. If you don’t know what an IEP is, be grateful. If you do know, let’s just say that we’re not going to be making any friends in there. I’m curious to see how it goes. I have some opinions I feel very strongly about and I’m pretty stubborn.
Jack eating chicken for the first time.
Am I Funny?
I went to Pei Wei for lunch on Friday. If you’ve never been, it’s a Chinese place that’s owned by P.F. Chang’s, but it’s a little bit quicker. You order up front, get a number for your table and they bring your food out. The soda fountain is self-serve, and there’s a big bucket of fortune cookies there for the taking.
I like to clown around, so when I got up to order, I had a really serious look on my face and asked the girl at the register, “Do I need to order off the menu, or is it cool if I just have 50 fortune cookies and a water?” I paused for a few seconds to let her wonder if I was being serious and she didn’t know how to respond. So I told her I was kidding and ordered the spicy Korean chicken.
Tiff doesn’t think I’m funny. I don’t think she’d know funny if she was married to it for 11 1/2 years.
Operation Jack Marathon
We’re having the Operation Jack Marathon on December 26 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. It’s going to be the 61st and final marathon of this endeavor and it should be a lot of fun. I’d love for all of you to be there. If you’re in Southern California, make it happen!
If you’re not local, though, we have another great option. We’re going to have satellite runs. Wherever you are, run 6.1 miles on December 26 — it’s one last opportunity to participate in Operation Jack and spread the word about Train 4 Autism. Participants will receive a t-shirt and the same race medal that Operation Jack Marathon participants will receive. The cost is $25, although if you set up a fundraising page and raise just $30, that fee will be waived.
– Information about the Operation Jack Marathon
– Information about the satellite runs
OK, That’s All For Today
Have a great Monday, everybody! I’ll see you back here tomorrow!
Tffany Felsenfeld says
Sam,
Back in July, when the doc told me Jack might be more inclined to try different foods after being on the diet a few months, I thought, okaaaay, yeah, we’ll see. Four plus months later, he’s tried around five new foods, to my surprise. It’s things like that that really keep me moving along on this thing. Yeah, it’s no miracle over night, but I’m definitely seeing little things come out over time.
Oh, and yeah, I still don’t think you’re funny.
Adair Renning says
Re: IEP….stick to your guns until you get what you want for Jack! It’s not a popularity contest. Ours sometimes took 3 days!
Re: Are you funny? All I can say is you and Jerry together would be unbearable! That fortune cookie thing is exactly something he would do!
Re: Satellite runs….I’m going to try to get a small team together to run her in MI. We’ll see how many folks are in town and not too turkeyed up to run. Where do we send the reg. fee?
Heather Gonzalez says
IEP’s are a PITA…
I’ve committed to no fast food until after Christmas… I totally plan on hitting In N’ Out on my way home from the half!