What I Would Have Normally Posted On Monday

Normally, I post a weekend recap on Mondays. But I went with a Father’s Day edition of my blog instead. When I go with something different on Mondays, I run the weekend recap on Tuesdays. But on Monday night, I didn’t have time to write a blog (you’ll see why in a bit), so I’m finally getting to some of these things today.

So anyways, here’s my standard introduction, just in case you’ve never been here before. I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m attempting to run 60 full marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. I’m raising money, bringing people into the charity and I’ve completed 30 of the 60 races. Only 30 to go!

Moving along, …

I Need Your Help
There’s a contest called Chase Community Giving through Facebook. Bottom line is you can vote once with your Facebook account and the top 200 vote-getting charities will receive at least $20,000. Right now, I think we’re ranked somewhere around 60 or so.

Please, please, please, take a minute to help out! Even if you’ve already voted, I could still use your help in posting it on your wall. Thank you!

Why It’s Called Grandma’s Marathon
If you’re not too deep into the marathon community, you might not know a lot about Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., which I ran on Saturday. It sounds like some small-time race in the middle of nowhere, but it’s actually a pretty big race. It’s not a top-tier major like Boston, New York or Chicago, but it’s as big of a deal as just about any other race in the country.

The race is put on very well, it’s a nice course, and they get some extremely fast elites in there. 2:20 doesn’t get you in the top 10 at Grandma’s. Anyways, it got it’s name from a restaurant right near the finish called … shoot, I don’t remember. Oh yeah — it’s called Grandma’s. I took a picture of it because, well, I was there and I had my camera.

Hanging Out In The Dorms!
The one downside about Grandma’s Marathon is that all the hotels raise their prices a ton. Rooms are $200+ for dive motels. The University of Minnesota-Duluth (I think that’s what it’s called) charges something like $189 for two nights for a dorm room. But the University of Wisconsin-Superior, which is about a mile from Duluth, offers a dorm room for $100/night, and checkout isn’t until 6 p.m.

So, that’s where I stayed. It was awesome, in a I-got-to-turn-back-the-clock kind of way. I lived in the dorms for two summers at Kansas State and had a ton of fun. When I walked into the room on Friday night, it had same type of old, sturdy dorm furniture I remembered. It had an old, musty odor that I hadn’t smelled in 13 years. I had to shower in the community restroom down the hall. There were goofball college students manning the front desk downstairs.

It was awesome. I wanted to bust out a fake ID, but I don’t have one any more.

I Took A Picture, Otherwise You Wouldn’t Believe It
I saw a liquor store in Minnesota advertising free wi-fi. I wanted to go in there, hang out and write my race report, but I was in a hurry to get to the airport.

Monday Night: Family Movie Night!
On Monday night, we took the kids to the movies. That’s not that big of a deal to most families. But it was for us. It was Ava’s first trip to the movies. AND, it was Jack’s first trip to the movies! We have someone who helps us with Jack and she came along just in case.

He started to throw a little bit of a fit on the way in, because we made him leave a musical toy in the car. He had no clue what he was in store for, so he was a little upset. When we got into the theater, though, he was fine. He had a good time eating popcorn and Good & Plenty’s and actually sat still and had fun for about an hour.

However, he got a little restless after a while. He stood up and started spinning around to get dizzy and fall over. Then, he started shouting, “Juhhh gray!”, which is his way of saying “Just great!” He learned that from a movie or TV show. We like hearing that, because when he says that, he’s in a good mood. Anyways, he started to get a bit frustrated, so our helper had to take him out for a little bit of a walk. When she brought him back in, he wasn’t having it. So she took him home and put him to bed.

But he had a great time. So did Ava, although she’s not great at the whole “whisper” concept. It was a great time, though. We don’t get opportunities like that very often, so it was a pretty cool deal.

Oh, My Silly Work
They had a surprise ice cream party for me yesterday to celebrate me completing 30 of the 60 marathons. It was very nice, but I’m really shy about praise and to have everybody focusing on me like that was pretty embarrassing! Still, it was pretty cool and nice of them to do that.

They shipped in ice cream from a place called Graeter’s and it was ridiculously good. I could tell it was going to be good when I read the label. Normally, the ice cream I eat has about 130 or 140 calories in it per half a cup. This stuff had 310 calories! It was amazing. I had cookie dough flavored ice cream with cupcake flavored Magic Shell. As George Strait would say, there’s a difference between living and living well. That was living well.

OK, That’s All For Today
My wife tells me my blogs have been too long lately. And I’m getting tired (I write these the night before). So that’s all. Have a great Wednesday!