What's Up With OJ Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, which means I have a great opportunity to re-use my headline. Each Wednesday, I’ll take the opportunity to run down a few miscellaneous items impacting Operation Jack. I’ve got some geek talk, clothing talk and food talk. Welcome to my boring little world.

Running Update
I’ve been battling to get over sore quads since Saturday’s race, anxious to see if I’m stronger after battling those ridiculous hills. Sunday was a scheduled rest day, Monday was a turn-back day and yesterday was a forced rest day because I was still in too much pain. For those of you who think I’m not human, I swear — I really am!

I got up to run this morning, but Jack had been getting up since 3 a.m., and during the 10 minutes I was getting ready, he had gotten up three times. So I stayed back to help with him and let Tiff sleep. Maybe I’ll try to run tonight. But I still haven’t run since Catalina, which makes me a little nervous.

Congrats To Contest Winner Jamie Fellrath!
One of my new features here is a weekly contest to guess my time. Make a guess in the form of a donation (if you think I’m going to run a 3:12, donate $3.12, etc.) and the winner gets their choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt. Jamie made a $3.48 donation and I went 3:48:39. Lucky for him, I really turned it on in the final mile and chased down two people I saw ahead of me.

The first guy I picked off finished 22 seconds behind me (gun time) and I would have run a 3:49:01 if I had finished at the same time as him. Somebody else guessed I’d run a 3:49, so Jamie owes me when I meet him in Cleveland! He’d better be wearing his gear!

Incidentally, I’m kind of a numbers geek. Well, there’s no kind of to it. I was the star of the math team in junior high. But anyways, I was bummed when I checked the results. I finished 26th overall. If one more person would have finished ahead of me, it would have been the third time this year I’d finished 27th overall! 3x3x3 = 27 so it would have been 3 x (3x3x3)!

OK, I’m done geeking out.

Actually, I’m Not Done Geeking Out
It took about two lines of code, but I made a switch yesterday and if you notice, we’re at operationjack.org now, not operationjack.com. I think that since we’re a cause, we’re better off living at .org. Any page you attempt to hit at .com will automatically go to that page at .org now. Good idea? Bad idea? I think it was a good idea, and my vote carries the most weight, but you can still let me know what you think.

OK, I’m really done geeking out now.

OJ Gear Isn’t Just For Contest Winners!
I’d love to outfit you in one of our t-shirts, tech shirts or sweatshirts! For more info, check out our donation levels on our Sponsors page. You can also earn it chasing a 10×10. Is it tacky if I beg for help like this?

Attention Orange County Runners!
On May 1, the night before the Orange County Marathon, we’re going to have a pasta dinner. It’s going to be fairly inexpensive and the focus will be on Train 4 Autism. Our leaders will be there to talk about the charity and it should be a wonderful evening. We’re still finalizing the exact time and location, but I’ll definitely be announcing that when it’s set and it’s definitely going to be on May 1 in South Orange County. If you can, keep your calendar clear, because I’d love to see you there!

Attention Virginia Beach Runners!
Huge thanks to Ryan Conrad, who put together a pasta dinner for this Saturday in Virginia Beach. If you’re going to be in Virginia Beach, I’d love to see you there. Here are the details. Gotta eat, right?

2010 = 60. But What About 2011?
I touched on this a tiny bit yesterday, but I’m kind of starting to think about 2011 in the back of my mind (way, way, way in the back). I’m not going to do this 60 marathon thing again. But we’re gaining momentum and I’m suspecting we’ll have a pretty good group by the end of the year and I don’t want to just throw it all away. Those of you who follow me believe in helping others, and I’m hoping we can figure out a good way to do keep doing good things next year.

I’ll probably post something like this at least once a month the rest of the year. If you have any ideas for next year, send them my way. In the meantime, I’ll be scratching my head to come up with something.

Ice Cream Update
I haven’t touched on my ice cream streak lately, but I had a vanilla/chocolate frozen yogurt swirl yesterday, running my streak of consecutive days eating ice cream or frozen yogurt to 45 days. I’ve got about two months until I set a new all-time record. I think my best was 110 days last year, but it’s going to be tough to reach that. It can be a lot more difficult than you’d think to get ice cream when I’m on the road, which is every week.

That’s All For Today
I hope you enjoy your lunch as much as I am. I’m having that traditional Irish meal, In-N-Out. Tiff’s cooking something a little more American tonight, corned beef and cabbage.