This might be the wrong way for my wife to find this out, but in June, I’m bringing bunch of women to Boston. And they’re all her age or younger. Yep, I’m pacing the 3:40 group at the Utah Valley Marathon on June 12 and I’m looking forward to it.
That’s one of the things going on with Operation Jack. On Wednesdays, I write a “What’s Up With OJ Wednesday” blog. It’s an easy excuse for me to be lazy and re-use a headline, plus the alliteration is catchy. I think.
In case you’re new here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I really hate that. I wanted to find a purpose for his struggles, plus I wanted to use my running to make something good happen, so I came up with this idea of running 60 marathons in 2010 to try to raise awareness and money for a great charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism. The idea looked great on paper, but now that I’m through 18 of the marathons, my body isn’t thoroughly convinced! But we’re creating new chapters all over the country, so it looks like it’s working!
I’ll get to Utah in just a minute (well, actually I’ll get to Utah on June 11). I’ll give a quick update on Jack, though.
He’s struggled a little bit lately, waking up several times in the middle of the night and battling what appears to be internal pain. One major problem with Jack is his inability to effectively communicate. So, if he has a tummy ache, he can’t tell us, but he’ll be upset and hit himself in the head instead. At that point, he has a headache in addition to his tummy ache.
We’ve been convinced for a while that he has internal problems, and we’ve tried gluten-free and casein-free diets. Tiff and I definitely keep him on the casein-free, but we haven’t noticed improvements with the gluten-free diet so he’s not on that. We’ve taken him to a DAN doctor, basically a biomedical doctor. We went to one before, but weren’t thrilled with the treatment. But we have an appointment on May 11 with a new one who comes very highly recommended from an extremely knowledgeable and trustworthy source.
Also, we’ve discovered that he likes weighted blankets and we have one of those herbal neck pillows that you heat up and that calms him down big-time when he’s upset. He’s still got a ways to go before he truly talks, but we’re seeing a lot of progress over the past several months. He’s MUCH more lively than he was last summer. Thank you, everybody, for all of your prayers.
This was Jack last night. He knows where I’m running on Monday!
Back To Utah
I’m pacing the 3:40 group on June 12 and I’m really excited about it. It’s supposed to be a very beautiful course, and I’ll be able to look around and enjoy myself a little more than normal. Take a look at the course profile. It looks like a pretty fast course. I’ll be aiming for a 3:39:59, though.
I’ve paced twice before, each of the past two years leading the 3:30 group at Surf City. I went 3:29:54 and 3:29:39 in those efforts and really enjoyed helping people reach their goals. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. 3:40 is the Boston qualifying time for women between 18 and 34, so any ladies who stick with me from start to finish will earn their way to my favorite race.
If you’ve been looking for a June race that’s fast and scenic but you didn’t have a running partner who would tell you bad jokes for 220 minutes, this might be a good one for you!
Orange County Marathon Pasta Dinner
If you’re in Orange County or running the Orange County Marathon, we’re going to have a pasta dinner at Buca di Beppo in Irvine (Tustin Marketplace) on May 1, the night before the race, at 5:30 p.m. It should be a good time. I know everybody seemed to enjoy the pasta dinner prior to Surf City on February 6, and I’m really excited about this one, because I don’t have to do so much busy work like I did last time.
I’ll probably have to get up and do a poor job speaking like I did last time, but I’m cool with that. I have more information here if you’re interested … please be interested! If you have any questions about anything, please let me know!
Also During The OC Marathon Weekend, …
We’re going to have a Silpada party. When I say we, I mean my wife and my mother-in-law. I’ll probably be home hanging out with the kids. But we’re going to have a Silpada party that’s going to be a fundraiser for Operation Jack. Silpada sells jewelry that my wife really likes. I don’t know how to describe it … it’s not like diamonds or anything like that. It’s decent stuff without the fancy stones.
Anyways, we’re going to have a party and we’d love for you to be there! It’ll be a good time and you can grab some finger foods and a quick Mother’s Day gift. Here is the Evite Tiff created for the event. If you’re an out-of-towner, there’s information on there about ordering if you want to.
My April Promotion
In April, I’m running seven marathons in seven states. So far, I’m through three and three. Since 7 is the number of the month, I’m trying to collect as many $7 pledges as possible. If you haven’t already done so, please check out the update I sent out at the beginning of the month.
That’s All For Today, Folks
I absolutely can’t believe I’m already carb loading again starting today. These weeks are flying by way too fast. See you tomorrow!
Jamie Fellrath says
Getting our kids to talk about when they’re not feeling well is such a struggle – possibly one of the biggest for us. Duncan starts to get outwardly aggressive – hitting and kicking and such – when he gets sore, or even just hungry. We had a situation once where Duncan was hitting, kicking, trying to bite, etc. at school. Jenn got on the phone with him and went through a whole series of questions until finally coming up with “does your head hurt.”
He just had a headache. He went home, slept it off, and was fine after that.
Those are the every day challenges that our kids have to put up with and we have to support.
Ally Phillips says
Yay for Utah Valley! That will be a gorgeous course, I’m sure and that time of year is just perfect in Utah.
Jacob, the autistic boy I taught in Sunday School like weighted things too, we actually ended up getting him a weighted vest and he really liked that.
Good luck with the new doctor, hopefully you will have a better experience.
Love Jack’s hat, obviously 🙂
Ally Phillips says
I wrote a big ol’ long comment, but, don’t know if it submitted….sooo, I’ll just keepy jabberin’ away (as usual).
Yay for Utah Valley Marathon! That course will be gorgeous and that is the perfect time of year in Utah. Also? I want to give that elevation chart a hug. Kind of looks like the perfect 26.2 in my opinion!
Good luck with the new doctor, hopefully you’ll have a better experience. Jacob, the little boy who I taught in Sunday School liked weighted blankets too so we eventually got him a weighted vest and he really liked that.
And, I love Jack’s hat, obviously!
Chris Stores says
Speaking of pacers….I think the Missoula Marathon is looking for some. I’m not sure what times they need pace leaders for still, but if you were to volunteer to lead a group in, say, the 3:30-3:40 range, I might volunteer to be your assistant pacer. I’ll be in the thick of ultra training by then, so I’m not looking to set the world on fire in Missoula, just trying to get in a nice long run.
Steve Poling says
Great April promotion – $7 done!
Jenn Fellrath says
Just an FYI I became the Columbus Autism & Parenting Examiner and in the last article I mentioned OJ : http://www.examiner.com/x-43893-Columbus-Autism–Parenting-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Help-spread-the-word-about-Autism-in-April?cid=examiner-email
sarah loy says
Hey
have you guys ever tried using Mayer Jonson pictograms? You can google image them and print them out- They have been really helpful with a bunch of kids on the spectrum I’ve worked with- especially in expressing emotions and just communication in general.
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