I have an awesome wife and she has some really awesome friends. This past week 500 cookies were baked and decorated just so we could sell them all for charity. We had planned this event over a month ago with some other really incredible people: Bill & Patti Skvarla of Harmony Hill Winery and Anna Beljin, a blooming young musician with a bright future. The turnout was great and the people showing up (whether regulars or one timers) were equally great.

Throughout the evening we sold more than half of the cookies and raised just over $500 to go towards autism research. We met some new friends and talked about running, autism, and families with autism and how they connect with others in a similar position. My running partner Tim and I will be splitting the proceeds from this event to go towards out OAR funds for the Chicago Marathon, and this evening’s bake sale puts me well above my initial goal of $500! I am humbled, honored and truly thankful for everyone who came out in support of this cause. Thank you all very much!

The autism spectrum is a funny thing. Those who are on it can vary from low functioning, barely able to communicate, to high functioning and able to communicate well, but having serious social problems. This evening was an eye opener for my wife and I. Our gracious host, Bill, has made a nice connection with our son Noah. Noah doesn’t always communicate the best, but he surprises us from time to time. This evening he asked, “Mr. Bill, would you like a piece of our pizza? It’s really good!” He doesn’t always speak to people outside of the usual circle, so when things like this happen we get a little excited. Each day we learn something and find new ways of connecting Noah with his future, socialization with everyday people. Some interactions are better than others, but tonight was a success. Mr. Bill, thanks for allowing us to invade your wonderful winery and building an uncommon bond with our autistic son, Noah. Tina and I, as well as Noah, truly appreciate your hospitality and your willingness to be open to even such as us.

Training Run (7/21/2010)

The Agony of da’Feet

Yesterday was pretty nice. An late afternoon storm rolled through and brought the temperature down a notch, but left the humidity in place and slightly rising, but it was comfortable enough to get in a six mile run. Right from the start things were going well, pace was nice, around 9 minutes per mile and there was a wonderful rainbow for me to look at from the start through about mile 3. I slowed my pace down to 9:20/mile and settled down for the remaining three miles.

I had made a turn into the Bethel Cemetery right after hitting mile four, still holding a good pace. Breathing was even and unlabored in spite of the humidity and the legs were holding up nicely. But just before exiting the cemetery around mile 4.5 the left foot started to give me to serious stabbing pains. I stopped at the exit and stretched the foot for about 30 seconds and carried on for about another half mile. The pain wouldn’t go away and continued to get worse. Plantar faciitis had me in it’s nasty grips once again during a run.

Training Run (7/17/2010)

There are times when you have to ask yourself, is it worth injury to go out there and get the miles in? That's just what I thought this morning as it poured rain with a nice mixture of lightning and thunder; go get the miles in and risk getting struck but a huge electric bolt, or stay indoor until it passes - or skip today altogether. I opted to see if it would pass quickly and try to get the Sony laptop working again, and the rain passed. The picture here is of the route I ran this morning.

By 8:20 this morning I was dressed and ready to hit the road. I was well hydrated, partially stretched and mentally ready for a 10 mile run through the streets of Bethel. The temperature wasn't too bad, but the humidity was, and the further I ran the more the heat and humidity became a factor. I started with a decent 9:20 pace for the first six to seven miles, but by then the sun was starting to break through the clouds, this was the beginning of the end. By mile 8 I was running considerably slower than I had started, but still not too bad. It was here that I ran out of water as well. Mile 9 came and passed and I decided to walk about a quarter of a mile before running back to the house. I finished at 9.81 miles with a 9:46/mile pace and felt pretty good despite having lost nearly all liquid in my body to sweat.

Normally when I run in the mornings I don't see a lot of traffic or people out and about, but today was different. This weekend is the bi-monthly Bethel Village wide yard sale, and the people were out en mass this morning. This higher than usual concentration of cars, bikes and walkers made the trek a little slower, but at least there were a lot of people to wave to!

Donation update: With October approaching steadily (at the usual pace), my attempts to raise funds for autism research are finally starting to pay dividends. A big thanks go out to my first three supporters who have donated $70 dollars so far. This weekend I am taking aluminum can donations that I will be taking to the recycling plant next weekend. This coming Friday will be the first public fund raiser at Harmony Hill Winery between 5 - 9 pm. I really appreciate every penny that is donated to this great cause and hope the donations continue to come in. Thanks for your wonderful support of Runner With a Reason!

Fundraising Events

Today at work I heard a commercial about golfers, a statistics thing about how many people play and how many of those are actually professional golfers. What caught my attention was the end which said that even though they are well-paid professional athletes, even they have the same chance of having an autistic child as everyone else, 1 out of 110.

1 out of every 110 children born today are born with some form of autism, and 1 out of every 70 boys. I know this too well as my youngest son, Noah, is on the autism spectrum. While Noah is on the high functioning side of the spectrum, we still have our days where he is close to being non-verbal, and displays many classic autistic characteristics. It is for this reason that I am a part of the Run for Autism team and the Organization for Autism Research. My personal goal is to raise $500 for autism research before the Chicago Marathon. My hope is that I can raise over $1000 before November 10th.

Next Friday, July 23rd, will be the first public fund raising event for myself and for one of my running partners, Tim. We, in conjunction with Momma's Wooden Spoon and Harmony Hill Vineyards & Winery, are having a bake sale. Momma has some wicked good sugar cookies that she will be peddling at the winery. These cookies not only look cool, but taste really good too! If you know someone with autism and want to help fund research but don't have the means to donate hundreds or thousands of dollars, here's your chance. The cookies are $2.00 each, and in my own opinion, are worth it.

The winery is open Friday from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

Cross Training

At some point in my training I thought it would be a good idea to add a few extra elements to help in my quest to run a marathon. I've always liked swimming, but never took it serious. Now I think of my time in water as meters/yards/miles traveled just as I would if I were running. I am slowly working my way up to greater distances in the pool, and each week it gets a little better. Two weeks ago I got in 200 meters immediately after spending 35 minutes lifting weights. Last week I made it through 500 meters, and today I got 600 meters in 19 minutes, 30 seconds. I know, when you look at Olympic records my time is nowhere near what those people swim, but for me it is an accomplishment. With any luck next week I will try to get to the 800 meter mark (1/2 mile for those unable to convert metric). My hope is that by the end of summer I will be able to swim a full mile (1600 meters), and that this extra training will vastly improve my running.

Like the swimming I have gotten back into lifting weights. Both of these add up to one thing, cross training. Endurance will be the one of the keys to me successfully completing the Chicago Marathon in October, but strength and a good tolerance for lactic acid buildup will also be to my advantage. This is where all of this comes into play. When I went to the gym (years ago as a Marine), I went to get bigger and stronger. I had a partner and we had our goals. I still have some of my notebooks and often wonder, "did I really lift that much in one session?" Now, things are different. I am not lifting to gain mass or excessive strength, but to add to my endurance. By lifting lesser amounts with higher reps and more sets I am building up my tolerance for lactic acid, that nasty substance that muscles produce when they start to get over worked. My hope is that this, like the swimming, will be just what I need to get me through those last few miles.

26.2 miles is a long way to run, double the distance of anything I've run to date. As I continue on with my training and fund raising events, don't forget to give me a pat on the back once in a while. If you see me resting, let me rest. If you see me running, tell me to push harder. If you happen to catch me in the gym, tell me to do one more set. If I'm in the pool, tell me to add another lap. I'm going to need all the help I can get between now and October 10th.

Training Run (7/10/2010)

Managed to crawl out of bed just after 6 a.m. and got myself ready to take on the road. I was more than a little hesitant when I looked at the weather, only to find that the humidity had actually reached 100%! I don’t think I’ve seen that since I was in Po’hang, South Korea back in the 1990’s. Needless to say it felt oppressive when I left the comfort of the air conditioned house. Got the music and iMapMyRun app going on the iPhone and took off and a pretty slow pace. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to go too fast because of the humidity and the fact that I have decided to break out the Camel Back hydration system again (the shoulder/chest straps constrict my breathing). This run would be the longest since running the Flying Pig half marathon in May, short of that run by 4 miles.

After getting into a decent rhythm I settled down and kept a nice 9:40 - 9:50 pace for most of the nine miles, taking short walk/water breaks about every 2 miles after the first four. I would occasionally pick up the pace a bit, but not so much as to make breathing any more difficult. I knew I would be pretty close to the 9 mile mark when I got home when I hit mile 8, but I didn’t know if I would have to make up any distance after I hit the driveway. I pulled the armpocket off about two houses before mine only to find that I was at 8.99 miles, and so I walked the last 0.01. I was pretty happy to have gotten in all of the mileage in one giant loop, starting and stopping at the end of the driveway.

The 1 hour, 29 minute run took me west of Bethel, down Burke & Macedonia roads, back into town where I went around most of the walking track, over to the cemetery and back towards the house. Overall I had a 9:53/mile pace and felt tired, but not exhausted when I was done. Glad to have gotten in a long run.

July, August & September are looking to be big mileage months, and all told through the Chicago Marathon I will have run roughly 400 miles from July through October 10th (which is more than the distance from my house to Chicago).

Fireworks & Fishing

The 4th of July weekend is now at it’s close, and a busy one it was! Family function at the parents’ house Saturday followed by a lazy Sunday spent cleaning up after said family function. The question then became, where do we go to see fireworks? By the time a decision was made it was nearly 8 o’clock, but we still had about two hours before most places started their sky display. Kings Island was going to stay open until midnight and have a nice fireworks show at ten, so we drove north to get in some rides and a show. As we waited in line for the Monster the display started, and it continued until we were done with the ride (about 25 minutes in all). It was a nice show and worth the short drive.


Monday was my “holiday” day from work, and it was spent taking all four kids, plus my dad, on a little fishing expedition to a friend’s farm pond. I don’t know how often the pond gets people action, but the fish sure were biting, even in spite of the hot sun and rising temperatures. One minor problem, the autistic son of mine wasn’t catching anything. Sure, fish would bite at his hook, but they would only strip the bait and leave him more frustrated with each cast. After Jake had caught his fourth fish he decided he had had enough and relaxed in the van while everyone else walked around attempting to catch fish. I experienced mild success and nailed a nice 15 inch large mouth bass and some really big bluegills. Even Annika caught a fish! Noah was still fishless by the end of the first hour so I pulled him aside as a meltdown was in the making. I had been watching this little patch of moss swirl for a while and we cast his pole right at it. Almost as soon as the bait hit the water the bobber disappeared. Noah was in a heated battle with his first fish! Even I was surprised when he got it to the bank. As he drug it through some moss I could see it was a decent fish, and a small mouth bass at that. An autism meltdown avoided, a fish caught, and the day was a huge success. While it wasn’t a keeper, his 10 inch bass was the highlight of the day and well worth every ounce it weighed. He carried it to the other side of the pond to show Papaw, and then promptly returned the fish to the pond.

It was a long weekend, but a good weekend nonetheless.

Training Update

Yesterday I put in a couple of miles at work mowing grass (yet again), and after work I headed the YMCA to meet up with the family. Noah had a friend spending the day with him, and it was nice for them to have some time swimming in the pool together. Before getting into the water myself I headed to the weight room to get some iron time in. I did a really quick circuit hitting most of the major muscle areas and pretty much wore myself out in a short time period. Not thinking too much I left and went directly to the pool for some laps. I thought about getting in 400m, but that wasn’t going to happen. Tina and the kids were about done and getting hungry, so I cut short, rather, in half what I wanted to swim. It was good because after 200m I was pretty spent (seeing as how I had just done a lot of lifting I was tired before I started the laps).

Woke up early this morning and decided that, at 55 degrees and 70% humidity, I should get my butt out the door running. A little cool to start, but I quickly got warmed up. My left foot was a bit tender to start and kept me slow at first. After about the first mile the pain started to subside and I was running at about 90%. Felt really good and even got a couple of 100 yard sprints in during the run. Ran the longest I’ve run since the Flying Pig Half in May and finished with 6.9 miles with a 9:16/mile pace. Not too bad!

Hoping the healing continues on the current track and if it does I should be back to 100% within a couple more weeks. May make a trip to the Good Feet Store to try some of their inserts to see it if helps on these longer runs. In addition to everything else I have decided I want to try the 100 push up challenge - and I challenge everyone else to try it as well. I will be doing my initial test this coming week and will keep everyone abreast of how that’s going as well. If you’d like to join me go to: http://hundredpushups.com/index.html