Today marked the 100th day of 2013 as well as the 100th day of #AutismStreaks. I have managed to run at least 1 mile every calendar day since January 1st. My total in those 100 days? 567 miles.
It’s not a mind-blowing amount, but it is a pretty decent chunk of change. To be honest, early on I wasn’t sure I would make it to 500 miles, much less 100 days.
When I completed my run today there was no finish line, there was no medal, there were no cheering crowds – just the knowledge that, along with raising a little money for Autism Speaks, I hopefully managed to spread some awareness and maybe, just maybe, inspire a few people to do their own charity running as well (be it for Autism Speaks or one of the many other charities connected to Charity Miles).
But as I finished my run I couldn’t help but think…
So with 98 days in the books, #AutismStreaks has only 2 days left…
…or does it?
Hmmm…
***
Week 14 brought World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd. On that day the world lit it up blue in support of autism awareness, so I donned the blue ‘fro and ran through town. It was a relatively light week of running…well except for and because of Sunday’s 31-miler – the second longest I have ever covered on foot in a day.
***
Week 14:
April 02 – 5.0 miles 36:04 7:12 pace aHR 141
April 03 – 1.0 miles 9:14
April 04 – 3.0 miles 20:39 6:53 pace aHR 142
April 05 – 5.0 miles 37:09 7:26 aHR 138
April 06 – 1.0 miles 8:46
April 07- 31.0 miles 4:48:07 9:17 pace aHR 128 – #AutismStreaks goes over 550 miles
April 08 – 4.0 miles 41:16 10:19 pace aHR 109
Week 13 Total – 50.0 miles
#AutismStreaks Total – 557.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)
***
If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:
Get the Charity Miles app:
Five lunch time miles about town in the ‘fro on World Autism Awareness Day
So yesterday my buddy JB & I ran 31 miles (or for you metric folk – 50K). It wasn’t a race; it was just a plain old long, slow, distance training run. It was the second farthest I have ever run in my life (the farthest to date being the Vermont 50). Unlike the Vermont 50, there was no walking yesterday, just a relentless push forward with only two brief stops to grab a PB&J and refill the water bottles at our cars at miles 12.5 and 20.5. Our goal had been to finish close to the 5 hour mark. We ended up hitting 31 miles in 4:48:07 for an average overall pace of 9:17 per mile.
So what did we learn from this run? In no particular order:
Slow down – 8:00 miles are too fast.
Slow down some more – so are 8:30 miles.
And then slow down even more – even 9:17’s we averaged are too fast if we’re going to successfully run 100 miles.
LSD is much more enjoyable with a friend – the run, not the drug.
Chatting makes the miles go by quickly
…but there’s nothing wrong with running in silence for a mile here and there.
Windy, twisty, turny paths are mentally a lot easier to deal with than long straight ones that end in a point on the horizon.
If you go downhill, eventually you will have to go uphill
Uphills, no matter how gentle the slope, still hurt after 27 miles
I must practice eating while running – both PB&J’s hit the belly like a lead ball.
Honey water works – as least at the 31 mile distance.
So does pickle juice – not even a hint of a leg cramp yesterday.
My Mophie packs are going to work out great – after 5 hours and 31 miles of tracking, I still had plenty of juice left.
Breaking in shoes works – not a hint of a blister on my feet after all that running.
Not all runners are friendly…
…but most of them are.
My legs are in better shape than I anticipated – they are a little sore today, but nothing like I was prepared to have to deal with.
Salty bananas are delicious after 20 miles of running
Momentum only takes you so far
The hardest part of training over the next 65 days will be forcing myself to run 4 minutes per mile slower than I comfortably run
In the longer distances you don’t need chase people that pass you – in all likelihood, you may see them again at some point.
Body glide or vasoline or some kind of lube is a must – otherwise you will end up with the worst chafing in the worst spots.
Eat more during the run – from the time we finished around 11:30AM, I didn’t stop eating until I got into bed at 9:30PM (I’m actually 5 pounds heavier this morning than I was yesterday before my run).
Walk after running – I’m convinced that part of the reason I am not so sore today is that we walked 3/4 of a mile after hitting 31 miles and then my family and I went to the Children’s Museum as soon as I got home and showered.
Drink more fluid during the run
…and keep drinking afterward – as the afternoon progressed I was hit with a wicked headache. A couple of Advil and a steady stream of liquid refreshment took care of that.
If JB & I are going to run side by side for 20 – 24 hours, we’re gonna have to come up with some intriguing conversation topics
Running at conversational pace is a heck of a lot easier on the body than running faster than that
Running 31 miles in the morning and still having an entire day in front of you is a fantastic feeling
Feeling the way we did during the last few miles made us realize, possibly for the first time, just how big of an undertaking 100 miles really is
…but now I am more determined than ever to cross that finish line and get that belt buckle!
So there you have it. On day 97 of #AutismStreaks I got a 31 miler/50K out of the way and put the streak over 550 miles for the year (553 to be exact). In about a month, we will do a 50-miler (maybe). We’ll see. I hope you got your long run this weekend!
Me and JB – post-31-miler…smiling because we’re done.
Babies make me cry. They really do. They often make Brooke cry because she has an incredibly difficult time tolerating the piercing sounds that come out of those tiny creatures. I know they make some adults cry for the same reason.
But for me, I cry for a very different reason. When I see a baby I can’t help but be brought back in time, nearly 9 1/2 years ago when Brooke was the same age, laying in her crib, sitting in my lap, flopped over in her carseat.
I would look at her in the same way I would look at Katie when she was that age – I would look at her knowing that the possibilities were endless for this beautiful creature that lay before me.
I would play the next 10 to 15 years out in my head; a beautiful fairy tale; sisters who were best friends; soccer games; competitive gymnastics; stage productions; the mayor and future mayor of their school; loads of friends, parties and play dates; straight A students; the talk of the town…
Of course, life threw us a curveball.
…now I watch as gaggles of chatty girls go by; play dates and parties are rare occasions; the soccer games don’t exist and the gymnastics is more for fun; the sisters struggle with each other (though they most definitely love each other)…
***
Truth is, our futures, no matter who you are, rarely turn out the way we imagine they will. Autism, however, didn’t just nudge us on to a different path…it landed us in a completely different dimension of space-time.
We’ve made our way; we’ve found joy, sometimes even in the face of sadness; we’ve managed to relentlessly push forward, even when it feels like we are sliding backward. We struggle, just like so many, but we that is okay.
It is nothing like what I was expecting; I don’t think I even had a conceptual understanding of what lay before me.
I was at the doctors office today picking up a medical clearance form for the older one to play sports on her school team. In the corner of the lobby I saw little boy playing with some plastic dinosaurs. As little ones will do, he had them clomping and chomping around, roaring at each other – he was having a great time. He must’ve been no more than maybe three or four years old. This realization initially made me sigh, a sigh of mild depression. I thought about Brooke, who just now at the age of 10 is starting to do what this boy was doing. She plays with her dolls, they do imaginary play, she goes back and forth. Much of it is based on shows she has seen, but there is definitely adaptation and creation. She has lately been, for lack of a better word, back filling the gaps in her learning. The way she is acquiring skills and knowledge is not linear like the way many of us learned things, but rather she skips and hops and circles back and then does it all over again.
It’s tough to see your ten year old clumsily do what five, four and even three years old kids do with deft ease.
But then I thought of Katie. She is twelve…twelve going on what sometimes feels like forty three. She is flying at her teenage years at the speed of light while simultaneously trying desparately to hold on to her younger years. Thank who or whatever it is in the sky that she still thinks boys are essentially yucky. Both Jess and I can feel her growing more independent, and that is both a wonderful and scary thing (not just for her, but for her mommy and daddy as well). Katie will occasionally act like she would like to be five or six again, but it is always just that, an act. I’m not saying it is disingenuous by any means, but the bottom line is she is twelve and there is no going back from that.
But things are different with Brooke aren’t they? Perhaps her form of autism, perhaps the differences that make her autistic have a silver lining that we (Jess & I) have failed to see in our hurry to see our kids grow up. At some point, all parents realize that time doesn’t stand still. Even with that realization, we don’t fully appreciate it until we wake up one morning to find our children have become young adults. Even if we DO appreciate it, there is nothing we can do to stop the passage of time, the progress of growth, the emergence of maturity.
Perhaps, just maybe, this disordered path in time that Brooke seems to be walking on can be seen as a gift to me and to Jess…an opportunity to really see those moments when imaginative play emerges, to be able to witness the wonder of childhood discovery all over again and then sometimes yet again.
Quite possibly a hidden blessing indeed.
Recently celebrating Stevina’s 10th Birthday with some cake…
Week 13 is in the books – it felt like a very productive week of running, highlighted in part by the news that Mophie would be powering my Charity Miles for Autism Speaks come June – #synergy!
Saturday’s run also brought me to 500 miles for the year – not bad for a guy who had hardly run during the fourth quarter of last year.
I hope you got your runs in!
Luau
Week 13:
March 26 – 7.0 miles 54:49 7:49 pace aHR 130
March 27 – 5.0 miles 34:32 6:54 pace aHR 158
March 28 – 3.0 miles 24:35 8:11 pace aHR 126
March 29 – 18.0 miles 2:36:37 8:42 aHR 127
March 30 – 10.0 miles 1:15:55 7:35 aHR 138
March 31- 1.0 miles 9:04:00 9:04 pace
April 01 – 6.0 miles 52:09 8:41 pace aHR 150
Week 13 Total – 45.0 miles
#AutismStreaks Total – 502.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)
***
If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:
Get the Charity Miles app:
…after 18 miles last Friday morning…the following morning I would hit 500 miles YTD just before sunrise.
Today is World Autism Awareness Day. All around the world, landmarks will be lit up blue (though we’re still waiting on the White House, Mr. President!) and a plethora of autism bloggers will write about the necessity of awareness and funding. Some bloggers and advocates will even say things like “we are passed awareness, everybody knows somebody who is impacted by autism.”
I’ve struggled over what I should write about today – it is such a big subject. This is where my thoughts (and events over the last few days) took me…
***
The Run Luau Run/diary of a mom family has been a big fan of JetBlue Airways for a long time. They just make traveling easy. Early on, as brand new parents, we appreciated the simple additions of television screens, but as our family grew and we were confronted with the challenges we face, we came to love the airline even more. Jess has written a few blog post about them here way back in April 2010 and here from April of last year and here and here from January of this year.
They way they have listened to the Special Needs community and made changes in the way they do things is exactly what anyone hopes a company would do.
Awareness is working – is it the answer to all our issues as a community? Not even close, BUT it is a starting point – a place where education can happen, where understanding can happen, where compassion can happen. None of those thing happen without Awareness.
But it was a phone call and then email I received last Friday from JetBlue that simply blew me away. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you may have already seen this, but I think that it definitely warrants its own blogpost here on Run Luau Run. Friday afternoon I received a phone call from a gentleman from the JetBlue social media department. To be honest, I was in the middle of some stressful stuff and I wasn’t really paying attention at first. I thought he was either trying to sell me something or have me take a survey that I had no time for. Once he clarified who he was, he simply said that he wanted to send an email to Jess and me and wanted us to keep an eye out for it. He didn’t say what it was, but he had a feeling we’d get a kick out of it.
The folks at JetBlue knew that Brooke’s birthday was this past Sunday; they also knew that one of Brooke’s favorite characters is Dora the Explorer – so they put this together:
When I show it to Jess, she cried.
When we showed it to Brooke…well, you tell me whether you think she liked it or not:
To top it all off, the day after her birthday, on the first day of Autism Awareness Month, this arrived in the mail from JetBlue:
which had this inside:
and was filled with all this:
which Brooke happily modeled:
My point is this – raising awareness is working, it is making a difference. Whether it is companies like JetBlue changing the way they do boarding or interact with their passengers or Mophie donating battery packs to help some idiot run 100 miles while using the Charity Miles App or even Katy Perry happily donating 25 blue wigs to a bunch of marathoners, awareness is helping change attitudes toward autistic people.
Today I will wear my Autism pin and just like any other day of the year, talk to whomever is willing to listen about autism – I will gladly talk about insurance coverage, accessibility, adult services, employment, education; I will do whatever it takes to convince people that we need to help make the world better, more accessible, not just for my Brooke, but for autistic people everywhere.
I don’t know if you play the lottery, be it Powerball or Megamillions or both. I don’t play often, but when the numbers get up high enough, I usually can’t resist at least putting a couple of bucks down – you gotta be in it to win it, right? And you just never know.
If you play like I do (or more often for that matter), you may relate to that feeling when you put that ticket in your pocket – can you imagine? wow, what would I do with $100 million? I would… and the list then goes on and on and on. It’s wishful thinking at its very best.
Of course, you never win more than a few dollars and you fantasy of a worry-free life goes “poof” just like any other dream does when you wake up in the morning.
***
Yesterday was Brooke’s 10th birthday. All month, scratch that, all YEAR she as been talking about turning 10; how it’s the biggest one zero, how she’ll be a big kid, how she’ll be double-digits. All that talk lulled me into a “just bought my lottery ticket” state. It’s not that I was thinking or even wishing that she would wake up on her 10th birthday without autism. No, being autistic is part of who Brooke is. The feeling for me was the flickering thought that somehow turning 10 would give Brooke special powers to deal with the difficulties that can come along with autism; that somehow now that she was 10, she would be able to handle and not scream at the sound of her sister’s coughs, that she would be able to easily adjust to eating at a restaurant that wasn’t part of the original plan, that she could refrain from yelling when people asked her to repeat what she said, that she wouldn’t get overwhelmed at the thought of conveying that she had changed her mind about something.
I don’t know why or how I had convinced myself that these things would happen just because my baby was turning 10.
***
I have to remember that Brooke will make her way…it will just be at her own pace, in her own way, in the order that works for her.
If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:Get the Charity Miles app:
Run Luau Run 