Bourbon Feet: Operation Jack 2011

Last year I had the privilege to witness an amazing event. Sam Felsenfeld had ran 60 marathon's that year raising awareness and collecting donations for Autism research. His final race of the year was to be held in Manhattan Beach (my home town). This was one event I didn't want to miss but alas an injury made that out of the question. I was however able to take in the event on My bicycle and watch my fried Christian Burke win the Marathon.

and then watch Sam cross the finishline push his Autistic son Jack through the finishline.

(a memory I won't soon forget)

Well about a month or 2 ago I found out the Operation Jack Marathon would return to Manhattan Beach

"Sweet!"

My buddy Jake Rome was getting things organized.

Everything was looking good until 2 weeks before the event. On my last day In Austin about 2 hours before leaving back home fellow Lunatic Dylan challenged me to a sprint to the car.

I was unprepared and didn't really want to do it but he kept egging me on. Eventually I gave in and on my fourth step i hit uneven ground and totally messed up my right foot.

(bummer)

To make matters worse I was supposed t o be raising money for the event and at this point I could not commit to running in it and it felt wrong to ask for donations and then cop out.

For the past two weeks I have only ran about 40 miles and nearly all of them were slow and most of them painful. It might be a broken bone or a stained tendon I really don't know?

3 days before X-mas I didn't think I would be participating.

2 days before X-mas I decided to try running a few fast miles at the track in my Luna's and see how I felt. well I made it through 2 sub six miles and felt horrible and quit.

The next day I tried wearing shoes running on the strand thinking maybe that would help.

It felt even worse!

Late X-mas eve I called up Jake and asked if I could switch to the 1/2 marathon instead. I really wanted to participate and maybe I could stumble my way to the finish if it were only 13 miles away instead of 26.

I had a great X-mas with the family and got sleep before midnight.

My car at 6 a.m. had a nice glazing of Ice on the windshield.
(that's a first)

I drove over to mom's house jumped on my bike and headed down to the beach where the the race was to be held. At this point I wasn't that optimistic about how my body would preform. The bike ride to the beach was all most all down hill felt taxing (what a wimp) I had been nursing a cold for a few days and felt pretty weak. As I neared the beach heading down Roscrans past Highland runners were starting to congregate. Their was a good vibe in the air and my spirits began to rise.

#1 bib.

I quickly ran into my buddy Jake Rome. Every week or so I'll bump into the dude on the sand and we run a few miles together. Jake does a lot of hard work for the community through his organization C.O.R.E. and I am thankful to have him as a friend. He surprised me with the #1 bib.

Another day in Paradise Summer is right around the corner
My normal stomping grounds lay right below the bike path that we would be racing on.

Watching the crowd assemble I saw a dude wearing Leadville 100 sweatshirt and a bunch of people wearing shirts from the Ridgecrest 50k I had done earlier in the month.

Over 300 people showed up but very few from my hometown. It would be up to me to represent Manhattan Beach.

I did run into a few friends from San Diego, the beautiful sisters Vanessa and Eli.

At the starting line there was I nice mix of people including two barefooters. One of the dudes commented when he saw my Luna's "Maybe next year you can run it barefoot." this fired me up a bit.

Photo by Surf Daddy Photography

I lined up next to Ultra Super Stud Dave James. When I last raced against the dude It was 2 years ago at the 2009 Javelina Jundred at that event he went on to shatter the course record running 100 miles in 14 hours and 20 mins. He is more of trail runner and his goal was to run a sub 2:45 to qualify for the New York marathon which his wife had done 2 weeks prior.

I would have loved to race against him on this day but I wasn't sure if I could even run 5 miles and 26 seemed to be a much dumber decision than 13.

My game plan was pretty simple go out a sub six minute pace and try to keep it the whole way.

Out of the gates Dave James and I took off flying at just over a 5 minute pace. Both of us were battling colds and I was leaving a trail of snot in my wake (sorry to everyone behind me). We were going a little too fast and trying to have a conversation at the same time. (not very smart). My ego didn't want to let him take the lead (especially since he was going to run twice as far)

Photo by Surf Daddy Photography
I kept my foot on the throttle and after about .75 of a mile he dropped back and I had the bike path to myself (well myself and and the bike pacer who turne out to be some dude I met while racing the Long Beach Marathon a few months ago).

Photo by Surf Daddy Photography

I settled into about 5:45 minute mile waiting for the pain in my foot to erupt. The last two weeks were pretty miserable but today I felt alright. through the first 4 miles I was fine. At this point I knew that even if things took a turn for the worse I would be able to finish the race.

After about 4.5 miles the course hits Marina Del Ray after a crossing a small bridge the course heads inland along Balona Creek for 2 miles until the turn around aid station.

Fatigue was settling in, a combination of being sick, and my injury which kept me from proper training. My Pace dropped to just above a 6 minute's. As I started the return trip I would find out how big my lead was. I expected Dave to be right on my ass but there was another guy who I gauged to be around 1 minute behind me. followed by Dave another minute or so behind him. Also to my surprise the barefoot dude was only about 4 or 5 minutes back. As I passed him I said with a smart ass grin

"Maybe next year you can run in sandals?"

1 minute is not a very big lead with over 6 miles to go. I wouldn't say I was hauling ass by any stretch of the word but I was hanging on. My pace was still close to a 6 mins and if the dude behind me was gonna catch up he would have to run his butt off. The whole way back we would be running into a head wind and If I could keep this pace I'd be happy.

With 4 miles to go I caught a glimpse of him over my shoulder still about a minute back. This was a good sign but I wasn't out of the woods yet. What about my damn foot injury? The pain which I expected to come early was maybe 25% what I expected and still had a good chance of spoiling my race.

2 miles to go I had held aconsistant pace and had just climbed the only hill on the course. One final look back and I knew this was my race to win.

It wasn't my fastest finish and it wasn't the toughest course but under the circumstances I was pleased with the result. 1 hour and 18 minutes 39 seconds after I had started I was done with the race and had finished in first place.

What excited me even more is that my foot did not feel broken.

About 10 seconds after crossing the line I got interviewed by the

Abc Eye Witness News

(for some reason the embedded feature for this video I couldn't get to work)

The camera guy remembered me from the Hermosa 24 when he shot this video below

That was a good day too.

A few minutes after I was done the Barefoot guy strolled in. I congratulated the dude and posed for this picture with him.

Other finishers include this 9 year old kid who ran an amazing 1:37. He was crying at the finish line because it was not fast enough for his dad's approval. Poor little guy. I'm proud of you! and as for for your father "What a jerk!"

My legs felt pretty damn good and now it was time for me to head out on my bike and cheer the runners still racing. If I had known I would feel this good afterwards I would ran the marathon but I'm proud of the choice I made.

Hello Chica!

How can you not love a a barefoot girl in a kilt,

Nice Sketchers Shacky

This dude was tough here's his Race report

This lady was roller blading bundled up from head to toe carrying an umbrella? I respect her style and she was stoked when I told her my opinion :)

Hello Sam.

Sam has been pretty busy and not been able to get the training in he would like. I caught up with him for a few minutes and had a nice conversation with one of my hero's.

By the time I got Balona Creek I ran into Dave he was in first place by a few 100 yards. I cheered him on and he was nice enough to ask how my foot was doing. What a cool dude.

"Go Dave."

At the half way aid station I ran into Mr Burke the 2010 champ who was in town from Spain. After shooting the shit for a few minutes he asked for a ride back to his car on my handle bars?

If it were 1987 and I was still 8 years old this would be kick ass bike but it isn't 80's anymore and I'm over 5ft tall and my bike is a POS.

Lucky for me Christian is only about 4 ft tall Unfortunately I'm not much stronger than the 8 year old my bike was made for. ;(

We had a good time none the less.

Riding my bike gave me a second chance to thank all the volunteers and now I shall thank them again. Thank you to everyone who helped out. You did good thing and it was nice to see so many smiles.

"Barefoot Alfredo"

(at least that's what his shirt said)

It turns out the 1/2 marathon was enough for Shacky and Vanessa. They are running in the Across The Years 24 hour race out in AZ this New Years Eve and felt they needed to save their legs.

(That sounds like fun?)

That little dude on their backpacks looks strangely familiar?

Can you say copyright infringement.

Sam was catching up to me quickly and I wanted to see him cross the line so I took off and arrived in the nick of time

Congrats Sam!

When I got back I found found out that Dave had won the race in 2:48 a little slower than he wanted but a solid finish none the less.

Congrats Dave!

Thank you for letting me a part of your race. The Operation Jack marathon raised over $40,000. If you would like to help contribute please DONATE HERE. or click the link on the top right corner of my blog.

One man can make a difference! Sam's love and devotion to his family is truly inspiring. He is living proof of what the human spirit can accomplish if someone has a positive attitude and a worthy cause. Thank you Sam what you are doing is making a difference to make the world a better place!

Operation Jack In the News Patch.com

(they called me a powerhouse lol)

Article from the Beach Reporter

My full gallery from the days event

Once again my Luna Sandals preformed admirably and I even scored a one of kind trophy.

Check out what it does.

Amazing!

Next Up.

After the race I headed down to the Pachanga casino. To go meet up with some family. I am not a gambler but figured i sign up for one of there club cards. To make a long story short I entered the casino with $8 in my sponge bob wallet (I wasn't there to lose) and left with over $500. Well because of this turn of events I decided to treat myself to a little adventure.