In 2010, Operation Jack founder and dailymiler Sam F. completed 61 full marathons — yes, that’s sixty-one — raising money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. He also tossed in a couple of ultras for good measure…and just keeps on going. In an upcoming post, we’ll share more about the work of his organization; but, today we wanted to celebrate the heart and spirit that fuels all of that charitable effort.
Ilona Meagher: How and when did you first become a runner?
Sam Felsenfeld: I cheated on the mile in PE in high school! I HATED running and couldn’t understand why anybody would willingly run! I started walking in November 2004 and that gradually turned into jogging (3.4 miles in 40 minutes, four times a week) and that eventually turned into a dare to run my first half marathon.
From there, the rest is history.
IM: What does your typical weekly training program look like?
SF: When I’m training for a goal race, which is not very often, I’ll follow the 12/70+ from the book Advanced Marathoning. I’ve also done the 18/70+. If I’m not training, it just depends on my mood. Sometimes I like a lot of slow miles. When I get into a groove, I like to run 15 on weekdays and 28-30 on Saturday morning. Right now, I think I’m going to work on my speed and really buckle down for a 5K or 10K in December. I’ve never focused on speed, so I think this could be a way to push myself to a new level.
As for being prepared to run 61 marathons last year, I used to average 90+ miles per week with a long run of at least marathon distance on the weekends. I’d miss here and there, but I knew with that training that it was reasonable to make my attempt. The main difference is that I was going all-out every time. In training, I’d hit 26.2 in the high 3:30s, but my median time last year was 3:21. I broke down, but it was still all-out every time. One of the things I was pretty proud of was getting a BQ with a 3:14 in my 60th marathon last year. To me, that was my proof that I laid it all on the line every time.
I don’t like my running to interfere with my family, so I’m a morning runner. During this summer, it’s been tricky because I’ve had to accommodate my wife’s workout schedule, so sometimes I hit the gym for 6-8 miles on the treadmill afterwork, but I’m primarily a morning runner, with some lunchtime runs at the gym mixed in.
IM: We just started a new series, Destination: Run, here at dailymile. You’re fortunate to live in California, where the weather and scenery must make it easy to get out and move. What are your favorite places to run?
SF: I really just stay local, because I don’t have a lot of time. Driving somewhere eats into my mileage time. Every run starts and ends at my front door. I take slightly different routes based on distance and mood, but for the most part, it’s all just suburbia. Foothill Ranch, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. I enjoy where I run because it’s calm and quiet, there’s a long distance between stoplights, it’s safe, and the hills give me a good workout. They’re unavoidable.
IM: You traveled a lot doing your marathons last year. Any favorite spots?
SF: Just from a scenery perspective, I really liked Anchorage, Charlottesville (Va.), Missoula and Catalina. I really like the peace and quiet out there. But it was also fun to see various cities and the culture within. Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco come to mind. I was also very surprised by the new course in Los Angeles, which I ran this year (but not last year). My favorite is Boston, though. I just love everything about that race from the moment I get off the plane until the moment I head home.
IM: What goes through your mind when you’re out logging those long training runs?
SF: When I’m running, it’s just my quiet time where I think about everything. That’s really my only time where there’s no background noise and I love it. I’ll run down my day, I’ll think about my family, I think about my friends, I spend some time praying … I just love it. I can really tell a difference in the rest of my day when I don’t get my quiet time. Actually, I listen to music on the treadmill. If I’m doing something fast, I’ll listen to upbeat music to fire me up. I mix everything on my playlist — country, rap, pop, you name it. For recovery runs, I usually just put my iPod on shuffle and listen to mainly country and oldies.
IM: Last month made it two years since you officially got the Operation Jack ball rolling. You shared the intensity of taking that leap of faith in your very first blog post. You understood from the get-go that your life was going to change. Your body was going to be tested. Your time and energy, tapped and drained. Your family would have to make sacrifices, too. What surprises were in store for you that you didn’t expect once you began?
SF: Well, it was a lot harder to rally people than I thought it would be. I thought it would be easy to just round up 20 people in every city and raise $5,000 at every race. I have no idea what I was thinking! It was difficult to get people to follow and it was hard to raise money. I hate asking people for money, so I always tried to give some value back. Maybe by selling shirts or having contests with prizes or even putting on races. I never sent out emails asking for donations. That’s just not me. Actually, I guess one time I did. I put on a campaign in April last year. I was running seven marathons in seven states that month, so I figured I could ask for $7 donations and that would be something easy people would do and not think twice about. I got about 20 people to donate, which is less than I’d hoped for, but it was $140 that wouldn’t have been raised.
The logistics and travel were a lot harder than I thought they’d be. I booked all my own travel and didn’t realize how much of an undertaking that would be. There were a lot of factors that went into every trip and there are three airports I can fly out of. So there was a lot of searching, planning and comparing to do.
Also, getting media attention tended to be difficult at times. I thought what I was doing would be an easy feel-good story to pitch, but it wasn’t always easy. I got a fair amount of interviews with newspapers and TV stations, but I got denied a fair amount, too. I ended up in Runners World, which was cool. But I didn’t get as much press as I thought I could. It was so time consuming, though. Beyond working full-time, doing things with my family, writing 4-5 blogs a week, traveling, training, running 61 marathons, booking all my travel and handling a ridiculous increase in my email, I tried to do my own PR, too. That was tough.
Physically, I knew it would be tough and I would get banged up a bit. There’s really no way to run all-out 61 times and not get some niggles. But I thought my fitness would improve over the course of the year, that I’d always be at 90%, but with 26.2-mile tempo runs every week, 90% of what I had would improve. Well, I broke down and had dead legs the second half of the year. I was disappointed in my times, because I was a 3:07 runner whose legs would only turn 3:17s on a good day. The physical issues were part of the deal, but mentally, that was tough to deal with.
Lastly, it was pretty difficult on the family. It was a family decision to do this, because I knew it would be such a drain on us for a year. But when I told my wife about it, she told me to do it, without any hesitation. “Don’t not do it and always wonder what if,” she said. So we did it. She had to work really hard to support me, because I was beyond busy. It was tough on us. But that makes this year seem that much better.
IM: Last weekend, you challenged yourself in an entirely new way by racing in the San Francisco Marathon as a charity chaser (where you started dead last and earn money for each person you pass). How did you come up with the idea?
SF: I was planning on doing something to raise money for cancer charities this year in memory of a friend of mine who died in January, but San Francisco wasn’t on my radar. They asked me to come run the race again, and I told them only if I could figure out a way to make it a good fundraiser. Unfortunately, I set the bar high last year, and it’s tough for me to raise money with just one marathon. A friend of mine, Dane Rauschenberg, has done something in the past that he calls “Charity Chaser,” where he starts dead last and collects pledges for each person he passes. He ran 52 marathons in 2006, so we understand what the other one has been through. I threw that idea out to the the race, because I figured that would work, but they said Dane was already the Charity Chaser. They offered to have dual Charity Chasers, and I talked to Dane about it and we were both good with the idea. So, I made that the cancer fundraiser I wanted to do.
IM: Reading your race report, it sounds like you feel as though you didn’t fully reach your goals in SFO. The pressure of racing for something bigger than yourself must be enormous. How do you deal with that?
SF: I didn’t run as fast as I wanted to, and I don’t think I passed as many people as I wanted to (I’m not sure of the numbers yet), but it’s been pretty tough for me emotionally this week. I wanted to do so well, and I didn’t want to let my friend down, and I wanted to raise a ton of money. I’ve gotten a lot of nice feedback, and I physically wrecked myself as bad as I have for any marathon I’ve ever run, but it’s been really tough on me that I didn’t pass as many people as I thought I would. I try not to think about it, because it puts me on the verge of tears. Part of my problem is that I put high expectations on myself. I wanted so much out of this. But it was extremely difficult passing, especially in a lot of the bottleneck situations. It was a very demanding race, much more so than just running full speed without anything in your way, which is how marathons normally are for me.
As for go-to or inspiration, during training runs I’ll think about who or what I’m running for and that will drive me. At the end of each run, I say a prayer and thank God for giving me the ability for something so simple as going out and enjoying a run through his kingdom, because I should have been a quadriplegic back in 1991, so even the bad runs are a good thing. During a race, though, for the most part I’m very focused on managing my body so I can get to the finish line as fast as possible. On Sunday in San Francisco, I was thinking about my friend, how that was the race I’d been building up for. When I knew the day wasn’t going my way, I would just look up in the sky ahead and apologize to her for not having it. I felt terrible. I wanted to cry in the middle of the race. I told her that I would keep using my running to fight cancer for her, that I didn’t get enough done that day. And I will. I’m not done.
IM: You go out of your way to recognize your wife, Tiffany, for playing a large role in your successes. It sounds like you’re a great team. How does she support your work? Is she a runner or athlete, too?
SF: I always say we’re like a NASCAR team. I’m the driver of the car, so I get the attention. But there’s no way I could do it without my pit crew. There’s nothing specific that she does, it’s just that there’s a set amount of work that needs to be done to keep our family rolling and it gets done. When I couldn’t do enough last year, she did more. She’s very supportive and there’s absolutely no way I could have done it without her. She really worked hard last year, and she continues to do so. I was only gone for about 36 hours at a time, but we have three young kids, including one who is severely autistic. She’s incredible. I’m really proud of her and really glad she’s my wife and the mother of my children.
She’s physically fit, but isn’t a runner like me. She runs 3-6 miles for fitness and does weights and weight classes at the gym. She’s just starting to get back into running, and actually just signed up here at Dailymile. She’s planning on training for the LA Marathon next March. She ran Long Beach in 2009 (her only marathon so far), but got injured 17 miles in and had to finish up by walking the final eight miles. Her 3:40 dreams ended up as a 4:22.
IM: You’re the father of three young kids. What do they say about your training? How has your leading such an active lifestyle translated to how they approach physical activity? Do they run or play any sports?
SF: I try to keep my training early in the morning so they don’t notice it too much. My two typical kids think my wife works out more than me, which makes me happy. They were really excited and proud about Operation Jack. My 10-year-old son has told me that he wants to run a marathon someday. At this point, he’s been raised around the racing scene, so I’m glad that he thinks about a healthy and active lifestyle. He plays soccer and will play basketball this year. He’s not very athletic, but he has fun. He’s the slowest runner on his teams!
My 5-year-old daughter is making her sports debut with soccer this fall. She seems more coordinated than my 10-year-old and looks like she can run. I think she’ll probably be pretty good. Jack, who will be 8 next month, has no clue that I exercise or that I run. He has no clue about any of this.
IM: I see that you just starting coaching an AYSO U6 (5-year-olds) soccer team. How’s this last challenge going so far? Which leads me to ask: What’s easier, training for a marathon or coaching little kids? [wink]
SF: Training for a marathon is more physically demanding, but I’m 1,000x more nervous about coaching this soccer team! I get the roster next week and then it’s going to be time for practice. I’m scared to death, totally petrified! I’m not kidding!
IM: Completing a marathon a week means you must have a lot of energy reserves, and your body is a super recovery machine. What do you attribute that most to?
SF: To be honest, I just give credit to God for that. I have no other explanation. Nobody in my family is remotely athletic and I was always the slowest runner when I was a kid. When I was 16, I broke my neck (pushed head-first into the shallow end of a pool, 3 1/2 feet, and landed on my head). My legs were spared that day, but I didn’t know why. I turned into a drunk and a smoker and gained a lot of weight. In November 2004, when I turned 30, my wife bought me an iPod and suggested I start walking, because I weighed 261 pounds. One thing led to another and despite never running a single mile in my life faster than 8:30 before my 31st birthday, I just ran Boston in 2:57 in April. That’s why I say there’s absolutely no explanation for it, other than it’s a gift from God and I’m just grateful He led me down a path to figure that out. Now, I’m very, very aware that plenty of people are faster than me and plenty of people have more endurance than me. I’m just glad I’ve figured out a way to do some good with what I have.
IM: What advice do you have for anyone wishing to become a charity runner?
SF: Do it! It’s more rewarding than you can imagine. I used to roll my eyes at charity runners, but I enjoy it so much, I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way now. You have to be patient and creative — there’s no road map on how to do it successfully — but it brings a lot of enjoyment. If anybody ever has any questions about charity running, they can always send me a note and I’ll do what I can to help them out. It doesn’t matter what charity it’s for — they’re all great causes.
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