Thank you to those considering supporting Dougie's Team by sponsoring a mile. If you have a particular mile you want to sponsor let me know and I will share with you how that mile went after the race. On behalf of my kids I am sponsoring six miles - one mile each.
Why I run - I started running while traveling for work. I used to travel up to 60%, so running became my default exercise. Originally, I hated running, and decided I needed a goal. So I signed up for my first marathon. No 10K, no half. Just jumped right in. Now I actually enjoy running. It clears my head and gives me a chance to listen to a lot of audiobooks.
Since my first marathon in 2015, five of our six children have been diognosed on the specturm. Having a chance to work with Dougie's Team for Autism carries a ton of importance for me personally. Raising Autistic children brings a lot of joy and frustrations. We have been incredibly blessed with the support we have for our children, and I am glad to have the chance to raise money for those that need additional support and to raise awareness for what it means to be a child with Autism and the parent of an Autistic child. Though I heard it from a different source, my favorite quote about Autism is attributed to Dr. Steven Shore: “When you meet one person with Autism, you’ve met one person with Autism.” There really is no one-size-fits-all conception for who an Autistic person is, and I hope to bring a little more awareness to what Autism is to those around me.
FAQs:
Family
- Six kids! Yes, we have six kids. My older three I adopted in 2013. They are my wife's children from a previous marriage. We went on to have three children together, being blessed with twins on our last round.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder. Each of our kids have a different diagnosis, and are very different kids (that's why they call it a spectrum). Originally we had diagnoses of Asperger’s and PDD-NOS for our older kids. After publication of the DSM-S, Aspergers and PDD-NOS fell under the Autism Spectrum Diagnosis and are all now known as Austims Spectrum Disorder [ASD]. In addition to ASD, we mix in diagnoses of Anxiety, ADHD, Dysgraphia, etc. Our kids are all very verbal, active in sports and activities, and generally doing well in school. They excel in math, science, art and music, and in general they struggle with social cues, fine motor skills, hygiene (especially stinky teenagers, but that might be normal), fixating on certain topics, and each have their own separate challenges as well.
- We live in Idaho where my family settled in 1882, but as a family we have also moved for work a few times. We were based in Connecticut for a while and just outside of Orlando, Florida (easy Disney World access was great), and moved back to Idaho in 2017.
- Our oldest two daughters are in college, our oldest son is in high school, and our three youngest are in elementary school - third grade and two first graders.
- Our twins are boy/girl, so not identical. And they have different birthdays. Our son was born six minutes before midnight and our daughter eight minutes after. So while only being born fourteen minutes apart, they each get their own birthday.
- Disney trips without the kids? Yes, my wife and I enjoy Disney as adults with and without our kids. I often have work trips in either Orlando or Anaheim. If it doesn’t work to make it a family trip my wife usually meets me for a long weekend where we get to enjoy our time together (we also go other places). Thank you to grandma for being willing to watch our kids!
Running
- This will be my third marathon. I am hoping to set a new personal record of under 4 hours. To do this I need to run each mile on average in under 9 minutes and 9 second for 26.2 miles.
- My official training schedule is sixteen weeks long and starts on September 20th. I will be running four times a week, starting with a weekly total of 15 miles and building up to a total of 38 miles.
- My longest training run will be 20 miles, and given it will be in winter in North Idaho, it will likely be on a treadmill (ugh). Unfortunately this will not be my first 20 mile run on a treadmill.
- In total I plan to run 394 training miles getting ready for a 26.2 miles race.
- I have done roughly 40 runDisney races since my first marathon in 2015, mostly in person with some virtual. It is a great way for me to have the challenge of a run and my family to get a trip after all of my hours training.
- I have in the back of my mind I might try running all of the runDisney events in 2024. This includes four run weekends in Florida (each with three or four runs), one in Paris (three runs), one in the Bahamas (one run) and four virtual runs. In total, that will be 156.8 miles of racing, needing just over 1100 miles of training. But…it was just announced runDisney might be returning to Disneyland that year, which could add runs to this list. More to come.
Crazy Disney and travel facts about Doug:
- As a life-long Disney fan, I love the movies and I love the parks. To this point I have been to 10 of the 12 Disney parks in the world: Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studio Park Paris.
- In total I have been to the parks at Disneyland 49 separate times and to the parks at Walt Disney World 26 times, not counting when we lived in Orlando.
- I also go other places. Three days before my 27th birthday I finished my goal of visiting all 50 US states and have been to 23 countries on 5 continents so far.
- Hard Rock Cafes are a must if there is one where I travel. So far I have been to 74 Hard Rock Cafes worldwide.