Seven team members braved the elements on what had to be one of the toughest days weather-wise of the year. They started in Hopkinton and ran the marathon route, some going up to 20 miles. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) because of my calf injury, I wasn’t with them. Although for the first time ever I did get to see what it’s like to work a water station. Mike, who also missed the run because of a schedule conflict, set up the tent he bought for Patriots tail-gaiting and I’m beginning to think that’s the best investment he’s ever made. We were just past the mile 15 mark for a little over an hour and it poured the entire time. I don’t mind cold, snow, wind, or even rain if it’s above 45 degrees. Running 18 miles in 30-degree driving wind and rain is the worst. Hat’s off to the folks who ran, all of whom looked fantastic when they reached us despite being drenched and cold.

Last weekend the Brothers Keohane training schedule called for an 18 mile run. Rob injured his leg running 2 days before. Did that stop him? Nope. Rather than skip a day of training, he decided to ride his bike instead (using different muscles, or so I’m told!). So… off he went.

2.5 hours later when Rob was still gone I was not panicked, but concerned. Did I mention we had a snowstorm the day before? …Finally he called. He had ‘bonked’, but was not hurt. He forgot money for food but remembered his cell phone. So… off we went (the kids and I), to recover him. I tried to leave the kids home to play with their cousins Andrew and Brooke, but they insisted on ‘going to get Daddy.’ Go team!

I talk to the kids about the marathon because I want them to feel included. I also want them to understand, on whatever level they are able, about John and autism and other children with special needs. As you can imagine this generates many questions and comments.

While driving to find Rob (a game of I Spy Daddy), Liam (4 years old) commented “Daddy is running for the people at the hospital.” I explained that he is running to help John’s school. The school where they are helping John ‘find his words’. Liam’s response was “I wonder what John’s words will sound like?” Hmm, I wonder that myself and can’t wait for the day we all hear them. How cool will it be when Liam does hear John’s words, and knows his Dad helped!? And feels that he helped his Dad?!

Last night on CNN, the topic on Larry King Live was Autism. Among the panel of guests were Jason McElwain and Doug Flutie who both shared their perspectives on coping with Autism. A big part of the show turned to the public debate of the impact of childhood vaccines on children later diagnosed with Autism.

I am often asked what Julie and I think about this issue as parents of a child with Autism. It’s impossible to be objective on this subject and I’ll never be close to being a medical or neurological expert, so I just lay out exactly what happened with us.

Up until the age of 18 months John’s social and language skills appeared to be developing close to a typical schedule – he had about a 20 word vocabulary including ‘Mama’, ‘Dada’, ‘hi’, ‘bye’, ‘bus’, ‘plane’, and many others. We can also distinctly remember several occasions of John interacting socially and verbally with those around him. Julie’s most vivid memories of this are at the supermarket checkout line where he would always greet the cashier with an enthusiatic “Hi!” and depart saying “Bye, Bye!” with the diction of a grade schooler. I can remember him standing on our outdoor deck and pointing to the sky and saying “plane” as one flew overhead. We also have video of John at somewhere around 14 months where he’s playing in the tub verbally responding to Mommy’s cues. We rarely play this video because it’s so tough to watch John doing things that he cannot do today – there are no words, and social interaction is absent. Doug Flutie, who went through a similar regression with his son, mirrored our sentiments on Larry King. (Paraphrasing) “It’s like we were getting a glimpse of Dougie’s true personality and it was suddenly taken away”.

John’s communicative abilities began to fade at about 19 months, exactly at the time of his MMR vaccine. Immediately after the vaccine John also exhibited physical signs of an adverse reaction – his cheeks were constantly red, and his face appeared bloated for many days. On top of this his (ex) pediatrician administered the vaccine while John was still recovering from an ear infection and still on antibiotics, which we’ve come to learn is not the best practice to say the least.

So, of course as parents it is this experience that has pretty much defined our position, which is we believe that the MMR contributed to John’s condition. Does this mean that Julie and I have hired an army of lawyers to combat the drug companies because we think John would be typical if not for these events? No. Does it mean that I’ve quit my job and become an expert on childhood vaccines to prove our case? No. Our energy is devoted to making sure John gets the best treatment and therapy for his future.

But, you can damn well bet for sure that John’s 2 and a half year old brother Will has yet to receive this vaccine, and will only do so in separate trials at a much more developed age than 18 months. But that’s just our own (and only) way of letting our past experience regarding this topic affect our decisions going forward.

 I use Intuit QuickBase to track my workouts which is not surprising since I am a designer on the QuickBase team. Still there are plenty of options out there. Active.com, Nike, and even MapMyRun.com all include applications that allow folks to input workout data and view reports. The best part about QuickBase is that I can customize it however I want. With the other services you have to work with whatever their product development team produces.

QuickBase enables me to add or remove application functionality as my needs change. For example, I noticed MapMyRun’s site allows people to associate footwear to a workout so they can see how many miles the sneakers have on them. Great idea! I had already kept a list of my equipment in QuickBase so all I had to do was link the equipment list to the workouts and I can now track the distance (144 miles on the pair I bought in January). I have created reports specifically for the marathon which I’ll just delete when I no longer need them. I also add links to race results, routes, and photos so all my data is on one site. Very cool. Check out my workout log.

There is a interesting article in issue 16.03 of Wired Magazine that outlines another autism debate: disorder vs. difference. The article presents both sides of the argument. One supports the common belief that austism is a disorder characterized by abnormal brain development. The other claims the autistic brain is not defective, just different.

The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know