Real Men of BAMFness: Sam Felsenfeld

“Operation Jack will be an attempt by Sam Felsenfeld to race at least one marathon a week in 2010 (61 total for the year) to generate attention that will raise funds and nationwide awareness for Train 4 Autism, an organization that works tirelessly to raise money for Autism charities.”OperationJack.org.
Running a marathon-a-week (well, at least one marathon a week, since 61 marathons is 9 more than Sam needs to run for his 1x/week quota) is BAMF enough as it is. But when you can do something like that, where the only other activity that you’ll want to do is sleep, and do it all with the idea of raising money and awareness for something other than yourself, that’s what makes you a real man of BAMFness.
But doing BAMF things is nothing new for Sam. “After breaking his neck in a swimming-pool accident when he was 16, he was lucky to have use of his legs. Later, after taking terrible care of himself in college, his weight soared to 261 pounds. A former smoker, Sam started walking less than five years ago. Walking turned into slow jogging, and eventually, slow jogging turned into his first marathon.

Now, he’s completed 70 marathons and four ultramarathons, and has 24 Boston qualifiers and a personal-best time of 3:00:05. He knows that if he was able to work hard enough to complete this transformation, he can work hard enough to run 61 marathons in Jack’s honor. And he knows that as tough as Operation Jack might be, it’s nothing compared to the daily grind Jack suffers through as he battles the nasty neurological disorder he was born with.

Bravo Sam. Train4Autism is lucky to have your support, and Jack is lucky to have you as his father.
SF, you are a BAMF.

4 thoughts on “Real Men of BAMFness: Sam Felsenfeld

  1. I definitely resent that you label autism as a nasty neurological disorder. Have you ever worked with an autistic kid? I have a lot of respect for you mr rapp you're a hero of mine. But I've spent lots of time with autistic children, my sister has downsyndrome and I work at a summer camp for special needs kids and work with them at school. They're different, no better or worse than you or I they have a different set of skills and outlook on life some of those kids have capacity for kindness and friendship you wouldn't believe. I truly consider a few kids I've worked with for about 6 years to be some of my best friends. they are confused and misunderstood but nasty isn't a word that belongs with them even if it describes their predicament. We're all born with a certain genetic predetermination and theirs is different, they are disabled but not diseased.
    Thank you very much, I hope you appreciate that I am not attacking you, it's just about spreading the message and educating people about special needs individuals.

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  2. I respect your opinions. However, I did not write that. The reason that text is in italics is because it is from Sam's own site. If you want to challenge a father's definition of what he and his son struggle with, you are free to do so. Just be aware that it it is him you are “resenting,” not me.

    //Jordan

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