Spirit of the Marathon

http://www.marathonmovie.com/

I went to the one-night-only showing of this movie last night with Maritza at my local theater. I will let others give a real review of the movie but let me tell you it is GREAT. Oh man what a movie!! It was very well done- great stories, great filming, great music, everything. I really enjoyed it. I would say my favorite parts were all the parts with Deena Kastor, the older gentleman who ran with his daughter, the story of the guy with the knee injury, the interviews with the legends of the sport, and the actual marathon footage. Ya, basically the whole thing. It really brought up a lot of feelings for me and it absolutely inspired me. We even stuck around till the very end (after the credits) and saw the extra footage. Overall, this movie rocked and I can't wait to see it again. They are apparently showing an encore presentation on February 21st. I will be there! (and I will get there earlier so I don't have to sit in the very front row, hehe). You all have got to see this movie.

Well back to the topic of my running, here are some training updates:

Wednesday 7.0 miles/1:02:28/8:55 average pace

I was not feeling great on Wednesday and really had to force myself out the door after work. But once I was out I felt much better! I ran the loop with the big hill and felt strong. My pace was between 910-9:40 or so until the last two miles which I ran in 8:05 and 7:47. Nice!! I finished up with a short strength session at home with free weights.

Thursday I went to the gym to swim. Brrrr. Getting in the pool is so hard when it's cold (ok, not cold-cold, but cold to me) outside and that water always feels so cold at first. Anyway, I forgot my watch but swam for 25 minutes and covered at least 1000 m. I kind of lost count but I know I did at least 20 laps. I did some freestyle, some backstroke, and some pulling. I love backstroke the bestest. :)

Friday 6.0/55:07/9:11 average pace

As inspired as I was last night after the movie, it was a struggle to get out of my warm bed at 6:00 this morning. There was supposed to be a big huge storm moving in so I had all my stuff ready to go up to the gym for a treadmill run. Well I felt a little silly when I walked outside and it was about 50 degrees and not raining... but I was all dressed for the gym (i.e., shorts and a tank top) so I just went up there anyway. 6 miles on the hamster wheel is a little much for me but I did it. I started off at 6.0 mph and increased it .1 every half mile, then I increased .1 every quarter mile during my final mile. It gave me something to focus on. So I ended up running my last .25 at 7.3 mph.

By the way, that storm still hasn't arrived and it's 9:30 am... wtf? I'm sure it will be in full force for my 12 miler tomorrow morning, greeeeeat.

So who saw the movie? Did you enjoy it?