Movie Night

Last night I watched another movie about running.  This one was called Ultramarathon Man: 50 Marathons, 50 States, 50 Days.  It's a documentary that follows Dean Karnazes as he runs to raise money and promote awareness about childhood obesity.  As the title states, he runs 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states.  I had come across Karnazes' name before in a negative way.  I believe the person referred to him as a self promoter or something that carried the same negative connotation.  He seemed like a genuine guy to me.

Whatever your feelings for Karnazes, as a runner, I don't see how you could not be inspired by him.  I know I was.  As the movie went on, I noticed that I was as inspired more by some of the runners who joined him along the way.  There was even some comedy in there too.  During the marathon in Seattle, one of the runners was trying to be funny for the camera and wasn't watching where he was going.  He ended up running into a pole and broke 2 ribs, but he still finished--props to that guy for turning an embarrassing moment into a macho story he can proudly recite.  I was really surprised by how many states it was raining in when he did the run.  Living in Tucson, you become accustomed to experiencing no real weather other than extreme heat.  When I say it was cold outside, I mean it was in the 50's or 60's.  Our summer ends in late October to mid November, so when the temps drop to the low 70's, you still see people here wearing light jackets. 

One of the things that struck me was the great scenery that we have in America.  Every state except one had something beautiful to look at during the run.  Wouldn't you know it, that one state happens to be my state--Arizona.  Karnazes had just gone from San Francisco to Maui and then to Surprise, Arizona.  Surprise is a little northwest of Phoenix.  I'm sure that having just come from beautiful Maui didn't help, but there is no denying that Surprise, just like my hometown of Tucson, is downright ugly.  It's beautiful if you enjoy looking at dirt and rotting tumbleweeds.  It also happened to be 102 degrees when he ran there.  It was obvious that he didn't enjoy the heat nor was he inspired by the scenery.  Overall, I enjoyed the movie and think it's worth watching.

I'm beginning the second week of my running every other day comeback schedule.  Today, I ran 4 miles around a park in a little over 36 minutes.  It was a hilly course.  Hills used to be the bane of my running existence, but prior to getting hurt, I had been running 8 miles at a 4-6.5% grade on the treadmill.  I had embraced hillwork and dare say even conquered it.  It'll be a while before I attempt any serious hill work though.  The good news from this run was that I increased mileage and had no problems in my feet.  I'm planning on making a trip to the Fleet Feet store tomorrow for an insert.  I've never been in a Fleet Feet so I'm hoping for magic since I have yet to hear any negative stories about them.  Anyway, for now, I'm feeling Michael Buble good.