Using Christopher McDougall's book - Born To Run - as inspiration, I am seeking to overcome physical ailments and run my first marathon. This blog chronicles that journey.
Okay, so I have a new obsession – Daily Juice Cafe in Hyde Park.
If you’ve never lived in Austin, Daily Juice is like the super-indie version of Jamba Juice. Basically, it is a juice bar that serves fresh organic juices, smoothies, and superfoods. Additionally, everything that Daily Juice serves is all-natural with a preference for local, organic products.
What do I get at Daily Juice?
Goji shots
If you can’t read the picture above, it states the following: “traditionally used for youthing, stamina, mood, and libido.” Yah, that is a pretty compelling list of benefits. Frankly, I think you should just take Daily Juice at its word, but, for all you skeptics out there, here is what WebMD has to say…
Personally, I haven’t experienced any youthing effects, yet; however, I do believe that drinking goji does improve my mood and stamina. I used goji shots to improve my mood after watching Alabama put its NCAA tournament hopes on life support after losing to Ole Miss. I might need a truckload of goji to improve my mood if we lose to Florida on Tuesday, which probably will happen.
I’m not trying to be preachy about healthy eating. Lord knows I love me some Whataburger. Just trying to pass along some useful nutritional information.
“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” -Thomas Edison
Like Billy Hoyle (pictured above) in White Man Can’t Jump, I was in the zone this morning. I plowed through my long run with relative ease. I almost pushed myself to run a half-marathon, but I decided to stop myself at 10 ½ miles. I was definitely aided by a new addition to my workout playlist – Wolfmother.
During my run, I kept thinking that the guitar player reminded me of Slash, who is my favorite musician of all time. Well, turns out that Andrew Stockdale, the guitar player of Wolfmother, played on Slash’s recent solo album. I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyway, tonight is one of my favorite nights of non-sports television – the Academy Awards. I’ve seen 90% of the movies nominated for best picture this year (sorry, I didn’t get around to seeing Winter’s Bone). I’m going to run you through my definitive list of Oscar winners in the six biggest categories.
Actress in a Supporting Role:
·Amy Adams – The Fighter
·Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
·Melissa Leo – The Fighter
·Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit <--- WINNER
·Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
First off, I would have been tempted to vote for Hailee Steinfeld in the Best Actress category. The success of True Grit was most dependent on Steinfeld mastering the intense dialogue. The scene where she is bartering with a county judge over her murdered father's belonging was beyond impressive. She also blew Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges off the screen, which isn’t an easy feet.
Actor in a Supporting Role:
·Christian Bale – The Fighter <--- WINNER
·John Hawes – Winter’s Bone
·Jeremy Renner – The Town
·Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
·Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Lock of the night. Christian Bale’s depiction of crack addled Dicky Eklund is the type of performance the Academy usually eats up. I just hope somebody doesn’t interrupt his speech, sending him into another psychotic rant. Although he isn’t going to win, I think Jeremy Renner was amazing in The Town.
Actress in a Leading Role:
·Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
·Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
·Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
·Natalie Portman – The Black Swan <--- WINNER
·Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
Admission: This is my weakest category. I have only seen two of the actresses’ performances – Natalie Portman and Annette Bening; however, I feel confident in saying that Natalie Portman deserves this award. Portman’s transformation from the white swan to the black swan was remarkable. Early in the movie, she is so weak, meager, and, unbelievably, unattractive. By the end of the movie, she is unrecognizable as the black swan.
Actor in a Leading Role:
·Javier Bardem – Biutiful
·Jeff Bridges – True Grit
·Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
·Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
·James Franco – 127 Hours <--- WINNER
All the buzz is that Colin Firth is going to win this award. While I think he is a worthy candidate, James Franco should win this award. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Franco really nailed his representation of Aron Ralston. Additionally, Franco’s supporting actor was a rock, not Geoffrey Rush.
Best Director:
·Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
·David O. Russell – The Fighter
·Tom Hopper – The King’s Speech
·David Fincher – The Social Network <--- WINNER
·David and Ethan Cohen – True Grit
I’m probably in the minority, but I don’t think that Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, or Armie Hammer (what a name!) are great actors. I think they were all propped up in how Fincher used them in the movie. Additionally, Fincher seamlessly was able to incorporate the fast-forward litigation scenes without losing the audience, which can prove very tricky***cough***LOST: Season Six ***cough***
Best Picture:
·Black Swan
·The Fighter
·True Grit
·The Social Network
·127 Hours
·Toy Story 3
·Winter’s Bone
·The King’s Speech <--- WINNER
·Inception
·The Kids Are All Right
I just can’t find a flaw with The King’s Speech. The exchanges between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are truly gripping. Also, while I am by no-means an expert on set design, Lionel Logue’s (Geoffrey Rush’s character) office really added to the movie in a tangible way. Trust me, I wanted to pick Social Network. I really did. However, for me, what separated the two movies was the ending. I was somewhat disappointed with the ending of Social Network. In stark contrast, Colin Firth’s final speech had me hanging on every word. I was emotionally invested in the outcome of that speech. I would have been crushed if Bertie (Firth’s character) hadn’t nailed it.
"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat."- Herschel Walker
Game theory: A mathematical framework for analyzing what choices rational individuals will make, when the pay-offs depend on the combination of all player's choices
And for all you visual learners…
Why am I writing about game theory?
Because I have been practicing a version of game theory everyday while running. Let me explain…
Austin has a high volume of dog owners. Because the weather has been awesome lately, people have been taking their dogs out for walks in mass numbers. This presents a problem on narrow sidewalks for me.
Option #1: I pass on the dog side
Risk: The dog thinks my calf is a T-bone steak and takes a bite
Option #2: I pass on the human side
Risk: The human gets startled and knocks me into oncoming traffic
Now a few factors come into play when making my decision about which option to take:
·Dog size: Yah, I usually will pass on the human side if there is a Bullmastiff in front of me
·iPod: Humans are much more likely to get startled if someone approaches them from behind if they have an iPod in
·Cell Phone: See iPod explanation
I run through these variables every time I approach someone walking a dog from behind. But yeah, I haven’t quite worked out the correct formula because I have already had to use some Michael Scott–esq. parkour to avoid getting bitten by man’s best friend.
I’m going to abdicate for a general rule about dog ownership. If you can’t take your dog down in hand to hand combat then you shouldn’t own that animal. The world needs more Papillons!
Tomorrow is my day of rest. I'm going to need it because I've got a 10-mile run on deck for Sunday. Till then, I leave you with the motivational quote of the day...
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali
The Tide played awful against Auburn last night, I didn’t sleep worth a crap, and it started to rain on my walk home from school. I was in an awful mood when I walked in the door. Then, my computer started acting up, which, for some reason, always makes me lose my cool.
Basically, I felt like this guy…
However, despite the rain, I decided to head out on a run. I felt instantly better. All the stress in my body slowly dissipated the further I ran. Then it dawned on me.
I don’t have a hobby to release stress. Other people release stress by playing the guitar, cooking, etc. Me? I usually let my stress consume me until it boils over.
Maybe running is my stress reliever?
“Champions aren’t made in the gym. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.” – Muhammad Ali
Last week, I watched a documentary called Spirit of the Marathon. The movie chronicles the journey of six people trying to complete the Chicago Marathon.
There is a man in the movie that is obsessed with the prospect of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. He kept going on and on about qualifying for Boston. Frankly, I got sick of him talking about it.
Quick rant: So I have recently become convinced that the Mayor of Boston sold the city’s soul to the devil in exchange ten years of prosperity on February 2, 2002. Why that date? The next day the Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. Lets take stock of what has happened since that date.
·The Patriots, Celtics, and Red Sox have been crowned champions in their respective sports.
·Movies such as The Town, The Departed, and The Fighter have made Boston an epicenter of movie culture.
·The world’s largest social media company, Facebook.com, was launched from a Harvard dormitory.
As you can probably tell, I am a little sick of hearing about anything having to do with Boston. Well, that was until the character in Spirit of the Marathon outlined what it takes to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Age/Group - Men - Women
18-34 - 3hrs 10min - 3hrs 40min
35-39 - 3hrs 15min - 3hrs 45min
40-44 - 3hrs 20min - 3hrs 50min
45-49 - 3hrs 30min - 4hrs 00min
50-54 - 3hrs 35min - 4hrs 05min
55-59 - 3hrs 45min - 4hrs 15min
60-64 - 4hrs 00min - 4hrs 30min
That is incredible. Lets put the 18-34 age/group time into perspective.
Yesterday, I probably had my best day of running. I completed 6.4 miles at a 7.30 min/mile pace #humblebrag (I love twitter lingo). I would have to better that pace by 15 sec/mile for the entire 26.2 miles. That is humming! Right now, I would consider it a success if I finish the marathon in under four hours, which would make me a qualifier if I was in my retirement age.
I know that I am a long, long way from entertaining the thought of trying to qualify for Boston. However, Born to Run states that an athlete reaches his peak in distance running at the age of 27.So maybe with three years of training I could qualify?
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal, nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
I have seen a lot of movies this year in the theater. In fact, I have seen eight of the ten movies nominated for “Best Picture” at next weekend’s Academy Awards. So yesterday, I decided to cross another best picture nominee off my list – 127 Hours.
127 Hours tells the story of Aron Ralston. While canyoneering in Utah, Aron feel into Blue John Canyon and got his arm stuck under a boulder. After six days of being trapped, Aron’s will to survive allowed him to saw his arm off and escape the canyon.
Here is actual audio from Aron’s video camera before he made the decision to saw his arm off…
And here is video of Aron describing the amputation to Tom Brokaw…
Quick movie review: One word – powerful. Danny Boyle, the director of the movie, does a masterful job building suspense with such a limited story. Additionally, after watching a few videos of the real life Aron Ralston, I think James Franco nailed his portrayal of Ralston.
After leaving the movie theater, I called my mother to tell her that I loved the movie, but I recommended that she shouldn't go see it. She would pass out during the scene where Franco saws off his arm. Anyway, she reminded me of something that I had forgotten. Aron Ralston was mentioned in Born to Run, which, for those of you haven’t read my blog much, is the book that inspired my blog.
Turns out that Aron, aside from being the toughest man alive, is also an ultramarathoner. Little over a year after sawing his arm off, Aron completed the grueling Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon. Here is a brief description of the race from Wikipedia…
Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon (aka The Race Across The Sky or the LT100), first run in 1983, is an ultramarathon held annually on trails and dirt roads at high altitude west and south of Leadville, Colorado, through the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The course is difficult, with runners climbing and descending 15,600 feet (4,800 m), with elevations ranging between 9,200-12,620 feet. Because of its difficulty, it is common for less than half the starters to complete the race ahead of its 30 hour time limit.
How much more gnarly can a human being be?
I’ll leave you with some wisdom from Mr. Ralston…
“At this point, I've got the confidence to know that I'll get through anything in my life given I have the motivation to do it, ... If it's an act of survival, we've all got a reason to keep living. It may not be pretty, but surviving is grit and determination in its highest form. I learned that I've got the capacity to do a hell of a lot more than I thought I could if I have the proper motivation.” –Aron Ralston
When people speak of inspirational sports figures, they often are quick to list names like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, or Brett Favre.
Edit: Whoops, forgot Favre completely murdered his legacy by becoming a prima donna, playing for the Packers’ archrivals, and allowing his dong to be seen by the entire world.
People don’t often immediately say the name of an athlete who was born in April 6, 1947 as the only child to a Roman Catholic Italian American Family. They forget about the Philadelphian who ended Apollo Creed’s unbeaten run, knocked out Clubber Lang in the third round, and ended the Cold War by defeating Ivan Drago in Moscow. Yes, I am talking about the Italian Stallion – Rocky Balboa.
How many other movie characters that date back to the 1970s have stayed culturally relevant as Rocky has?
I’d argue that it is because we want to believe that grit, toughness, and determination can beat talent. We want to believe that, if given our chance, we wouldn’t shrink from the spotlight. We want to believe that we’d have the courage to go one more round…
Note: I couldn’t embed this video, but I would highly, highly suggest you click on it.
The scene that has always resonated with me the most from the Rocky franchise starts at the 1.08 mark from the video above.
I know that I will never be a great distance runner. Moreover, I will probably never be half as good as my father was. But, like Rocky says in the scene, it doesn’t matter if I ever become a good distance runner. I just want to go the distance - 26.2 miles.
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” – Rocky Balboa
