Sunday, April 3, 2011

"My Run" and My Run

"My Run" (movie review)

Last Thursday night I went to see a one-night movie special with my hairstylist and her running/exercise group.  The movie was called "My Run."  It was a documentary about a guy who loses his wife to cancer and is a single parent to three children.  He realizes there is not a lot of support for single parents and wants to do something that will bring media attention to this issue.

He decides he wants to run from Minnesota (where he lives) to Atlanta, Georgia for the 1996 opening ceremony for the Olympics.  That's where the "75 marathons in 75 days" came from.  He figured he would run X amount of miles, sometimes 28, sometimes 30, etc., every day for 75 days and that would get him to the opening ceremony in Atlanta.  This man was not in shape.  He was getting older.  He never really worked out.  People said this was an impossible task.  They said he could not do it.  He hired a trainer, saw the doctor, tried training for it.

Eventually the day came for him to start, and he did.  He didn't realize the amount of pain he would be in.  He was in so much physical pain every day that he wanted to quit.  But along the way, there was always someone that he would meet that would inspire him to keep going.  His son would drive and park every mile.  The father would then be able to stop and re-fuel and keep going. 

He later said he didn't look at how many miles he had left.  He just looked at 1 mile at a time.  Let me finish this one mile and I'll figure out the next one when I get there.  He also said he didn't realize how mental running really was.  He thought it was ALL physical.  But he was wrong and said he realized that much of running is mental. 

It was a great documentary.  It was sad, uplifting, motivational, inspirational.  It really made you feel like you could do anything you put your mind to.  But go to the theater with a bunch of women and there is a LOT of crying!

If you ever have a chance to see this documentary, I highly recommend it.

My Run (Sunday, April 3, 2011)

On to my actual run.  I thought yesterday that I would do a long run today.  I was thinking about 9 miles.  The last long run I did was 7 miles about 2 weeks ago.  This morning I woke up to windy conditions.  But it wasn't raining so I decided to head out.  Now, I tried to talk myself out of doing 9 miles even before I began.  "Maybe I should do 6 miles, or 7 miles.  I'm too tired to do 9 miles!

But I set my garmin for 9 miles.  That's it.  If I set it for 9 miles, then I have to do 9 miles!  My garmin says so!  I also set a pace of 10 mins/mile.  This was just my goal.  If I came in over that time, that was ok.  It was just a time to shoot for.

And I did it. I ran the entire 9 miles!  Here is my garmin to prove it!

My garmin says so, therefore it must be true!  I did the 9 miles in 1:28:07 for an average pace of 9:47 mins/mile!  I did not expect to be under 10 mins/mile!  I think I'm ready for my half marathon in May! 

And lastly, my nephew was in town for the past week.  It's always so good to see him!  He's 16 now and driving.  He does well in school and is the best 16 year old kid.  Here is a picture of us yesterday before he left to go back to Ohio.  Sorry for the quality of the picture.  It was taken with my phone and it was bright outside.  Makes for a bad combination!


Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!  I have a birthday party to go to now for my 1 year old cousin Elise! 

5 comments:

  1. LOVED My Run. Was talking to my hubs about it afterwards and told him I wouldn't consider it a "running" movie at all (despite the fact that the guy ran like 2000miles). It was an inspirational movie about aiming high, reaching goals and helping others. Loved it.

    great job on the run!

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  2. Awesome job, Amanda! I didn't get to see the movie. Sure wish I had.

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  3. I'll have to check out that movie. Great job on your run! I wish I could run that fast! :D

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