“What it Takes”

Let me be up front here and make sure that everyone knows that this isn’t a review, or an endorsement, merely a pass-on of a discount offer. Why? Mostly because I’m a sucker… Well, that, and they’re doing a simultaneous theater and DVD release, which I think is the bee’s knees, and makes me wish that someone would drop a 37″ (’cause my TV cabinet won’t fit anything bigger) LCD TV in 1080P on my doorstep. Preferably with HDMI input, and a MacMini to use as a media center, at least ’til iTV comes out. Oh, and not Plasma – the picture’s great, but they’re greater power hogs than my old tube.

Sorry, was the gear lust out loud?

Anyway, the offer is for “What it Takes”, a documentary about 4 IronMan triathletes. It’s a behind the scenes, etc, so on and so forth. What’s got me throwing this post up, without promise of compensation or even a screener for the flick, isn’t the content. The content is completely exciting in theory (the theory being that it’s written by writers half as talented as those whom I occasionally get a chance to read, and am dying to read in the future).

No, what’s getting “What it Takes” plugged here on RunMystic is this:

The movie was shot at 24 frames per second on a Panasonic SDX-900, and is presented in 16:9 widescreen format. Its rich cinematic feel and sweeping visual imagery from places around the globe – including Australia, Canada, Dubai, and numerous locations in the United States, including Hawaii – combine with compelling storylines to produce a fascinating narrative about four athletes, four human beings, and one dream, the Ironman world championship.

The camera’s off the shelf, and somewhat reasonable as far as these things go. Couple that with web and DVD distribution, and it’s a model that anyone could cop, assuming they can get a couple of months off of work, a travel budget, etc, so on, and so forth to put this together. Go out on a flier and shoot your dream, so to speak.

If you want more of the press release, let me know and I’ll forward it to you. The scope of the flick sounds great – lots of both racing and training. Not sure if they cover the part at which they separate the pain cortex from the rest of the brain. Which I’m sure they’ve got to do, ’cause 26.2 pretty much killed me. I’m probably gonna watch it to see when they get gills installed, as I’m still in the drowning phase…

Anyway, the e-mail I got from someone who may or may not be Peter Han, producer of “What it Takes”, said that I could tell y’all that the code !RONMAN96 would get you $5 off the DVD at the movie’s site. No word on how long the code is good for.

I’m interested; I may bite. If I do, I’ll let you know about it.

Plans, Confessions, and Apology

So – Obviously, things are afoot at Casa Jank. How can you tell? Well, there’s been only a marginal amount of running, even less posting, and absolutely no pictures of the glorious fall we’ve been having.

For which I am greatly sorry, RBF. Greatly sorry.

However, the content here going to get somewhat worse before it gets better.

Opportunity is knocking in several ways, none of which I am inclined to discuss in a public forum. One of which is requiring that I drop pretty much completely offline next week for a couple of weeks (But it’s freakin’ cool…). I also got asked the “Where do you want to be in 5 years” question by someone I totally admire and respect, and have a chance to actually think about it for a while, and hopefully provide a good answer.

Plus, there’s Cub Scouts, actually spending time with my lovely wife, etc, so on and so forth…

It is looking like things will smooth out a bit in November; I am continuing to run, and I think I’m mentally at a place where I can run either Mystic Places or NYC next fall, for which I am (A) Stunned and (B) Psyched. I think that approaching “Marathon!” with my eyes open and a much more balanced relationship with running is going to be a completely triumphant story in the way my 2005 campaign was a complete program of Hubris, Comuppance, and BitOffMoreThanHeCanChew.

November will still be National Novel Writing Month, and I still plan on knocking that out over at sandbox.jankowskis.net – tenatively titled “Eskers Point” (the site, not the book). The first couple of days’ work won’t be up until the first Saturday in the month due to other committments (Which, as mentioned above, are absolutely freakin’ cool, and about which I will write later).

Amigos, as always, I cannot emphasize enough how much the RBF has given me aid and comfort over the last couple of years. I am a much better person than I was when I started down this road. There’s a revolution going on all across the world, and, while runners talking about running and helping each other through the tough parts and celebrating small victories might not seem like much – well, I honestly think it’s HUGE. Not to be passed aside. A foundation upon which to build a better tomorrow.

So, lace ’em up, pound ’em out, and throw someone else a thumbs-up, just ’cause.

You guys rock, to steal from someone, somewhere…

Set your DVR’s

There’s a running show going to be broadcast.

Guess I can’t complain about having the Yankees force-fed into the house any more. Press release follows:

OCTOBER 2006 RUNNING

RUNNING is broadcast on the YES Network, which reaches 10.3 million households in the tri-state area, including 3.8 million nationally on Direct TV. To confirm airtimes, visit www.yesnetwork.com or visit www.sportfilm.com and click on “Broadcast Calendar.”

RUNNING is produced by Salmini Films. Below is when it will be shown in October. The NewAlliance New Haven Road Race will be one of the events featured on the show.

Sat, Oct 7, 12:30pm
Tues, Oct 17, 6:30pm
Thurs, Oct 19, 12:30am
Sun, Oct 8, noon
Sat, Oct 21, 10:30am
Tues, Oct 10, 7:30am
Sun, Oct 22, 11:30am
Tues, Oct 10, 11:30pm
Sun, Oct 22, 11:30pm
Fri, Oct 13, 8:00am
Tues, Oct 24, 7:30am
Sat, Oct 14, 5:00pm
Thurs, Oct 26, 12:00am
Sun, Oct 15, 4:30pm
Sat, Oct 28, 10:30am
Tues, Oct 17, 7:30am
Sun, Oct 29, 11:30am

At least, I hope I’ve still got YES.

Crash the server like Lance

So, I’m an unabashed fan of Nike+iPod. Love it, love it, love it.

And, I’m favorably inclined to Lance Armstrong. Not a huge fanboy, but, barring some bombshell revelation of pictures of him with gallon jugs of EPO, an IV in his vein, and random farm animals smoking post-conjugal cigarettes, Lance is OK as far as athletes go. (I’m still miffed at the whole Kristen split – seems entirely at odds with his views on marriage in “It’s Not About the Bike”, but we’ll leave that dog lie).

Anyway, Nike’s announced a “Run Like Lance” challenge, where it aims to collect 50K miles through Nike+iPod prior to the NYC Marathon in November.

Nike will donate $1 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) for every mile run and logged by Armstrong and runners that visit www.nikeplus.com from October 2nd until November 5th. … Armstrong recently selected five New Yorkers, one from each borough, who are participating in this year’s marathon to serve as borough captains in the “Run Like Lance Challenge.” Runners from around the world can also contribute by logging on to www.nikeplus.com to donate miles to the borough of their choice.

Anyway, went to check the Nike+ site, and it’s running awful slow. Kind of a cool effect. Though $50K seems to be chump change for a group like Nike…

*** Per Blaine‘s comment, I want to be clear – Kudos to Nike for committing to the $50K; it’s leaps and bounds above what a lot of companies do. Stupid Gen X cynicism strikes again…

Sweet

So, ever been shopping at Amazon and needed just a couple of bucks to hit that magic $25 mark to get free shipping? So, instead of ponying up the $5 for shipping, you added $15 of stuff that you really didn’t want?

Well, FillerItem is what you need – type in the amount you need to add to the cart, and it’ll give you a page of suggestions of how to fill the gap. Rocks.

I was picking up Pastis’ latest and a little something else, and needed like $3 to hit the mark. Dropped it into FillerPage, and it suggested a ton of stuff. I almost went with “Antigone”, ’till I realized I could plug that into Google Books or Project Gutenberg and download it – figure that after 3,000 years, even the Disney Estate would let it fall into the Public Domain.

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run

Get Thee Behind Me Slacker!

New month, new fiscal year, and a new outlook on life. I’m still behind on reading the current efficiency bible, Getting Things Done, but I think I’m beginning to get the picture – Zero Inbox means “Do It Now”. (And yes, Mark, this does apply to my column on CRN).

Ran Saturday – tough, tough run for reasons which I’d rather forget. Ran Sunday – the great “back home from Family Swim” run, on a day where our pastor had been firing on all cylinders, the clouds had broken and the sun seemed to shine with the clarity that can only be found after ritual cleansing.

Today, Jake had a soccer game. I was late, as always, but not tragically so, and after the game, Jake and I stuck around and kicked the ball until it was dark. The boy’s not much of a natural athlete, but then neither was I. But something seemed to click with him tonight – he started to get the whole idea of continuing to move with the ball instead of kick – run – stop – kick. And he also started to see how it’s more key to stay between the ball and the goal than it is to run straight up to the ball and try to take it away. Awesome.

But it was fun. One of the other kids on the team played with us for a while. 7 years old and he was close to being able to beat me. Amazing what a difference a year makes in being able to handle the ball and see the field. Really, really made me want to coach again.

Oh, and the last bit – November is National Novel Writing Month. My profile is here; you can track the excitement over at my Sandbox, where i plan on posting the whole shooting match.

Now, what can I drop 50K words on???

Things I need to re-learn

  1. 30 minutes is worth heading out the door. As a matter of fact, so is 20 minutes.
  2. Not going 5 miles in any given run is a far less egregious sin against Fitness than not going out at all.
  3. <Insert bit of gear here> is not a deal breaker for a run, provided that <gear> is something other than shoes and pants/shorts.
  4. 10 PM is a GREAT bedtime. Even better is 9 PM.
  5. 5 AM is a GREAT time to wake up.
  6. “Consistency is all I ask” sayth the Run (2 Dromeas 5:14)

To those of you still reading – thanks.

I did 4 miles yesterday on the way home from the office. The catch? I did them at the North Kingstown Rail Trail, and I did them fast. Well, fast for the Fall 2006 version of Jank. The total run was 33:20 for 4 miles; but the first mile was under 7:30! It just felt good to twist the throttle a bit. No negative split, but mile 4 was faster than mile 3.

So there’s 3 runs in my log book in the last 5 days, after a long dry spell in the middle of September. I don’t think I’ve lost much in the way of fitness, but I think I need to make sure to follow the advice in Dromeas (Click here to see to what that’s referring).

Oh, and I’m looking for a tagline a la The Penguin’s “Waddle on, Folks”. Suggestions?

For Bev

He thrusts his fists against a post; he still insists he sees a ghost.

All is well here – extremely well, in fact. Had supper with an old friend with whom I’d fallen out of touch tonight; am almost above water at the job; and ran almost 8 miles Sunday night, and another 2+ tonight.

List of dragons needing slaying:

  1. Online training at work (taking)
  2. Receipt of FY07 funding
  3. Cub Scout new leader training
  4. Painting the house
  5. Annual brush cleanup, bonfire, and marshmallow roast (this will be the smoke signals…)

Oh, and another for the good column – the annual Oxford American Summer Southern Music Issue came out last week – I’d kind of written off my subscription for the year assuming they’d gone under again. But they didn’t.

Which means there’s much running to do to fully grok the new tunes. Got my skillet good and greasy all the time.

Keep the rubber down. Bev – does this count?