Day: October 16, 2006

“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…