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July 28, 2005
Saint Ralph 
This morning, I'm feeling a bit underwhelmed. I just woke up in a fog, and I haven't really been able to lose it. All things in time, I suppose.
Yesterday, here in Portland, it was hot. 93 degrees. Hey, laugh at us all you want, but that's hot for here, and it makes me cranky. I got together after work with my pal Hanna, who as a bonus had a movie pass for Saint Ralph. She had seen it at the Film Festival, as had another pal, and both had raved about it.
So it was nice to catch up with her for a few minutes before beginning my arduous commute home.
One thing I learned is that I like riding downtown. For some reason, that's fun. Dunno what that's about. Once I hit the bike path, the real work began. I did better on the early hills but really started tuckering out before the last hill, and ended up walking up it. "You almost made it," a kindly woman said encouragingly. This is the first time in, well, a while that I had to walk that hill. Oh well.
I did notice that I'm becoming more confident on the bike. I'm still not at the point where I feel confident or comfortable standing on the pedals, but I am getting more confident with the riding in general.
My sweetie made me a burrito (the most delicious burrito ever, or should I say, Evar, just because it irritates Scooter?), and then I ran downtown to meet up with Hollie to see the movie. Being the geeks we are, we were both excited to see a movie about marathoning (kinda). And AC—did I mention air conditioning?
The audience was filled with runner types, and before the movie ran, we had a talk from the Team in Training coordinator, and a couple who lost a child to leukemia. So I'm fighting back tears before the movie even starts. Great!
I loved the movie—very heavily Catholic but not religious, funny and touching, beautifully lit, and then there's the impossibility of a 14 year doing the Boston Marathon. While I think this film has legs, it's especially meaningful to marathoners, especially the sort of unlikely athletes like myself.
The look of the movie was beautiful. Hamilton, Ontario is Canada's Buffalo, NY—a working-class industrial town—but the camerawork illuminates both the grittyness and the beauty.
So, yeah, I liked it.
Posted at July 28, 2005
Comments
Sounds like a great film. It's cooler here today...hope you are cooler too.
totally wimped out on Run Hit Wonder.....was sick sick sick.
Someday we"ll meet up.
Posted by: brit at July 28, 2005 2:21 PM