Resolution 6 - Catch Up Printing Photos - Update!

A few days ago I took advantage again of Target.com's incredibly easy to use online print ordering service and picked them up at my local Target within an hour. I only printed off two photos for a special frame I picked up. As I alluded in the last entry under this resolution, I wanted to try and get some frames up with my favorite photos as a way to have some proper decor in my place. I finally got around to picking up another frame, a pretty nice one too which I had a half off coupon for which the frame held two 5x7 photos.

If you have not read a certain entry from one of my running blogs, please click here to read how I somehow managed to win a 5k, a surprising feat which I doubt I will be able to pull off again. It seemed right to print off a couple of photos to have that moment on the wall forever. Even though the event happened a little over a month ago, it was only until about a week back that I thought we only had one group photo from the friends I ran with that day. That photo is the bottom picture of the frame. Then about a week back I stumbled upon an email in my junk folder from the race coordinator's saying their flicker account is updated with a couple hundred photos from that race day. I guess was so distracted from disastrous weather that day I had no idea there were photographers there.

Sure enough, I found quite a few photos of our group, and one's where we all crossed the finish line, so it only seemed fitting to have the other photo of me crossing the finish, all the while being completely oblivious that I won the race. I updated the old blog entry too with a couple of photos so make sure to check it out. So enough hype, here is a horrible phone photo I took of the frame on my wall, just underneath it you can see the top part of the bib number I wore that day, and pinned to it is the first place medal I received.....I am still in disbelief that even happened, but catching a glimpse of this everyday will remind me that it did in fact transpire.

Bonus Resolution 4 - Finish 12 Races in a Year - 13 Down

A couple weekends ago I attempted the most ambitious race I have participated in yet. This was a 12 hour endurance race taking place at Turtle River State Park, which is about 20 minutes away from town. The race was officially called Extreme North Dakota's Terrifying Run Amongst Innumerable Lost Souls, or END-TRAILS for short.

The goal is simple, run as many 6.1 mile/10k laps as you can in 12 hours. Take as short or long breaks as you desire in between laps. The most amount of miles I ran in a single day before was 14 and a half. I went in with the mindset that I could handle five laps for just over 30 miles for the day if I take 30-60 minute breaks between laps. I really wanted to do this race because I like running out at Turtle River. I only went there once earlier this year and had a blast, except it was muggy and humid, and swarms of mosquitoes devouring my friends and I as we ran through the woods. This time it was nice and cool and remained in the mid 40s for most of the day. This made for no bugs at all, and way better conditions compared to my last time out there.

Local coffee shop, Dakota Harvest Bakers furnished the event and provided plenty of snacks, soups and beverages for everyone at the race. I had no idea what they would have so I brought along a little running fuel of my own in the form of water, coffee, trail mix and granola bars. The beginning of the course was right by the parking lot, so it made getting to my vehicle really convenient to unwind at in between laps. There was a nice heated lodge there too for race HQ where I spent a decent amount of time at too, but of the 50 runners there that day, minus the coordinator I had a fun little chat with, none of the several I attempted to talk to were all that talkative that day, so I spent most of my breaks just relaxing in my car.

The first two laps of the race went great. Especially the first lap. I did not bust out headphones the first lap because it was mostly narrow trails and wanted to hear other runners coming and going as we passed each other so I just took in all the sights and sounds on the first lap. As I expected I ran this first lap strong and had a pretty good time out there, minus one part where in a part of the trail that wounded out in an open area around the woods I came within 10 yards of getting trampled by a deer that darted by me. I really liked the course, and it was well marked and easy to see where to make the turns. I had some fears it would not be going in because of my memories of running there in the summer where there were many trails that branched off from each other and it was easy to get lost in the woods there.

I finished the first lap in under an hour, and took a half hour break. I stretched out a bit coming in from the lap and before heading out for the second lap. The second lap went just as smooth as the first. In hindsight, I should have took it a lot easier and went with a more casual jog to preserve energy the second lap, but I was feeling good throughout it and kept thinking, I will just take slightly longer breaks throughout the day and I will have no problem hitting my five lap goal. I finished lap two, and took a 45 minute break this time. Since it was right around Halloween there of course was a costume contest, so if you ended up running one lap in costume you were entered in the contest. I busted out my classic Hulk Hogan tshirt, bandana, wig and foam championship belt and let Hulkamania run wild, literally, on lap three. I made the Hulkster proud that day!

Lap three actually was when I felt the day start to catch up with me. Even though I rested and stretched before lap three, within a minute of starting it my right knee immediately ached so I immediately slowed down to a casual jog for the entire third lap, and snuck in a little five minute walk break halfway through it. It was a chore to get that lap in but I was still hell bent on getting five laps in and I altered my plan to just finish the day with casual jogs and more walk breaks, and longer breaks between laps.

Eventually I finished lap three, and I was really sore by the end of it. I took an hour and a half break this time and got some of the provided soup for lunch and failed at trying to sneak a nap in as I tossed and turned in my truck. I started lap four convinced that I would just really slowly jog this lap through like the last one, but a minute in again my right knee was telling me to stop. It was really aching this time as I was pushing it like I never did before in terms of mileage and the type of terrain I was running on. There are plentiful amounts of inclines and declines on the twisty paths that dominate the woods and they undoubtedly took a toll on me. For the entire fourth lap both of my legs felt like Jello, scratch that, they felt more like Cream of Wheat mush.

About two minutes into the fourth lap with my knees already in pain and with the wind really picking up I debated on turning around and going back and withdrawing from the race, but I eventually convinced myself I was going to finish four laps, even if I spent half of the fourth lap walking it. That is exactly what I did. I ran for two miles, then walked for quite a bit, and was only able to run in little two to three minute intervals again before my legs kept giving out on me and I spent more and more time walking. I noticed the same thing happening with a lot of the field at this point, and kept running across more runners taking more walking breaks or getting passed by people running considerably slower than they were at the start.

I finally survived and finished the final lap at a little over seven hours into the day. I stretched out for a good long time after that lap while I briefly contemplated only walking a fifth lap before wisely deciding against it and went up to the time clock area and withdrew from the race. This race killed me and took a toll on me, I should have took off a day or two from work after the race to fully recover, as I felt like I was hobbling around the entire work week. As I type this I am coming off a four day break, and feel much better now 8 days after the race and am planning on going out on my first run since the race. I do not regret doing this race that kicked my ass, it was a challenging endeavor no doubt, but I went out there and gave it my best effort.

5K

UND Autism - 4/20/13 - 26:22 - 23rd out of 74
Arthritis Foundation Zombie Run - 10/12/13 - 29:06 - 1st Place Survivor, 2nd out of 67 overall
Uffda Mud Run - 9/7/13 - ??:?? - Finished
Color Run - 9/21/13 - ??:?? - Finished

10k

Hillsboro Run - 6/13/13 - 50:17 - 23rd out of 55
Dewey Memorial - 6/1/13 - 50:21 - 15th out of 56
Firecracker - 7/4/13 - 53:13 - 42nd out of 92
Frozen Feat - 2/16/13 - 53:57 - 50th out of 108
TRF Pioneer - 9/14/13 - Disqualified

Half Marathon

Fargo Mini - 10/19/13 - 1:52:11 - 162nd out of 528
Grand Forks Wild Hog - 9/28/13 - 1:53:25 - 184th out of 649
Fargo Rocks - 5/18/13 - 2:02:48 - 2062nd out of 5526

MISC

ENDTRAILS 12 Hour Endurance Race - 10/27/13 - Finished 4 6.1 mile laps in 7:13:00 - 23rd out of 36

Resolution 9 - Clint Eastwood Quest - 80% Complete

After watching the latest Clint Eastwood collection film, the 1992 academy award winning Unforgiven (trailer), I still love it for the fact that I am still so flummoxed at who to root for in this film. I have no idea if that was by design or not, but I applaud it for showing that everyone in this film has their positive and negative qualities, take 'em or leave 'em.

Unforgiven takes place in the fictional Old West town of Big Whisky. It starts off with a couple of cowboys who got a little too rowdy and roughed up a prostitute and essentially went away unpunished by the town sheriff(Gene Hackman). The hoes decided to take revenge into their own hands and put a $1000 bounty on their lives. Aspiring bounty hunter, The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) tracks down legendary, but retired outlaw Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) to lure him back for one last job. Munny brings along his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) for the journey, and the three make haste to Big Whisky.

I find it a little amusing that Clint Eastwood has been portraying an over the hill old guy for over 20 years now. Unforgiven gets that point across from the start where Munny just does not have that good of a shot as he use to, and even has trouble saddling up onto a horse. Logan is the same way, both former criminals have cleansed their past and moved onto better lives, but take on this final job to set things right forever for them, but have many problems bringing back their old selves to get the job done. Eastwood gets this point across masterfully throughout the film.

Watching the behind the scenes documentaries on the disc, I guess I should find it as no surprise they constructed this set from scratch. Eastwood set a rule to have no cars out there and made the entire cast and crew report to duty via wagon and horse. I love how Unforgiven portrays its version of the West. Especially when Munny, Schofield and Logan are out riding the trails in the country and making it feel like you are free out there to do whatever you desire.

One other thing that got to me from the behind the scenes features is that Eastwood made it sound like the protagonists and antagonists are pretty black and white. As I alluded to in the intro, I could not disagree more. The antagonist is town sheriff Little Bill. The film does portray him in quite the negative light as taking the law into his own hands, and even more so as making his deputies look like absolute cowards and petrified of outnumbering one gunmen 10-to-1 in a couple of scenes. I get it, Little Bill is corrupt and sadistic, but he is the town sheriff, and he has the town's best interests at stake, right? Ok, so Eastwood and gang are the heroes right? Well, both Logan and Munny are former notorious outlaw who murdered countless innocents, and are now out at it again as assassins, so why should I root for them? In the end, I found myself rooting for who Eastwood wanted me to, and again I tip my hat to him for making me question the moral compasses of the main characters. It just goes to show you that everyone has their light and dark sides, just that Unforgiven is one of those few films that has the guts to show the extreme sides of both.

My favorite scene in the film is when one of the prostitutes takes her time to ride up to a meeting place with Schofield and Munny. Schofield goes on a rambling diatribe talking himself up, then loses it all while Munny just stands there and nods along like it is another day. The scene proceeds to knock it out of the park when the prostitute, delivers some unsettling news to Munny, and the way Munny digests the news in his calm, collective manner let's you know that it is on, and the table is set for the final showdown. Of course I am going to provide you a YouTube link to this legendary clip so you all can take it in again, just be forewarned I danced around some major spoilers in the scene so you may want to hold off on watching it if you have not seen the film yet.

Unforgiven netted Eastwood two Oscars, one for Best Picture and another for Best Director. Yesterday was the second time I saw it, and it still holds up amazingly well today. It is far and beyond the cliché wild west genre film, and of the last 25 years it ranks right up there with Tombstone and Django Unchained as my favorite westerns. As I mentioned before in these blogs, my first memories of Eastwood were for the many westerns he did in the early stages of his career, but of the ten film collection in this set, this is the only western to appear in it, and they easily made the best choice. As with all the Eastwood movies I have covered here, Netflix has the disc, but it is not up on streaming, but I give this one of my highest recommendations yet to track down and add to your film library. If you want to follow along on the Clint Eastwood collection fun with me, here is a link to the box set I have off Amazon.

Past Eastwood Collection Blogs

Trouble With the Curve
Mystic River
The Rookie
Absolute Power
Dirty Harry
Kelly's Heroes
Where Eagles Dare
Gran Torino