The Home Stretch

Well, as much as it saddens me to have to replace my favorite blog title to date, it has been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote anything and it's probably time.

I'll start with a marathon training update. This past week was a planned light week although I ended up making it even lighter than scheduled, running only 10 miles total. Not good, but hopefully I have allowed my body to prepare itself for the rough road ahead. The next 3 weeks figure to be pretty brutal, as I need to log totals of 30, 32, and 39 miles each week. The good news is that once I get to the end of this stretch I really am pretty much done. Well, except for the small detail of running the actual marathon itself on October 7th.

After some brief forays into fiction for a while, I returned to reading non-fiction this past week when I picked up The Secret Man by Bob Woodward. It was written and published immediately after the identity of Deep Throat (the informant from Watergate) was finally revealed as No. 2 FBI-man Mark Felt. Woodward discusses in depth how he originally met him and for the first time provides details on how they would signal each other and the exact nature of the info that he provided. I've always had something of a fascination with Watergate and that made this book an essential read. It really helps to tie together all the ends that have until now intentionally been left loose in order to protect the source's identity. Woodward also gives a couple of interesting anecdotes about how close others came to guessing the source (and some who actually did) and how close the lid was to being blown off at any given time. It's also just interesting to reflect on the accomplishment of keeping something like this a secret for 30 years. Lastly, there's a couple of great ironies to be found. Stemming from the House investigation into the FBI's handling of Watergate, Felt was actually indicted on charges of conducting unauthorized searches on suspects. At his trial, former President Nixon testified on his behalf (the only time Nixon ever testified in court after resigning). Felt was found guilty, but a few years later Reagan pardoned him. So, basically, the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing down Nixon has Nixon himself show up at his trial to defend him and then gets pardoned by Reagan. In any case, the only thing that's disappointing about the read is that you never really get a clear understanding of the exact motives Felt had when he did it. There's a lot of pretty well grounded speculation on Woodward's part, but in the end speculation is just that. Ultimately, the reason for this is that Woodward and Felt's relationship was pretty icy after Watergate and they really didn't speak for over 20 years. When Woodward finally gets up the courage to track him down again, what he finds is a frail old man in his mid-80s that suffers from dementia and can barely remember who Nixon was, let alone any of the specifics behind his downfall. If it were a novel you'd definitely call it anti-climactic but I think it just serves to remind us that real life doesn't like to wrap up all the loose ends most of the time.

Also watched a few movies this past week: Vacancy, Persona, and Letters From Iwo Jima.

Vacancy deserves only a one-word review: lame.

Persona (an old Ingmar Bergman film) deserves quite a bit more but I can sum it up with one word: huh? This movie really confused me, and even after I read two Ebert articles about it I still can't say whether they helped me figure things out or just confused me more. If you are into classic and/or foreign cinema and/orBergman films, then you absolutely need to see it but if you don't fall into any of those groups I can't imagine you liking it. And I generally love weird movies (like pretty much any David Lynch film except Inland Empire) but I'm just not sure about this one. I think the real problem is that most of the movie is presented very "normally" and then just all of a sudden it veers off into these really weird tangents for a minute or two before returning. At least with a Lynch film I'm expecting a midget and a person wearing an antelope head to come onscreen at any given moment so I'm not so caught off guard when it happens.

Letters From Iwo Jima I was really impressed with; definitely the best war film I've seen since Saving Private Ryan. It is very unique in that although it is an American film it shows the battle from the perspective of the Japanese and thus is portraying the U.S. as the "enemy". You also get a really interesting glimpse into the conflict that was going on in Japan at the time between modern "Westernized" thinking and their classic samurai culture. When the acting general (who has spent time studying in America) orders a battalion to retreat from their post and rendevous with another squadron at a fall-back position, the head of the battalion disobeys the order and he and most of his men commit suicide by falling on their own grenades. Looking at it now, it's inescapable to not think "wow, what a waste" but that's such a great illustration of a nation with an identity crisis. The strategic move is clearly to conserve your forces and rally them at a new tactical position, but the samurai way dictates that you will die with honor where you stand before you abandon your post for any reason. As you look at the Japan that exists today as a technological powerhouse among first-world nations, it's pretty evident what manor of thinking won out in the end.

I also sort of saw Superbad on Friday night, but fell asleep a little under half-way through. From what I remember, it was really funny.

Have some other interesting news, but I want to save it since this is already too long and I want to make sure I have something interesting to talk about next time. I know that all 4 of you can hardly contain your excitement . . .

Screw You Weir

Is that a good enough title for you?

Actually, I have to do something now that pains me immensely. I find myself in the unenviable position of having to admit that, shockingly and against all odds, Eric Weir was right about something. He successfully predicted my half-marathon time within 32 seconds. He said I'd knock it out in 2 and a half hours and my official finishing time clocked in at 2:29:28. I will add though, that unofficially my time was 2:28:19, which is what I had on my watch. I think the discrepancy is due to my chip activating a little early while I was still behind the starting line. In any case, my time puts me at about an 11:22 min/mile pace, which is truly mindblowing considering that I have been training at right around 12 min/mile and I had never done 13 miles before. What can I say, I guess I'm a gamer. As another pedestrian achievement, I was in fact the fastest Delaney in the race. I don't know who Tony Delaney is; I just know he's 2 minutes slower than me. Anyways, as of today I am officially recommitted to doing the marathon. Looking at my training schedule, it's actually not as bad as I thought. I really only have 4 more hellacious runs to do before the marathon; a 14-miler this weekend, a 16-miler on Sept 2, an 18-miler on Sept 9th, and a 20-miler on Sept 16th. Actually, the whole week of the 16th pretty much sucks, as I'm supposed to run a grand total of 39 miles (5-10-4-20). But after that I get to taper off for 3 weeks before the big race on October 7th.

In other exciting news, Christy and I just bought a new Prius! Actually, more accurately we will be buying it tonight. We went in yesterday and put down a deposit and the car came in today, so we will be picking it up tonight at 7:30. It will be the first new car that either of us have ever owned, and also will be quite an upgrade from our current Sunfire as well as the Escort we owned before that. We had intended to go look at a number of dealerships yesterday but after we saw the Prius we both just really liked it and decided we didn't need to look any farther. One of the cool things that will take some getting used to is the fact that the car does not have any rearview mirrors. It has a camera mounted in the trunk that shows up on a display in front of you. Very strange to back up without looking behind you, but I think the many hours I wasted playing video games will finally pay off!

While recovering from the half-marathon Sunday and yesterday, I finally got around to watching Ben-Hur. That film had the distinction of being the DVD that I have owned the longest without ever watching (~4 years). Overall I can see why the film is a classic and it has held up well almost 50 years after it was made. It is truly amazing to look at all the extravagant sets, costumes, and the sheer number of extras that were used. In modern films when you see ancient cities recreated you just assume that only a small part of it was built and the rest was all CGI. But back then they didn't have any of that so they had to build it all for real. The highlight of the film, of course, is the big 20-minute chariot race 2/3 of the way through the movie. While it lacks the explosions and manic energy of modern action movies, it again just blows your mind that something like this could be done with little to no special effects. I read later that the colliseum where the race takes place was at that time the most expensive and elaborate set ever built and that the whole sequence took over 3 months to film. I also learned that Charleton Heston really had to learn how to drive the chariot and that there is only one stunt in the sequence where a double is used. In any case, the only semi-negative I can say about the film is that it is very in-your-face Christian. Jesus shows up at pivotal points and if you're not a Christian yourself a lot of the revelry and awe that the characters feel and the story expects you to feel just won't be there. But, as long as you know that going in I don't see that as really detracting from the experience.

By the way, if you haven't gotten around to seeing The Simpsons Movie yet I highly recommend it. If you do, stick around for 3-4 minutes after the credits start to roll.

So again I have allowed myself to slack. Been very busy lately, but at least it's because of fun stuff. After Hawaii, the following Saturday we made our yearly pilgrimmage into the bleachers at Wrigley, only to watch the Cubs lose 3-2. However, much beer was drank and a generally good time was had by all. The following weekend we went up to Alpine Valley to camp and see Jimmy Buffett. Much beer was drank and a generally good time was had by all. Then I just spent the last week down in Houston visiting family. So basically I decided that Chicago in August just wasn't quite hot enough for me and I needed to go to one of the few places that was both hotter and more humid. Seriously, around this time down there you have to swim through the air and bail it out of your car with buckets. While there, though, I did get a chance to attend two Cubs games, which (of course) they lost. However, much beer was drank and a generally good time was had by all. Are you sensing a theme here? Actually, the second game I went to I had an opportunity to sit in the Crawford boxes, which are the couple rows directly above the scoreboard in left field. It's a prime spot to catch a home run ball, since it's only 315 feet right down the line. Looking out from home plate, our seats were immediately to the right of the foul pole. 10 minutes into the game, Cliff Floyd hit a ball that was just foul and landed less than 10 feet from us. We thought that was just the beginning of the excitement, but alas no other ball got within 50 feet of us the rest of the game. Still, the seats were great and I'll definitely try to sit there again next time me and the Cubs come to town.

This weekend is the half marathon, and I would by lying if I said I was not dreading it. I ran 12 miles on Monday (in 2 hours, 27 minutes) and ran a very fast 5 yesterday (52:54; well, it's fast for me anyway), so I do feel like I'm physically prepared, but mentally . . . Also, all my training (except for the one 3.5 mile race I ran in April) has been on a treadmill, so it will be a big change to be on the pavement. And of course the final obstacle is that the race kicks off at 6:30 A.M. Sunday morning, so I'll be getting up at around 5:15. I guess the good news is that I should be done by 9:30 and then I can go home and crash for 3 hours before the Cubs game starts. Anyway, I will be honest and admit that my will to run the marathon is weakening (but not broken . . .yet), so I am using this race as a barometer. Best I can figure is that I should finish in ~2:47:00; if I finish ahead of that I'll feel pretty good about my chances of finishing the marathon in under 6 hours; if I finish over that I won't feel so good. And if it takes me more than 3 hours . . .

One thing of interest I saw in the news yesterday was a new study that found that women with breast implants are more likely than average women to commit suicide (http://tinyurl.com/3clnet). I don't know how much was spent on this study, but they could have paid me $10 and I would have told them the same thing. I think it would be fair to say that women who get breats implants are more likely to have lower self-esteem than average women. If we all accept that as true, then this study boils down to the stunning discovery that women with lower self-esteem are more likely to commit suicide. Truly groundbreaking, no? The study goes on to say that "women with breast implants also had a tripled risk of death from alcohol and drug use". It's almost as if the demographic of women with implants overlaps heavily with the hard-partying crowd. Next you're going to tell me that all those nice young strippers aren't really just working to pay their way through college. All of my bubbles are bursting at one.

OK, that's all I got today (I know it ain't much). I will definitely check in early next week with an update on how the half went and the prognosis for the biggun in October.

Have a great weekend!