Hood to Coast (Movie Review)

Inspiration comes in all forms, and sometimes sitting in the dark watching a movie can be just the dose of motivation you need. Especially if you're watching a movie about a 24-hour running relay race that covers 197 miles starting at 6,000 feet on top of Mt. Hood and ending at the Oregon coast. The new movie Hood to Coast follows only four teams out of the 1,000 12-member teams participating in the event; it's as inspirational as it is entertaining.  I was a little disappointed that they didnt focus much on the elite team at all, and never even showed them running their legs; but I guess they do it so quickly...but the teams they did follow were indeed a cast of characters, and Rachel who I fell in love with...you just gotta love her approach to it all...and naivete.
The four teams involved in the film are radically different in age and running experience, but their motivation to run the world's largest relay race really sets them apart. There are old runners competing to have fun and prove their aging mettle, young non-runners looking for a life-changing challenge, a heart attack survivor, and a family using the race as a running memorial for a member that recently passed away. I think it will make you want to lace up your sneaks and get to training, if not for the Hood to Coast race, then something more your
'speed' so to speak.
I thought it was kinda cool that at the beginning it was actually live, on their version of a red carpet event, showing the 'stars' if you will arriving for the showing up in Oregon I suspect.  Although you could definitely tell with Bart Yasso and some other woman I didnt know as the 'hosts' that these were runners hosting this and not movie stars.  Runners can be kind of geeky you know :O)
Now only once was I going to do something like this, the Texas Independance Relay, but the 'team' I signed on with was just too kattywompus for me, unorganized and couldnt really seem to get their act together so I bailed on it early on.  I would indeed like to do one of these, even Hood to Coast perhaps..but its not something I am going to go out and put a team together myself or anything!  The work that goes into the planning is absurd (I do know this from my brief time with the one attempt).  I would jump onto a team though if asked and if all I had to do was show up and run what they tell me to run.  I dont want to have to be the organizer thats fo sho!
I will say that I absolutely love movies about running and I have seen every one of them out there I do believe, and while I did enjoy this, to me, it wasn't as good as Spirit of the Marathon.  Maybe because I havent done an endurance relay, I dont know.  But in thinking about it, I think the way they did Spirit of the Marathon, it was just better...I cant quite put my finger on it, but I felt a lot more emotion and connected with the process leading up to the Chicago Marathon and during...again I can only say thats probably because I've been there done that many times over now.

Also it was tough being in the movie theatre when on detox.  No popcorn!??!?!  Instead I had a big ass thing of water and ended up eating 1/2 a pickle...its the only thing there that I could have...I did manage to eat my broccoli and salmon before leaving the house...but still...I can still smell the popcorn...

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Because the movie has one showing (7pm), I obviously opted out of my normal Tuesday night hot yoga session since its 6pm before I get out of there.  I just didn't want to miss the movie!  Plus I got TWO tickets for $11 instead of $12.50 each thanks to a Fandango tweet early last week!  Anyway, no hot yoga, and its soooooooooooooo cold here (40's with wind chills in the 30's at 4pm!!), but I got out and did a frosty windy 3 miler before getting ready to go to the movie!  Better than nuthin' which I did consider...

Day 2 of the detox (today being day 3; yaaaaaaaaaaahoooo!), and I will tell you, not gonna lie, I am hungry...I equate this to when I started early in 2010 to drop some weight, and it just took a while for my body to get use to operating on less.  And I felt sluggish today (and even today as I started this post yesterday :O)...just gonna be some getting use to again...time to lose some poundage.  I still want to get to my goal weight by Summa-SummaTime.  Its not that I have gained much, but some...but for some odd reason my pants are much looser in the leg area and I can only say this must be due to the fact that I am not running 40 miles a week anymore right now.  The number on the scale is a bit higher, and I really want that to move back down, so this detox is a jump start for me in obtaining that.  The only alteration to the detox today is that I ate oatmeal for a mid morning snack instead of fruit and ate the fruit for the mid afternoon snack.  Oh and they had grilled tofu on the salad bar today so I got that too (still no kidney beans!! grrr..)

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Its cold ass here again today...at my casa this morning it was 26deg with a feels like of 18.  Yeah me no likey.  This is SOUTHeast Texas for Christ's sake!  I'll be running my 6 miles this afternoon after work thank you very much!  When its at least in the 40's.  And thankfully no wind to speak of by then I hope.