Track and Field Blogs - David Flaugher

I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie/documentary. I have never seen anything like that regarding the sport. A running movie complete with its own musical score. Pretty amazing.

I have admired Deena Kastor for a long time. (I met her in Indy several years ago and thought she was just a really nice person). She really is the queen of American distance. To watch her struggle with an injury and still stay focused on winning was amazing. I remember the whole story from Chicago that year, but did not know that she had turned her foor on a pine cone. It would have been better if it were a walnut.

One of the things that struck me the most was the audience. I dont think that a single person got up during the entire show. No bathroom breaks or runs to the concession stand. It just shows how people were captivated with the stories. I had "to go" but did not want to miss anything. Not even the "behind the scenes" stuff after the main event. Almost everyone stayed for that too. I guess you would have to figure that if you came to the show you must have a strong attraction to running, so I guess it really should be no surprise.

I think that the Director, Jon Dunham (the guy I met in the Panera store) really understands what people grapple with in taking on a 26 mile race. One of the hardest things about the marathon is getting to the starting line healthy. The training can be so hard that you end up injured. The other thing is that you train 12-20 weeks preparing for a single day. Anything can go wrong. You can get sick (your immune system can really take a hit), you may have something come up and not be able to attend. Its not like running a local 5K where you can just do another one the following week. You have geared solely for that day, and reshuffling to another week just doesnt work very well. So the tears that most of them shed at the end of the race are very real and normal. A lot of it is just relief. There are a lot of really happy boo-hoos in the chute.

Good stories. Great job Jon!