Qualifying for Boston = Best Performance by Me in a Running Role

After Sunday's long run (17 miles), yesterday was an active recovery day: 3+ miles of brisk walking.  Today was an active recovery/maintenance-run day:  a one-hour run at a leisurely pace.  Considering that I did 17 miles on Sunday, I've had only very minor soreness in my quads.  Actually, hardly worth mentioning.  No other issues at all.  So, I'm a happy camper.  I'll do another one-hour maintenance run tomorrow and cross train on Thursday.  I plan to try a hill workout on Friday before more cross training on Saturday.  I'll do six miles on Sunday, including a "Magic Mile" time trial.  The Weather Service is predicting a week of nice winter weather here in Hog Heaven: temps near seasonal norms in the low-to-mid 30s and sunny.  We'll take it!

Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its Oscar nominations this morning (for a list of the nominees and everything else Oscar, see here: http://oscar.go.com/), I've been thinking about what  kind of personal performance I'd consider Oscar-worthy in Ft. Collins (Colorado Marathon) in May.  And, I think I've settled on a Boston Qualifying finishing time.  Right now, that is not my time goal.  In fact, my time goal is 15 minutes slower than the Boston standard for my age group.  But, you never know.  If my training goes better than I expect and everything falls into place on May 6 . . .

As usual, there were no running-related movies in the mix.  There is a baseball movie: the Brad Pitt vehicle "Moneyball."  Pitt, who plays real-life Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane in the movie, also was nominated for Best Actor.  I read Michael Lewis' eponymous book on which the movie is based but haven't seen the movie.  I do have it on my "Shopping List" at Amazon. 

If there was an Oscar for Best Running-Related movie of 2012, I'd give it to Journey Film's "Unbreakable: The Western States 100," a documentary on the 2010 Western States 100 that featured a marquee battle among a quartet of elite ultra runners.  See my earlier post on the film here: http://runningthrutwenty12.blogspot.com/2012/01/just-for-hill-of-it.html

Perhaps the best running-themed movie ever is "Chariots of Fire," which won four Academy Awards in 1981 including the Oscar for Best Picture.  It tells the inspirational story of two British runners who competed in the 1924 Olympics.  Check it out if you've never seen it.

Of all this past year's movies, I'm most looking forward to seeing "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," director David Fincher's U.S. adaptation of the first volume of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's acclaimed Millennium trilogy.  All three of Larsson's noirish novels featuring computer hacker bad girl Lisbeth Salander have been filmed in Sweden and are available in the U.S. with English subtitles.  I've read the trilogy and own  DVDs of the three Swedish films.  The Swedish films star Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and she nails the role.  I'm interested in seeing how well American actress Rooney Mara inhabits the part.