5K PR and Movies About Life Dreams

Race Report
I ran the 5k at my kids elementary school a week ago. This was an inaugural race that is a PTA fundraiser. There were about 200 runners and no timechip. There were some fast runners from the local running club and a lot of parent and students who were running their first race. I started out and within the first couple minutes did not feel that good. I thought it was from the bottle of wine that I drank the previous evening. However, I passed the first mile is about 6:30 and think I just did not realize how fast I was going. I slowed down some during the second mile, but was still around 14 minutes after the second mile and getting tired. I ended up walking for a short distance after the 2nd mile. A guy caught up to me and offered some encouragement and said we would finish together. I ended up getting a second wind and finishing strongly. My final time was 22:29, which was a personal record. I finished in 17th place out 203. I was the 2nd parent. I would like to get under 22 minutes and think I can. I have another 5k on Sunday. This race was good for a pr because it was mostly flat and not crowded.

Up and Revolutionary Road
Last Friday I went to see the latest Pixar movie, Up net in the movie theatre. This was the first time that the whole family went to movies in the evening and I'll be doing a rant about that. Going forward, rather than summarizing the movie, I will link the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(2009_film). Pixar has never made a movie that was not well received and Up was no exception. The tomatometer at www.rottentomatoes.com is 98%. Pixar excels at making movies that appeals to adults and children.

Last Saturday, Virginia and I watched Revolutionary Road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Road_(film) which reunited Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio from The Titanic. The movie was directed by Sam Mendes, who is Winslet's husband and also directed American Beauty. The movie is of the the most adult movies I have ever seen and had nothing to do with sex or violence, but solely the story.

I enjoyed both movies. I thought it was interesting that despite Up being a family movie and Revolutionary Road being a movie for adults, the theme were similiar in both movies. Both were about couples who had extravagent and exotic dreams about their lives when they were young and the struggles and the realities of life lead to bland and predictable lives.

Up is probably my favorite Pixar movie since the Toy Story movies, but I have not seen Wall-e. The first hour of the movies is especially great. A family movie normally has some some part where you need to suspend belief. The balloons lifting and flying the house worked, but the collar that makes the dog talk did not. A pet peeve for me about Up and a lot of movies with the climatic scene being a fight between good and evil is how long the battle lasts when everyone knows the good guy is going to win. Overall, I give Up a B with an A for the first hour and a C for the rest.

Revolutionary Road was a very powerful, great film about coping when you cannot live the life you would prefer. It is a movie that I can relate to both of the main characters. Frank is able to manage and prosper. He is a successful salesmen, despite hating his job and is about to have an opportunity to enter the computer industry at its infancy in 1955. April is a stay at home mother (as virtually all married women with children were in 1955) in the suburbs. She cannot handle not moving to Paris as she dreams. The only minor complaint is that the ending was a bit confusing trying to determine whether April committed suicide or died by accident when trying to give herself an abortion. I give the move an A-.