Month: June 2009

I spent a recent Tuesday evening watching Star Trek, the new movie with the old name. The Batman refresh opened doors for this movie. Adding in J.J. Abrams as director, at the height of his powers (and clout), gave Star Trek a great platform to go where we’ve all gone before, gladly.

My immediate reaction?

finally caught Star Trek. Fun, but needed some Klingons instead of deranged Romulan miner as foil for Kirk, Spock and crew. Red matter?!?

With a bit more reflection, and space, I appreciate the restart of once-compelling franchise. Handling the aging of Shatner, Nimoy, and crew was getting to be beyond awkward. Rewinding to the never-before-shown beginning of their “careers” gives the well-known characters additional years to tell new & different tales without apologizing or hiding their age.

In this movie, the scenes on planets (Earth and otherwise) are more compelling than the starship moments. Time travel plays too large a part, but I’ll forgive the trick as long as subsequent films take advantage of the wide open vistas of storytelling space generated by this gimmick.

Metacritic calculates an 83. I date myself by preferring Wrath of Khan still.

My high school coaches impressed upon me very clearly the importance of getting a good night’s sleep the night before the night before a race or competition. The theory — which I subscribe to — is that nerves and anticipation may disrupt your sleep on the eve of the event. Accept that, and don’t worry about it… you’ll just toss and turn a few extra times if you do.

But, if you can, get some extra sleep two nights prior. Rest is an edge, and once you’ve put in the work preparing to compete, you’d be foolish to give up such an easy advantage.

On Sunday, after two nights’ sleep, I’ll jump into San Francisco Bay to race in the 2009 edition of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. My training this year has been better documented than in the past, but I’ve made different choices, too, so not sure about comparables.

In 2005, my only previous Alcatraz race, I finished 181st among the amateurs, with a time of 2:52:45. The links in that old post are dead, sadly, but I have a printout of the 2005 results. 49:52 for the swim, 6:51 for the first transition (which includes a run of a half-mile or so), 56:29 for the 18 mile bike ride, 1:41 for the second transition, and 57:56 for the 8 mile run, including the sand steps/ladder in 2:17.

Thinking ahead to Sunday, I don’t expect much better for the swim, which put me in 655th place then. Again this year, I did enough in the pool to know I can finish it…but not much more. Realistically, I’ll come out of the water with plenty of people to chase.

I’ve been racing on the bike this year, which is new to me. Consider my 2005 words:

I wonder what’s it like to just race on the bike… it was fun to pour on the pedals with the streets closed to cars.

That’s what led to my starting bike racing last year, actually.

I commute on my road bike over much of the bike course quite regularly, so I have no excuses not to have a great ride, and I expect to. Still, not sure how much more time I can gain over my 2005 split, which was 63rd among amateurs that year.

I’ve been running a bit less, with fewer dedicated hill repeats this year. Several of my tempo runs have been excellent, though, so I’m hoping to gain a little time there, too. Not sure I can better my 115th place run from four years ago, but the pace is doable.

I was conservative in my 2005 predictions. I don’t think I’m being too aggressive now in saying I believe I can do better than last time, but Sunday will tell the story.

Rudo y Cursi was an unknown quantity when I entered the theater. A Mexican film (with subtitles) about two soccer-playing brothers, Rudo y Cursi mimics an earthier, adult Hoop Dreams. But it’s not a documentary: too raw and real to be anything but fiction.

This simple film delights in the very human flaws of the two brothers and their extended family. They support each other, fight each other, and end up facing each other on the field with their futures on the line. While soccer is the thread, not much action is on screen…and that works. However, the ending cycles back to an earlier scene in a knowing way, with a nod to the harshness of the game.

67 from MetaCritic falls short of my rating, though I wouldn’t go as high as the user rating of 90. We saw this film two weeks ago, and besides Up and Star Trek, I’m not sure what else worth seeing is out there right now.