Monday 2 February 2009

An update of where i'm at

Have to admit my aim had been to retire this blog once i'd finally done the Badwater Report, i'd had a lovely blogfree 4 weeks over Christmas and i guess in the back of my mind was the thought that any opposing runners out there who read it would be sucked into thinking i'd been taking it easy and not doing any training.
Definitely far from the truth, apart from the usual training, i'd done a number of Fatass Runs, firstly "Fat's Festive Fatass"
http://www.coolrunning.com.au/fatass/hq/index.php?title=Fats_Festive_Fat_Ass_QLD
a 46K run around Mt Nebo, followed up by a drive down to Sydney on New Years Eve for the Beyond the Black Stump Run
http://www.coolrunning.com.au/fatass/hq/index.php?title=Beyond_The_Black_Stump
Whilst down in Sydney also did a 10K race around "The Bay" as well as joining in with Billies Bushies to do one of their regular Saturday Morning runs in the magnificent Royal National Park, probably the hardest 100 minutes of running i've ever down with soft mud being like quick sand topped off by then getting the energy back in the legs enough to swim to the finish of the run.
Managed to find myself doing a Six Foot Track training run before i left the state as well with a run with over the 27K's of the Woodford to Glenbrook Course.
So heaps of running (and a reasonable amount of drinking - didn't want to get too fit those 4 days in Sydney after all there's a long year ahead racewise :-) ), as well as good times spent with various running mates there.
Still having finally done the Badwater report, was tossing up whether to retire the blog but whilst i wouldn't claim to be superstitious the fact is i wasn't anxious to create an Aussierunner 3 (or similar title) for my next overseas races as i couldn't recall any movie that sequel 3 was as good as the first 2 and in that case it may mean failure to finish (actually as movies go i did enjoy The Godfather 3 but even i'll admit it wasn't in the same league as the first two).
So here we are a month into 2009, lots of training and 2 races (Hares and Hounds report just done - i know i'm out of sequence), probably fitter this early in the year than i've been for years, partly caused by the weather up here with the sort of heat and humidity we've had recently going out and running 2 to 3 Hours has to work up a helluva sweat.
With minimal work hours over most of Christmas i've even had the chance to relax and rest and courtesy of the Gold Coast Library DVD Collection work my way through my favourite ever TV series (and the Mafia drama that leaves one of my recent favourites "The Sopranos" for dead) "La Piovra" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086779/
("The Octopus") a truly great sprawling saga, off hand an Italian/French/Bulgarian/German CoProduction and quite possibly the only show i'd ever gladly sit through hours and hours of subtitles.
Been great to watch it all the way from the beginning, back in the 80's when it started on Australian TV on SBS it was regularly on late, can't often recall it finishing before midnight (and usually on a Tuesday night strangely the same problem i had in recent times with The Sopranos), so whilst i'm pretty sure i saw it all often was a struggle against sleep as well, certainly being able to watch it at times of my own choosing has given me a greater appreciation of the series first hero Corrado Cattani as well as my favourite on screen villian Tano Cariddi (technically not Mafiosa but in reality a banker - sounds rather like real life :-) ), having worked my way through to series 4 i know i've still got some of my favourite parts ahead of me (and with another all time favourite character Silvia Conti involved only in it from series 4 onwards - essentially a female version of real life Sicilian Mafia Fighter Giovanni Falcone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Falcone - but much easier on the eyes!), now it's a case of the library system catching up with dvds being available.
Whilst i do the odd concert review (or have done) on this blog i don't think i'll come at doing DVD reviews however anyone wanting some great viewing, up to and including series 6 would have to be the best TV i've ever seen, unfortunately towards the end of series 6, life began to imitate art too much (with the real life killing of Falcone) and whilst 7 was still a great story a series without Tano could not be the same. Prequels were to follow in series 8 & 9 (and only telemovies rather than episodic series) and whilst they gave a great background (and 8. was essential to work out just what made Tano tick and why he was more dangerous than the Cosa Nostra), i think all true fans were waiting for an ultimate showdown which finally came to be in Series 10 (again a telemovie although redeemed by the fact Tano reappears in the last 10 minutes at the time giving hope that ultimately we'd get a full resolution as really the only neat way to finish the saga was to have only of the great survivors left, whether it be Silvia or Tano, unfortunately 7 years on i know that will never happen so just have to enjoy the masterpiece that was created between 1984 and 2001. Interestingly have only recently seen the actor playing Tano, Remo Girome, in one role since again as a villian though far less sinister in a recent episode of SBS's Inspector Rex funnily enough a series that had Rauol Bova in the main role - not the dog !- for a couple of seasons before he went and played a cop in Octopus 7 and then strangely played a different cop in the two prequels 8 & 9, possibly showing a lack of depth of Italian actors ???. As for the actor playing Cattani, Michele Placido, almost felt he was typecast as the only other movie i've ever seen him was a telemovie with him as Giovanni Falcone, as for Silvia, Patricia Millardet, have only seen her in, more as eye candy rather than acting ability, in a very forgettable take on what was a much better Wilbur Smith Novel "Wild Justice").

Anyway now i've filled in the gaps of the 6 weeks, simply this blog will become more a repositry of race reports !!, rather than of training, now i'd better get my head around this weekends Caboolture 12 Hours.

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