Last night I hung out with Ryan and Kristin and on their enormous high def television we proceeded to watch Running The Sahara, a documentary about 3 guys who decided to, oh you know - RUN ACROSS THE FREAKING SAHARA DESERT.
Upon recollecting my whiny 4.38 miles, I felt real lame.
Now when Ryan first mentioned this cinematographic gem to me last week I said, "Oh some bushmen doing some crazy run, huh?" I mean, of course, only someone from the bush could or would even attempt to accomplish something so physically ridiculous, right? Wrong. One Canadian, one American, one Taiwanese wonder. This documentary was really cool. There were however several moments in the film when I would just burst out laughing at some of the quotes, because to a normal person they seem so absurd, or so hysterically obvious.
Charlie was the hard-nosed American guy from North Carolina. I mean, this guy was a real tough guy, always pushing people harder. He was committed. One day, several hundred miles shy of the Libyan border, Kevin (from Taiwan) said he was ready to quit because they had no assurance the Libyan government would allow them to traverse their soil. To this, Charlie said:
"Don't quit.
Just run to Libya.
Just 10 more days."
(My response with a chuckle and rolling of the eyes: 'Yeah that's right - just ruuun to Libya')
I'm sure Taiwanese Kevin's knee jerk reaction was something like:
'Duh! You are right Charlie; what was I thinking? Easy as pie - I'll just keep running right on to Libya. Just TEN MORE DAYS of running 50 miles a day, IN THE SAHARA.'
When Day 63 dawned, we hear Ray, the Canadian (very cheerful man, 'Mr. Positivity' we could call him) say, "I'm just having a mentally hard day today, I don't know what's wrong."
(To which I wanted to respond, after many such images below, 'Ray. Buddy. I know what's wrong, and so does every other normal person in their right mind.')
Then he says with such shock and surprise in his voice, "This morning I woke up feeling sore and exhausted and on the verge of wanting to quit."
I cannot imagine why....
I really loved this film. The visuals are just breathtaking. And though the sanity of the participants is questionable, I mean really, what they did.... it's pretty cool. I cried. As usual. But there is this one part, day 63 when Ray is having a rough day, that the runners make it into Agadez and all these precious and gorgeous African kiddies join them and run with them through the town. In the background you hear these willowy, almost haunting and beautiful African children's voices singing A Capella. It's really an amazing thing.
All in all, the runners were in action for 111 days, ran the equivalent of 170 Marathons, roughly 4,400 miles from the coast of Senegal to the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea.
1 comment:
Remember when they pumped new sand into the North End and when we'd get to 84th st and had to walk down to the shore to meet people I would call it "crossing the Sahara" And you feel lame after your 4 miles? I don't think I've run a mile since 4th grade. Thank you Mrs. Rook.
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