Running hiatus

It is a little depressing not to be able to run at all, and the knowledge that I actually do have a tear in my meniscus also weighed rather heavily on my mind over the weekend. I'm not one to dwell on misfortune though.  By Sunday afternoon, after a 30-minute medicine-ball workout, I was feeling pretty good and almost starting to enjoy the mini-break from running.  Almost.  Kathleen did her 14-mile long run (Higdon Intermediate II program) on Saturday with some Houston Striders, starting at Memorial Park at 0630.  Apparently it went very well, with great support by John DiMarco and Bob Pattan.  Thanks to both of you guys!   Hopefully I will be able to do a long run again soon.  Kath added 7 miles this morning along Terry Hershey Trail at well under 10-minute mile pace, which is good going.  I really think she is well on her way to breaking 4 hours at the Mohawk-Hudson in October, weather permitting.

We did manage a couple of movies again, this weekend.  On Friday we saw the Joan Rivers documentary, "Joan Rivers, a piece of work' and it is quite riveting.  In parts - especially when Joan is doing stand-up comedy - the movie is hilarious.  But mostly it is an amazingly honest look at the unbelievable drive that keeps this 77-year old dynamo performer in a perpetual state of motion, willing and wanting to do absolutely anything and everything to just keep working.  All her worst fears, intense anger, moments of tenderness and generosity, loneliness and odd relationships are on the screen in close-up view, no holds barred.  The movie is superb and likely to garner considerable critical acclaim and industry recognition.

This morning we went back to Angelika in downtown for 'The Girl Who Played with Fire', the second movie in the Lisbeth Salander trilogy, based on the books by the late Stieg Larsson.  While the movie is not nearly as good as the first one in the series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), it was very enjoyable and totally absorbing, with excellent performances by both Noomi Rapace as Salander and  Michael Nyqvist as journalist Mikael Blomkvist.  I thought that the script had some believability issues but they are not fatal and the story moves along fairly briskly, despite some unnecessarily long detours here and there.  It just does not have quite the same level of intrigue and tension as the first movie, or the pay-off.  Worth seeing though, especially if you have or are planning to read the books.  I started Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Saturday morning and rattled off 230 pages in no time.