This thing is happening . . .

I had a thought this morning, just as I was sitting down to write this, about what makes preparation for a marathon compelling as a play. It might not be. And please know that these race prep postings may or may not result in a solo piece, though that is my goal. At any rate, that thought about relevance lead to this thought: when a playwright sits to write, how do they ever know it will be relevant to anyone. It seems to me that the job of the playwright is to take his or her experience and make it compelling. To distill what happens in their lives and make it into something that will lead an audience to see something of themselves up there on stage. It's that old universality thing . . . I don't write a play if I don't think it'll connect with people in some way, give them something to think about.

Anyway, that's today's contribution to the Playwrighting 101 syllabus.

At the race yesterday, I saw at least four people with Philly marathon shirts on. Well, three were the half marathon shirts and one was the marathon; they have shirts with either 13.1 or 26.2 on them. Nice shirts, with the course on back. Anyway, I spoke to three of them and they all seemed to have had good experiences. Ironically, the one that had run the full 26.2 was a lady my age or older who said she had done it in four hours twenty eight minutes . . . she was happy. And she was running the Turkey Trot less than a week later! I always thought that after you run a marathon you roll up in a fetal position for a few days.

My time yesterday was 44:37 an average of 8:56 minute miles (last year was 44:49). BUT my time in the first mile was 10:41! Meaning my time for the final four miles was under thirty four minutes meaning it's close to 8:30 minute miles . . . what this tells me of course is that I shouldn't start too far back in the pack because it takes a while to get moving in that mass of people. I think the race officials must be hip to that because they also posted a 'net time' which, I think, is the time from when you cross the starting line to when you cross the finish line, in that case my time was 42.58; better, but it would still be a good idea to move forward some. I'll have to stop into Gracie's today to confirm the net time thing with Mike.

Don't worry, I know it sounds obsessive, but bear with me. This IS still about play writing but if I'm gonna use my blog as a race diary/notes to myself for a projected solo piece I have to be a little obsessive.

As a side bar to the Philly runners; none of them knew about the half marathon at Rockland Lake in the spring . . . that's my first biggy on the road to Philly. I'm thinking if I prepare in stages, then I can get ready for the half, then springboard off of that to the Nov. thing.

After the race, a nice turkey day with Bette and Laurette and then went to see 127 Hours . . . Danny Boyle rocks! Of course, it may leave a little to be desired as to holiday movie fare!