Dear Reader
My husband and I have been spending our weekend evenings watching old New York movies. From the sweetly poignant Moscow on the Hudson with the late, great Robin Williams, by the late, great Paul Mazursky, to the Upper East Side-situated Three Days of the Condor with the ever-suave Robert Redford, and 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success, with dialogue lines so ‘cookie-full-of-arsenic’ good you’re tempted to use them to spice up everyday conversation.
In one scene from Sweet Smell of Success, Tony Curtis, who plays publicist Sidney Falco, tells Burt Lancaster, the omnipotent J.J. Hunsecker, that he’s got a situation handled. “The cat’s in the bag, the bag’s in the river,” he says, in one of the film’s most notorious quotes. It’s a line I’ve been trying to use but doesn’t land quite as smoothly — maybe because my life is not filmed in a black-and-white noir-scape, and I don’t have that fast-talking New York accent that makes it sound so assuredly confident.
But I am at least trying to embody the spirit of the line; trying to stay calm and confident that the next few days will be fine; that all will be handled, and adequately so. I’ve been down in Sickville for the past couple of days, stuck with a cold/flu thing that interrupted my training, sleeping and parenting. Definitely do not wish you were here!
It seems to be an unwritten rule of marathoning that the closer you get to the big day, the more likely you are to get sick or injured. Unlike Tony Curtis, who you’re never quite sure is actually doing much work, I have done quite a lot up until now. As haphazard as it may seem — runs stolen here and there, strength workouts done sometimes after the baby goes to sleep (or, at times, with her laughing at and crawling on me as I try do them) — I’ve put in the time for the London Marathon. So a few days not running is not going to hurt now. Still, it can still be a tad frustrating.
We also have the travel to the UK coming up (for both the marathon and family QT), and that will be an adventure in and of itself. Flying with a baby for the first time! And the first leg is me flying with her on our own, and B joining us on the backend. I think it will definitely help to take on some of that Sidney Falco swagger and not be too apologetic about a simple fact of life, i.e. to get from A to B, sometimes one has to fly with a one-year-old on a plane. Still, wish us luck!
This week’s flash-back episode of The Rundown plays on the theme of New York movies, and who better to feature than Mr New York himself, Martin Scorsese? I really loved doing this episode and want to update it in the near future. So many of the buildings in his movies are no longer around, and that’s quite a shame.
In women’s empowerment running news, this week also saw the release of Des Linden’s (aka Boston Monsoon winner, 2018) memoir, Choosing To Run, which is a stellar addition to recent releases by Alison M Desir (Running While Black), Lauren Fleshman (Good For A Girl) and Kara Goucher (The Longest Race). All of these help give us a greater understanding of the issues facing the sport that need to be addressed in order to make it an uplifting and fulfilling space for everyone.
As New York starts to see vibrant signs of Spring arrive, I want to wish you a fantastic weekend ahead. Next time we chat, I’ll be in the land of wet weather and real Cadbury’s!
Stay well
Your neighbour
Nadia