Final Friday, on February 20, I used to be honored and humbled to assist host the world premiere of Dylan Harris’s movie “The Cutoff.” Screened for the very first time within the Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff, Arizona, the movie tells the story of eight runners chasing the cutoffs on the 2025 Cocodona 250 Mile.
A few of them make it, and a few don’t. And, alongside the way in which, a countervailing story of triumph and heartbreak emerges that cuts proper to the essence of long-distance operating.
“The Cutoff” follows eight runners as they race towards the ticking of the clock on the 2025 Cocodona 250 Mile. Photograph: Dylan Harris
Though it looks as if solely yesterday that I first understood the facility of the connection between a runner and time, it was truly 36 years in the past. I used to be coaching for my very first marathon, and, like many others, I used to be obsessive about time. I wanted to run sooner and pack extra into the time I had within the hope that on race day, I may squeeze the very best out of myself.
Watching “The Cutoff” gave me a renewed understanding of a runner’s relationship with time.
The premiere of “The Cutoff” drew a crowd in Flagstaff, Arizona. Photograph: Dylan Harris
The star of the present isn’t the Cocodona 250 Mile route and even the unbelievable athletes who braved 5 and a half days of toil behind the pack to run from Phoenix to Flagstaff. No, the star of the present in “The Cutoff” is the clock, that factor that represents the inexorable passage of time that’s directly invigorating and infuriating. It’s the factor that none of us can escape. It supplies us with boundaries and potentialities, suddenly.
Within the movie, we hear from Andre Lee, the ultimate finisher at a earlier Cocodona 250 Mile, who tells us, “We’re all completely different, however we’re all equal.” We see Liz Russ and Robby Chaney, each of whom simply barely make it by means of the midway mark earlier than the cutoff, pairing up afterward to forge on into a chilly and lonely night time. We get to know Wynonna Fulgham and Missy Hendricks, each representing Native Ladies Working. They arrive from a background steeped in long-distance operating with deep roots in Arizona, and each got here to Cocodona to show to themselves and their individuals that there’s power to be gained in doing exhausting issues. And our eyes and ears are opened to Alynn Davis, a deaf runner trying Cocodona after a earlier DNF. Whereas she can not hear the ticking of the clock, she will really feel it. And it by no means stops.
Lots of the runners featured within the “The Cutoff” have been there for the premiere. Photograph: Dylan Harris
The enduring lesson of “The Cutoff,” and the factor that long-distance operating has taught me higher than the rest, is that point unites us. When the stress builds, when time winds down, and when time in the end wears us down, it tends to convey out the best possible in us. And it’s not simply us individually, however all of us, collectively.
To me, that’s what makes our relationship with time so vital. Despite how obsessed we’re with it, or how its passing makes us really feel, in the long run, what defines who we’re greater than something is what we select to do with the time we now have.
AJW (heart) with filmmaker Dylan Harris (proper) and Emily Harris (left), manufacturing supervisor and movie tour coordinator. Photograph courtesy of AJW.
You possibly can watch the movie trailer beneath, and take a look at in-person watch choices over on Aravaipa Working’s web site.
[Editor’s Note: Click here if you’re unable to see this video.]
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Nice North Aleworks in Manchester, New Hampshire. RVP (Sturdy Vanilla Porter) is a basic porter with a burst of vanilla and a roasted caramel aftertaste. A beer that really defies conference, this can be a nice late-winter beer.
Name for Feedback
- How would you outline your relationship with operating and time?
- Do you view the passage of time with dread, acceptance, or pleasure?