Now that the TRON movie is well on its way, I thought I’d publish my pitch that I brought in to the mouse. It’s really different from what’s being done in that my version is a remake while the new TRON is a sequel to the original. At the end I go into an arc for a trilogy of movies. I don’t often develop a pitch with this much detail, but because I wanted to make sure I had enough material for a trilogy I had to outline almost every scene:

TRON: INTO THE MACHINE
Treatment by Doug TenNapel

TRON is about a self aware computer called MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM (MCP) that uses the world’s most popular internet video game to declare war on the Earth. MCP’s plans are challenged by three video-game programmers; Flynn, Lori and Alan and another self aware being created inside the game. This is TRON, a digital man with a Pinocchio complex who will discover that becoming a human requires the most illogical offense to the computer world…self sacrifice.

ALAN’S OFFICE
LORI (20s) is an independent, hottie games programmer who takes whatever respect she can’t earn. She dumped her Ex (Flynn) because he couldn’t be tamed. She finds safety in a better man…ALAN.

ALAN (20s) is a bookish, humble, game programmer who is obsessed with TRON a self-aware game character he created. That’s right, TRON is the first digital life form and lives in a Massive Multiplayer on-line (MMO) video game called iPLANET.

TRON (18) holds up his hand revealing blood trickling down his palm. Alan asks how he got hurt. TRON lives in a secure portion of iPlanet where no AI monsters can attack him. He admits to venturing into the danger zone of the game which he knows is against Alan’s wishes. Alan explains that TRON must not play in the game because if he dies, he does not come back like normal users…that’s part of what separates him from being just a video-game.
TRON wonders if now that he’s been hurt and feels pain…is he a real human? Alan says that feeling pain is only part of being human. TRON begs Alan not to give up on him until the job is complete…until he can be a real man. ALAN is hesitant…he’s not being up front with TRON about something.
LORI confronts ALAN in secret and says he shouldn’t keep secrets…that’s what she hated about FLYNN, he could never reveal his inner self. ALAN found out that the funding for TRON was pulled to put more ENCOM resources into Flynn’s “beam project”.
LORI fumes, “Flynn!” and storms out of the office.

ENCOM GAME TESTERS LOUNGE
Two heroes fight on a computer screen. (The style of character approximates The Incredibles.) FLYNN (30s) is a Harley-riding, rebellious, twenty-nothing genius who designed the iPLANET game. He is playing against his ENCOM partner the slick, foul-mouthed DILLINGER (30s) who thinks himself a rock-star.

DILLINGER accuses FLYNN of cheating. Flynn says there’s no such thing as cheating, every advantage is legitimate in the game of life…even so-called cheats. LORI stands between the players and their monitor with her arms crossed. FLYNN uses a cheat code to nuke DILLINGER’s character in some funny fatality move.

FLYNN’S OFFICE
Flynn already knows why Lori is pissed. He asks why LORI’S boyfriend ALAN doesn’t come to defend the project.
“Fiance”, she corrects.
The decision is out of FLYNN’s hands…DILLINGER controls the budgets. Flynn shucks his responsibilities onto others–as if just showing up and being a genius is enough at work…or at home. Lori says that there are no cheats to maintaining adult relationships. Flynn didn’t realize that the clingy therapist survived the divorce. Why couldn’t the crazy-in-the-sack part survive?
Lori: I was neglected.
Flynn: Clingy.
Lori: You lived in your work.
Flynn: …but I didn’t leave.
Lori: Damn right, I left.
Flynn walks out of the office to attend a big presentation to the share-holders leaving Lori hanging mid-conversation, “Well, now it’s my turn to leave.”

VIDEO CONFERENCE ROOM
DILLINGER takes a Binaca hit then enters the teleconference room lined with video monitors of stereotype Japanese investors. ENCOM’s global success of IPLANET continues to grow in every computer market and the investors anxiously await the sequel. DILLINGER presents the next generation of their full-body digitizer: “LIFE-SCANNER” which is the brain-child of his partner KEVIN FLYNN. Polite applause.

FLYNN walks the office mutt, a stinky bull-dog named WILLIE, up for a demonstration. WILLIE sits on a digitizing deck and FLYNN points out a corresponding deck inside the iPlanet video game.
The Life Scanner projects a grid over Willie as a blue laser traces around the dog, storing his likeness even breathing pattern. A digital copy of Willie builds in the game, skeleton guts and muscles resulting in a perfect likeness. The digital version gives a little bark that elicits applause and a rare smile from the suits on the teleconference screen.
When the “real” Willie hears the digital dog bark he looks at the computer screen and barks back! More applause. Flynn says that the in-game dog can see the outside world via a camera built into the computer monitor, “The success of iPlanet is that users feel unprecedented presence in the game. The next incarnation of iPlanet will allow players to digitize their likeness into the game. It’s flattering and immersive!”

Dillinger takes over the show as Flynn stands on the digitizing deck, “LIFE SCANNER allows a perfect, believable image of the user to appear in the game…” A grid projects over FLYNN as the LIFE SCANNER circles him, recording his likeness. The LIFE SCANNER beam suddenly kicks into a different mode, it goes from BLUE to RED. Sparks fly out of the machinery of the beam when FLYNN pixilates and vanishes! LORI gasps.

IN GAME
Flynn appears in the game. He looks up in the sky and sees the outside world fed in via camera. “Aw, crap.” He feels something warm on his leg and the digitized version of WILLIE is peeing on him, “Nice.”

VIDEO CONFERENCE ROOM
Dillinger reaches into the control box of the LIFE SCANNER and says the beam is fried! Everyone turns to the screen in horror as the sound of a Battle Tank comes from the game monitor.

IN GAME
FLYNN sees the red battle tank coming over a dune. “AW, SHIST!” He RUNS! The battle tank fires plasma-missiles that demolish a palm tree next to FLYNN. He finds a power-up on the ground and crushes it into his own face! A blue shield made of three rings forms around him. The take shoots FLYNN and wears down his shield. Digital WILLIE takes a hit and vanishes (which makes the real dog bark in anger). FLYNN sprints toward the TANK MAZE at the top of the hill.
FLYNN is blasted through a wall and into the into the TANK MAZE. He hears multiple tanks working their way to the entrance of the maze.

ENCOM PROGRAMMING FLOOR
The ENCOM employees run to their computers to find FLYNN in the game and try to help him. LORI puts on her headset and logs into iPlanet using her work account.

IN GAME DEATH
An anime likeness of LORI appears in the Tank Maze. She runs between tanks setting charges in their treads. LORI turns a corner in time to see Flynn take a shot from three tanks at once removing his final shield and blowing him to pieces. FLYNN’S DEAD.

LORI WORKSTATION
LORI takes her headset off and cries at the terminal. ALAN offers to take LORI home, she says she needs to be alone. She’s going to go to Flynn’s place and get the address of his relatives.

FLYNN’S CONDO
Lori sees that bachelorhood hasn’t been kind to Flynn given the floor is papered with pizza boxes and Chinese take-out. She gets choked up seeing that all of their wedding pictures still hang on the wall.

It’s 3AM and Lori tosses and turns in her sleep. She winces at an image in her dream of FLYNN standing in front of her, “Lori, help me!”

ALAN’S OFFICE
LORI tells ALAN that she dreamed something that wouldn’t go away…it was FLYNN but he didn’t look like himself. For the first time…he looked needy.

ENCOM WORKSTATION AREA
DILLINGER makes an announcement making sure everyone knows how dramatic and heartbroken he is. Oh yes, and do go back to work on iPLANET since they are just a few weeks away from another BETA-test submission…it’s what FLYNN would have wanted.

ALAN’S OFFICE
Tron has found a strange power dip at ENCOM…ALAN suspects this isn’t FLYNN’s first time in the iPlanet game. ALAN suspects Dillinger is acting weird.

MEMORIAL SERVICE
ENCOM employees get up to talk about how great Flynn was…but especially how much he loved to cheat at his games. LORI suddenly figures something out, “He’s alive.” LORI’s so happy because she knows how FLYNN survived…he cheated!

DILLINGER’S OFFICE
Dillinger’s eyes glow…because he is a physical incarnation of the Master Control Program. He logs onto the iPLANET game and writes a patch that locks all users out of the game kicking ALAN and LORI out so that they can’t discover the truth about Flynn.

ALAN’S OFFICE
Lori and Alan can’t look for FLYNN any more so they summon TRON since he already lives in the game.

IN GAME
Two AI robotic creatures drive a future-fantasy HUMVEE. A third creature (with BLUE feet!) pulls out an electric staff and cuts the others in half with one swift move. He removes his hood and reveals FLYNN! (This isn’t the FLYNN we’ve been watching so far…that was a copy the Master Control Program (MCP) made of Flynn to get everyone to think FLYNN is dead so FLYNN’s shares will be inherited by DILLINGER…who is also the MCP acting like a real human.)
FLYNN looks like a castaway, he has a beard, messed up hair, suffers from lack of sleep and his clothes are torn up. He picks over dead bodies for power-ups.

Recognizers suddenly appear overhead. Ten players appear all around FLYNN…the game is open to outside users again. FLYNN isn’t bothered since this is not a PVP (player vs. player) server. He hears the geek kids talking on their headsets to each other: the geek, the husband nagged by his wife to get the hell off the game, the foul mouthed teen. They ask how Flynn looks “real” while they look like anime. FLYNN tries to convince them that he is a REAL person sucked into the game…he says that he actually invented iPlanet and they call him a liar!

DILLINGER’S OFFICE
Dillinger suspects LORI or ALAN hacked the iPlanet game and allowed friendly users back in to help FLYNN kill AI monsters. Dillinger hacks code into the terminal that switches this server into a PVP (Player vs. Player) mode. Now players get points for killing other players!

IN GAME
FLYNN runs from geeks trying to kill him! Recognizers fly over head in an aerial war between guilds. Flynn turns on them and pulls a power up from his belt labeled “Samurai Tiger” and uses it. GONG! He wears a robe and kung fu fights, gutting the geeks with his tiger claws!…don’t ever mess with the programmer of the game. (We go to the kid’s real life bedrooms and see them curse at their character dying in the game. One fat house-husband plays in his briefs while eating a bowl of Captain Crunch).
Flynn’s leg is bleeding. He finds a “health” power-up but doesn’t use it yet. He needs more firepower and has his eye on a rusty crashed Recognizer.

IN GAME: THE OCEAN
Meanwhile, TRON sneaks up on some players…who have lightcycle batons attached to their backs. TRON grabs a baton and forms a LIGHTCYCLE—(a motorcycle made of raw energy bolted together with black metal.) Killer lightcycle chase and battle using light trails that are like solid steel.

IN GAME THE RECOGNIZER
Flynn crawls into the Recognizer cockpit and uses his health power-up on it! It reassemble into a massive flying machine. FLYNN is targeted by 10 other Recognizers. Worse…a player is in the cockpit with him and kicks FLYNN’s injured leg! FLYNN offers the user any amount of real life money if he just lets him go. The player wants 200 dollars wired to his Paypal account. FLYNN agrees but when the player isn’t looking he gets STABBED in the back with FLYNN’s dagger. The player dies and we come out to the real world and see that it’s Ben Affleck playing the game in his underwear while eating Captain Crunch. He yells, “DAMN!”

IN GAME DINOSAUR GRAVEYARD
TRON sees a huge BLUE Recognizer taking damage as it maneuvers around 10 other RED Recognizers. TRON knows this amazing gameplay is FLYNN’S style.

TRON peels out and rides his light-cycle up a hill, ramps off the mountain, landing on the FLYNN’s Recognizer by laying the bike on its side. TRON produces a health power up for FLYNN’s leg but he refuses it. The vehicle needs more health. TRON doesn’t use health on vehicles, “Life is more important than the materials.” FLYNN’s leg is healed.

Their blue Recognizer falls apart mid-flight as the pieces tumble over the landscape. An injured red Recognizer catches up to them now. TRON pulls a DRAIN ESSENCE power up from his pocket and throws it at the enemy vehicle. Upon impact, it is instantly drained of power and falls limp to the ground. TRON gives Flynn a DRAIN ESSENCE spell and suggests he keep one with him at all times (This is clunky but FLYNN will pull this out in ACT III).

FLYNN says that DILLINGER and he were both sucked into iPlanet long before but DILLINGER died in the game.

DILLINGER’s OFFICE
LORI and ALAN are fired by DILLINGER for hacking a game-patch into the game. LORI starts yelling to the security guards that DILLINGER isn’t really DILLINGER any more. Dillinger smiles and when his door closes, he pixelates and floats over to his corner office window, surveying the world outside with a hungry look.

IN GAME TOP OF DINOSAUR GRAVEYARD
FLYNN is happy knowing a copy of he and Dillinger made it to the outside world. Now they just need to access the LIFE SCANNER beam from inside the game!
They begin their quest to huge domed building on the horizon.

FLYNN’S CONDO
Alan and Lori can’t access the game from ENCOM so they go back to Flynn’s apartment. Lori logs into the game using her old account.

IN GAME
LORI looks for Flynn. The re-occurring teenage PVP punk players show up and harass her confident that they can kill a girl player. LORI is pissed and pulls out amazing moves and beheads or stabs them in the GROIN with a sword.

Alan gets to work on a laptop writing a chunk of code that will hamper the effects of Dillinger’s PVP patch launched earlier.

IN GAME CROOKED PATH AROUND CITY
To avoid PVP geeks TRON and FLYNN have to walk around the city through haunted monster-filled forests. FLYNN explains that Dillinger wrote the Master Control Program which emulates successful routines of other programs and incorporates them into itself.
Once FLYNN started scanning people the MCP learned how to mimic life forms. Now MCP sees the real Earth as part of its game. It has already taken over ENCOM’s management and technology. They veer off the path to a huge wooden door with a keypad on the front. This is one of FLYNN’s safe areas he designed for himself and his friends—he punches in a code using his old nickname for LORI: “LADYBUG”.

IN GAME OASIS
They step into a wooded paradise…deer play in a tropical waterfall with raptors. FLYNN finds his stash of health power ups and crams three of them in his shirt. TRON asks for one just in case he needs it. FLYNN says, “No offense, TRON, but you’re digital and I’m real.”
TRON is crushed and asks how it feels to be human. FLYNN says that it HURTS and then you hurt others. Flynn admits that he lived around a good thing long enough, and took it for granted… He looks over to TRON and he’s sound asleep.

FLYNN is surprised to see LORI’s character perched on a green rock. She knew where to find him! Flynn tells Lori’s that DILLINGER is actually the Master Control Program.

FLYNN’S CONDO
Alan is in the background working on his laptop trying to hack his patch into the game with no luck. He puts his head in his heads…he’s been up for 48 hours straight.

IN GAME OASIS
Lori’s in game character sits next to Flynn under multi-moon light. Flynn apologizes about their past. He might not make it out and if he doesn’t he wants Lori to move on…with Alan. She quips that she’s moving on with Alan regardless! Flynn falls asleep in the game and Lori watches over him.

FLYNN is awakened by TRON…PVPers are breaking in and looking through bushes for FLYNN! A dragon-creature leaps out of the woods and GRABS Flynn and TRON! It drags them outside and they stand before 10,000 in-game PVPers who cheer in victory…
Flynn gives up. LORI’s informs him that the PVPers are only responding to ALAN’s patch! Now every player who helps FLYNN and TRON journey to SARK’s DOME get an automatic five-level advance! FLYNN tells LORI to thank ALAN and that he forgives that bookworm for stealing his wife.

PATH TO SARK’S DOME
The PVPers give FLYNN and TRON light batons as all 10,000 players mount their own light-cycles. They see an evil in-game army lining up to protect the entrance to the DOME as they also get on their black and purple evil lightcycles. All draw weapons and pop-wheelies toward their approaching enemies!

BIKE WAR
As the greatest full-contact lightcycle sequence unfolds, TRONN and FLYNN work their way to SARK’s DOME.

DILLINGER’S OFFICE
He’s pissed about LORI and ALAN’s attacks from FLYNN’S CONDO. He notices that the in-game transport deck is covered in MANTULAS (man/tarantulas, duh) and points the LIFE SCANNER beam across the lobby and out the window toward FLYNN’S CONDO. Three huge MANTULAS are sucked out of the game…

FLYNN’S CONDO
LORI and ALAN hear something moving in the back room. Another scratching noise at the window!

IN SARK’S DOME
Once inside the black dome FLYNN, TRON, LORI and a few other ‘red-shirt’ players zip up a spiraling path then enter the tower on foot. The tower interior is made up of the personal information of every iPlanet player!

LIBRARY OF iPLANET SOULS
Flynn enters a room that has his entire life scanned on file…magazine clippings, television appearances, taxes, childhood memories, social security number…this Master Control Program plans to take over everyone’s identity by means of the iPLANET game! LORI suddenly screams–she is attacked in the real world.

FLYNN’S CONDO
A MANTULA breaks through a window and bashes Lori’s computer to bits with all eight legs. Her in-game character fizzles and disappears.

DILLINGER’S OFFICE
DILLINGER can’t let Flynn make it out of the game so he ZAPS himself with the LIFE SCANNER beam…

IN GAME TRANSPORT DECK
Flynn arrives at the tele- deck and is met by his old partner who says, “Dillinger is now combined with the MCP and the MCP with Dillinger, we are SARK!” Spider enemies, robots and tanks keep Flynn from reaching the teleport deck. The monsters beat the crap out of Flynn and Tron.

FLYNN’S CONDO
ALAN pulls a fire extinguisher from the wall and sprays a MANTULA in the face so they can escape the condo. The MANTULAS follow them out. ALAN and LORI jump into their car and speed away but the Mantulas LEARN by observing…they jump in cars and start them up too! Then crash…Mantulas can’t drive a stick.

IN GAME TRANSPORT DECK
SARK challenges FLYNN to another battle…this time there will be no cheating. Choose any weapon; curved track-ball, Frisbee disk, chain-saw. The Frisbee-disc is his weapon of choice. While SARK is distracted FLYNN Sunday-punches him in the jaw!
Flynn wants Tron to digitize first. It’s his chance to be a human on Earth!
Tron agrees…but SHOVES FLYNN onto deck! FLYNN curses as he pixelates, “That’s CHEATING!” SARK blasts TRON with a rocket.

Now that FLYNN is transported out of the game thousands of PVPers cheer as their characters gain levels for their accomplishment ( BEN AFFLECK cheers at his monitor while his wife breastfeeds the baby in background before putting her head in her hands in shame).

ENCOM VIDEO CONFERENCE ROOM
Flynn wakes up on the deck from where he left. LORI and ALAN welcome him back. He admits he loves Lori. Lori says, “Too bad. I’m still sticking with Alan.”
Flynn says, “Don’t flatter yourself, woman. I didn’t say I wanted you back, I said ‘I love you.’” Flynn consoles ALAN since TRON didn’t make it.
The Japanese investors appear on the video-conference.

IN GAME SARK TELE-DECK
SARK stands over dead TRON. SARK swallows ALL of his power-ups: armor grows from his body, red sparks shoot from his fingernails and he is ZAPPED out of the game by the beam. TRON’s eye twitches.

ENCOM VIDEO CONFERENCE ROOM
FLYNN tells the Japanese investors that DILLINGER is under the control of an evil computer named MCP. FLYNN wants the board to reinstate him as a partner. SARK rezzes into the room!
The life-scanner beam begins forming thousands of Mantulas around the room. They pour out of the building and on the L.A. streets below.

FLYNN jumps off a desk, produces a light baton and ignites his lightcycle landing on the seat and peeling out through the office at the same time! SARK follows on his RED, heavily armed light-cycle (with a demonic head mounted to the front).

The Life-Scanner beam fires up again and TRON is formed in the office! HE survived! (He looks like an anime character but lit by real world office lights). TRON sees that thousands of Mantulas are forming all around them…he pulls the disc off his back and flings it at the LIFE SCANNER beam destroying it in a ball of light. Hoards of unformed Mantulas vanish!

L.A. STREETS
Flynn and SARK blaze through L.A. traffic driving up the sides of buildings leaving light trails that cause massive car pile ups! TRON sees the fight take place in the distance, but his lightcycle baton is broken. He sees a biker bar and sets his eyes on a parked Harley Davidson. TRON rides the bike chasing FLYNN and SARK!

SARK eats a growing power up and grows to the same height as the 50-story ENCOM building! SARK sees LORI inside the building and reaches in for her. FLYNN and TRON ride through parking structure across the street. FLYNN fires up the light-trail just as the bike takes off from the roof of the structure, leaving a light trail behind him. TRON rides over the light trail on his Harley!

ENCOM BUILDING
FLYNN bounces off SARK’s giant shoulder crashing into the office. SARK is about to grab FLYNN when TRON slams his Harley into the back of SARK’s head! This distraction gives FLYNN the opportunity to fish a little rendered oval out of his pocket…the DRAIN ESSENCE power-up was also made real in our world by the beam! FLYNN throws the power-up down SARK’s throat!
Now a normal sized SARK hangs from the ENCOM building in his underwear.

Flynn and TRON drag SARK before the Japanese investors and say that he’s a thief and a murderer. He also wants to use ENCOM to take over the world. The board has considered these things and actually prefer SARK’s plan for ENCOM’s world domination. For inhibiting SARK’s aggressive business model FLYNN is fired. Our heroes are escorted out of the building by security.

LATER
Flynn, Lori, Alan and TRON start their new company. Flynn wears a suit and sneakers, he is the new front man of the company. ALAN is the new lead programmer. They are working on virtual life applications to help TRON become human. All of the ENCOM employees quit and the fans of iPlanet quit the game out of loyalty to Flynn. ENCOM is on the brink of bankruptcy. TRON has his own office where he works while proudly wearing a casual suit and eating a cheeseburger…almost human!

THE END

THE TRILOGY
The structure of TRON focuses on TRON’s Pinnocchio journey from machine to man. Oddly, the first chapter “INTO THE MACHINE” appears to be FLYNN’s journey. But FLYNN becoming a functioning adult is the A plot of this first chapter but the B plot of the trilogy.

Chapter 1. TRON: INTO THE MACHINE
Flynn thinks being a genius is enough. He goes into a game to learn that he not only needs the friends he discounted, but also every player who ever used his game when they save him in the end. TRON is a digital self aware being who wants to be human. MCP, like TRON is dabbling in being ‘real’. He sets his goal a little higher than TRON…he doesn’t want to be a real human on Earth…he wants to be Earth’s GOD.

Chapter 2. TRON: DIGITAL HERO
TRON learns it’s hard to be a human. He feels extreme pain in battle, people treat him as a mutant. He is a super-hero on Earth saving people’s lives and riding his motorbike. TRON has to shop for groceries, survive the flu and pay freakin’ taxes. MCP uses the global markets to purchase and launch a satellite. He’s built a network of LIFE-SCANNER beams that allow him to digitize the Earth from space.

Chapter 3. TRON: MACHINE IN THE GHOST
MCP appears as a human and wants LORI to be his mate. Oh, and he’s going to wipe out the rest of mankind, starting a new Garden of Eden. Alan can destroy MCP if he sacrifices his son, TRON. TRON’s code won’t let him harm himself since this is the ultimate illogic of survival. TRON’s will overcomes his data and he dies for human race. He wakes in heaven a REAL human and God (a bright light) declares him so.

I’ve been jogging for about a year and a half. Jogging doesn’t come easy for me as I am a generally inactive person. Never doing well at athletics, I found more comfort at the drawing board. After about three months of running last year, I caught “the bug” and started feeling the high that comes from running. I only jogged up and down my street, but I was regularly doing four miles three or four times a week.

By the end of summer 2008 I was ready to try a half marathon. I ran one back in 1987 with a four hours plus finish time. I never really ran again until 2008. But the weekend before I was supposed to run the Pasadena half Marathon in November 2008 I jacked up my back throwing hay bails for a church fall festival. My back was toast, and I couldn’t run. When the Pasadena half Marathon was cancelled due to fires I felt like I had an out so I didn’t have to admit that I quit because of my back.

My back recovered by January of this year so I started running again. But this time I was much stronger. I plowed through twelve mile runs with ease. Then on March 14th of this year I did eighteen miles. That was the longest run I could ever imagine pulling off. Then I start seriously thinking about the LA Marathon. It was hard to run that far, but I knew it was possible.

But something was wrong with my left knee while recovering from the 18 miler…I got a sharp, throbbing pain. Three days later I couldn’t run four miles without the left knee hurting. Four days later I couldn’t run 2 miles. I’d walk home and ice it, not sure what to do.
Most of the month of March I tried running again after two weeks of rest only to have to stop running after about miles. I needed to keep my miles up for the marathon and I already missed the deadline for when I needed to run 20.

In April I went to a doctor in LA who specialized in knee injuries and was prominent in the field of sports medicine. He felt a clicking in my knees. He said that my being so tall and lanky gave me a poor build for running. He suspected the underside of my patella was rough and causing inflammation of the cushion on the underside of the knee-cap…I had “runner’s knee”.

He sent me to another specialist for an MRI and the results showed that no other injury was going on, but the inflammation was due to the impact of running on cement. I tried running on rubber tracks, on grass and the pain still kicked in by mile 4. The second specialist called with a prescription for my knee…she said to simply stop running. She said I had “chondromalacia” known as ‘runner’s knee’. She said they do knee replacements all the time and most of their surgeries were on marathon runners.

My father has a bad knee. It’s probably his genetics that gave me this problem. He’s 69 and the doctors are trying to convince him to get a knee replacement. That’ll probably be me in my late 60s too.

At this point, I was done with running. I agreed with both knee doctors that I should just quit and find something else to do for exercise. I hit the pool and started swimming one mile, three times a week.

It had been two months of swimming pretty consistently, but I could feel my legs and lungs weakening. I also picked up a few packs of cigarettes and started smoking my pipe again so that could only hurt my lung capacity. I figured with running behind me, I had a future of swimming and maybe riding my bike.

Then My Beloved went and did it. She’s a jogger too and wanted to go to the fitness expo associated with the LA Marathon. I put the marathon so far out of my mind that I looked at her like she was crazy. What expo? Why would you want to go? It’s in downtown LA and it’s a ghetto. “Doug, the convention center isn’t a ghetto.”

I gave her the email I regularly get from the LA Marathon with directions to the fitness expo, she needed my registration number to get my stuff. I had paid 100 dollars as an entry fee to the Marathon so maybe there were some things in the goodie bag that My Beloved could use while jogging. By the way, the emails I kept getting form the LA Marathon were a huge insult. They reminded me every day that his race was not for me. I considered putting them on my spam list so I didn’t have to be reminded of my failure.

So Angie brings this bag of goodies home and we shared pretzels and chips with the kids. Then I looked in the bag and found the jersey with the LA Marathon logo. There was my bib number on it. On Sunday, I figured, “Why not put on the shirt and put in a couple miles? Just to get some closure on running. You’ll drop out at mile four and gimp back to the car, but at least you can experience a marathon.”

We have this 80 year old man who jogs around our house. He wears doctor’s scrubs as a sweat-suit and he runs in slow motion. It’s barely a jog…it’s a shuffle. But I thought to myself, “That’s gotta be low impact. Probably even less impact than walking.” I decided to run the marathon and try my hand at that shuffle.

I got up at 5:30am Monday morning. I put on my usual outfit: Ipod Shuffle, New Balance shoes, little runner’s socks, and I wore the LA Marathon tee shirt. I filled out the back of the bib number that has a place for emergency contact info. I put Angie’s number in there, mostly so I could keep her name close to me.

Part of the goodie bag was a free patch made to numb pain called “Salonpas”. I stuck a few of those on like nicotine patches on Krusty the Clown. I was willing to try anything.

Since the beginning of the race wasn’t until 7:20am I had enough time to eat some breakfast. So I had a bowl of Cheerios when my 3 year old, Olivia sat at the table next to me. She doesn’t get up this early but she said she was hungry so we poured her a bowl of cereal. Before eating we always pray, and this time I asked Olivia to pray for my knee. I told her I had to run and I was a little scared. We prayed together and she kept staring at me. I think she hadn’t seen me this serious in a while.

Getting to the starting line was a lot of fun. I got to talk to an older lady and a couple of guys running on behalf of fallen soldiers, policemen, cancer survivors. I started seeing a sea of people all of whom have an amazing story. I practiced my shuffle jog and didn’t have time to develop a pace.

As the announcer started the count-down I prayed, “God, I believe that you are the master of the materials and my bones and cartilage aren’t the final say in the matter. I can’t do this with just my will because my will isn’t enough. Nietzsche’s act of pure will isn’t enough. I need supernatural help. Let me run to represent your victory over the materials.” The countdown begun and I did my shuffle.

Now the shuffle is a really slow way to get around. I have to take really small steps and it avoids any real impact on the knees. More of the load is taken on by the thighs and the bottom of the feet and toes. I was slow that hundreds of walkers were passing me, including fat, 300 pound women I couldn’t imagine who they made it to the starting line.

A mile into the race I came upon a black man who was doing the shuffle! He was in his mid 70s and had a good pace. I just followed him and after a while we were going side by side. I was dying to know his story. His name was Ahmed Abdul-Bari and I could barely understand what he was saying, and he wasn’t terribly comfortable with me talking to him. At 74, he was one of the older men racing. He said he walked a lot and just thought he’d run the marathon this year. I think he’d run many before because he thought he had a good chance of finishing. He rarely took water. In 8 miles he only had one cup. At mile 9 I had to pee and when I came out of the bathroom he was waiting to get in. I didn’t know if I was supposed to wait for him or not. I kept running and hoped he wasn’t counting on me to be there.

I jogged through Crenshaw, where the streets were lined almost entirely of black people. Hundreds of families came out to cheer. Fathers and sons dressed like gang-bangers and women wearing brightly colored mu-mus blasted music and clapped for us. The crowds really helped me jog better. They’re amazing. Oh, and jogging through Crenshaw I’ve never seen more pit bulls in one area in my life. Every house had bars over the windows and doors. I remembered seeing whole blocks with tall chain-link fences surrounded the house. It looked like a neighborhood wrapped in a prison.

By mile 14 I picked up the pace on my shuffle a bit. I got more confidence that this wasn’t just a couple of miles, but that I might be able to beat my personal 18 mile running record. It was very hard being so far back in the run because many of the aid stations stopped serving orange slices…one even ran out of cups for the water so I picked up the big jug and swigged it.

Mile 20 started getting hard. My feet were pounding, the heat picked up a little, but I was amazed that I couldn’t feel ANYTHING in my knees! It was like God gave me an epidural.

At mile 22 my heart started pounding really hard. I thought I was on the brink of a heart attack. My thoughts went to Angie and the kids. I needed to show my kids that we shouldn’t quit difficult things but I didn’t want to have a heart attack either. I had to walk most of the 22 mile. Walking felt weird, because I went with a slower, longer stride to use different muscles. By now some of the traffic was allowed to breach the marathon course so cops held us up to allow cars to pass. When I stopped to jog in place and my toes instantly cramped up. That’s what’s weird about running long distances, as long as you keep going it doesn’t hurt that bad. But if you stop to rest the pain really kicks up.

Every mile from 13 to the end I got cramps in my toes and calves. Usually I could run through it by doing this weird funny step. It involves cramming the toes down into the ground. I don’t know why it works, but it does.

I started the shuffle again at mile 23 and my thoughts went to Ahmed. I wonder if he would finish? I wasn’t going to quit and have a 74-year-old man pass me. I was having a hard time running straight. every step felt like my legs were dead worms.

By mile 25 I still thought my body could give out, but I was going to finish. By the end there aren’t many water stations left. I guess they figure that someone gimpy enough to need 8 hours to finish a marathon don’t need as much help as some guy finishing in under 3 hours. Go figure.

Before I knew it, I was crossing the finish line for a marathon I didn’t plan to even run 24 hours earlier. I couldn’t believe what I’d just done. Now looking back it seemed like a waking dream. I know I was there but can’t remember specifics of the last 4 miles. I remember looking down at the ground a lot and concentrate on just taking another step. My shuffle’s music was too hard to play at the end of the race. I turned it off at mile 23 and ran the rest with no soundtrack. I imagined my Beloved, who always gives me strength. I thought about my children and how they are a great source of my happiness. I wanted to do finish for them. Daddy isn’t a quitter. Then I repeated the prayer to God that He is the master of the materials and that people have done great things under His inspiration.

I gimped up to the lady who put the medal over my head. She said that she was proud of me and I cried.

The final results found me one of the slower runners in the race. I was passed by hundreds of walkers, but it was a very personal race. I didn’t really care about my time, nor that my run was so slow that it would leave many scratching their heads at my pace given some men can plow 26 miles of field faster than I can got a marathon. But in crossing the finish line the victory was so clear in my head. This would be one of the most significant things I’ve ever done.

But the miracle keeps coming back to me. I can’t explain why my knee went off the grid for 8 hours. I feel no pain. In fact, my knee felt weirder before I ran the Marathon than after. It couldn’t be mind-over-matter because my mind wasn’t focused on overcoming knee pain. I never felt any pain. It felt like a legitimate miracle. One of the few I can even think of in my whole life. I’m always open to miracles, I just never see them. This time I have evidence for one that defies a natural explanation. It’s something I’ll never forget.

My stats for the run:

bib: 8176
Division: MEN 40 TO 44
Age:42
Chip time: 07:51:08
Clock time: 07:59:34
Overall place: 13414

And the good news? I looked up Ahmed’s information and he finished 30 minutes after me! He did it! That’s a form of inspiration I’ll always carry with me.

I gave up smoking in 2008. Not forever, just for the year. I don’t think I would have quit forever so I wouldn’t have tried so I would have failed. But I knew I could do it for one year, so I did. My goal in life isn’t to remove all vice from my life, it’s to manage it. There’s a difference between vice and sin, and I don’t try to manage sin, sin isn’t something one manages.

My rule for New Year’s resolutions are that they can’t be a sin I have to give up. Sins should be abandoned with no association to a date. So my New Year’s Resolutions end up being about little bad habits, smoking, drinking, speeding, cussing.

This confuses people because some are convinced that smoking is a “sin” because it harms the body and we only have bodies since many don’t believe in the soul. That’s the hysteria behind most smoking laws, not that it’s a supernatural evil to smoke, but that it’s harmful to the materials of your body.

I’m not advocating harming the body, but there’s a reason why great men have had no problem drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes, they were aware that there are artistic, immaterial merits to pleasure and taste that transcend mere health. Health is over-rated. Many unhappy, mean, stupid people are healthy. My children are already culturally programmed to not enjoy the sugar cereal they get as a treat, “This is bad for us.” I push it on them, “Don’t believe people who sum up the goodness or badness of something based solely on health. Cereal also tastes good.”

The smell of cigarette smoke never once bothered me in a restaurant. Now I miss a smokey diner. My children aren’t hurt when the lady smokes at the public park, but they ARE hurt when that lady cusses while using her cell phone. Soul pollution, not lung pollution. My soul will out-live my lungs by some measure.

I only gave up smoking last year to demonstrate to myself that I will be a slave to nothing…at least not for a year. Perhaps my person only found the strength to give up smoking because it knew I would smoke again some day. I’m aware that my feelings will orchestrate seemingly natural feelings to sabotage my plans. I can live with that as long as I don’t smoke for that year, perhaps I’ll quit forever some day, but not today.

So let it be known that as of today I can have a cigarette…I could easily go inhale a pack right now. But I set another goal knowing how badly I want to return to the vice of smoking. I won’t smoke again until I run a marathon. Take that! I wanted to run a marathon and know that I could never train for that distance and smoke at the same time. I need my lungs to be fat and juicy to take in enough oxygen.

I gave up coffee today for one year. That’s my 2009 resolution. No coffee. I usually drink just about two pots a day. No cheating with tea either. I knew myself well enough with cigarettes that I’d have to give up cigars, pipes and chew or I’d just use those to extend my tobacco slavery. I’m not going to go psycho on caffeine, because it’s in chocolate and diet coke and I have a little chocolate and diet Coke every week so big deal. If I start doing six diet cokes a day I’ll know that those will have to go too.

No coffee today.
No cigarettes today.
I ran two miles this morning.
I lost 28 pounds last year and kept it off. I’m at 192 right now (and 6′8″ tall).

My Beloved got me a jogging GPS (Garmin Forerunner) so I can keep track of my run distances. You might remember that last fall I got up to 16 miles on my long run. That’s my personal record. Then it happened. I helped set up our church fall festival and thought I’d throw a few hay bails like I did in high school. My back jacked. Muscles felt like a tangled up swing-set then drawn tight.

The hardest thing to do was to give up running. This was my new discovery this year and now it was taken away from me. My new vice that made me feel great was gone. I tried to run a few times and had to quit after a mile. After two weeks of pain I finally went to see a chiropractor.

I have to apologize to every chiropractor I ever insulted by calling your practice a bunch of voo-doo wave the bloody chicken leg around the office snake oil. My friends went to chiropractors for years and never got better. I was in so much pain that I finally gave this quack in Pasadena a try…90% of my pain vanished in my first 20 minute visit. I couldn’t believe it. He used this little jack-hammer thing that pushes the spine just a little bit at a time.

The pain comes back but not as bad with each recurrence. Just this week I got the go ahead to start running again. I did a mile the day before yesterday and I was terrified to agitate my back injury. We’re taking it slow. A lot is at stake with my running. I’m not talking about the smoking either.

I’m at work putting this image of me to death this year. It’s that image of the scrawny “inside boy” who finished last at every sport event because I knew I couldn’t do it. I finished behind the girls, behind the blind guy in the portable iron lung, I thought drawing was enough. I finished a half marathon in 1987 and said, “I could never turn around and do that again like those marathon runners.”

The marathon is a hairy run. I’m not setting myself up for failure in admitting that I may not be able to finish. I’m 42. My knees give me a little trouble on cold days and longer runs since I only jog on cement. My back is this ghost always threatening to come back on the scene and take everything away.

Ready. Steady. Go.

So there’s this article that says Taller People are Happier.

I have to admit that I am a generally happy guy. I never tied it to my height, but I’m willing to go along with it. I assume it’s because up in this altitude my brain is starved of oxygen. That or because I have so much sex with my wife. I also can see the lead singer of the band no matter where I am in the crowd. So many reasons to be happy…most of them tied to my height. Okay, maybe not the sex thing.

I do get really sad when I have to buy all of my clothes from the J.C. Penny’s big and tall men’s catalogue. I wish they’d just come clean and title it “DORK CLOTHING INC.” Come on idiots at J.C. Penny’s, I’m freaking 6′8″ so why would I want red plaid slacks?! I’d look like a Scottish clown who played golf.

Anyways, other than the J.C. Penny’s catalogue thing I guess I’m pretty happy.

My brother woke me with a phone call, “Doug, something is going on in New York. A plane hit the World Trade Center.” I turned on the TV and the second plane had just hit. “What the hell’s going on?”

Our greatest threat was revealed on that day. Not Climate Change. Not Europe’s perception of us. But a religiously motivated totalitarian regime. They did it with box-cutters. My hero, the President of the United States, has thwarted hundreds of attacks since then. I don’t think any of us could imagine a world where we wouldn’t be hit for seven years. I’m thankful. If Obama gets into office I will praise him til’ my dying day if he too, keeps us from being hit for another 8 years.

I’ll never forget the men and women in business attire leaping from the burning buildings because jumping was preferred to burning to death in an inferno.

We rallied together, behind a common flag to fight this enemy. Now when I look at a flag it has a different meaning to me. I used to love it because it represented America, now I love it because it represents an awakened America. We put flags on our houses again, on our cars, we waved them in the streets. When we were hit by enemies we didn’t cower, we got out our flags and showed the world we were united.

Then we forgot.

It’s true. It’s official. I’m going to run the Pasadena half marathon. It’s actually a Marathon, half marathon and 5k but I’m only doing the half.

I find that I do a lot better at something if I make it into some kind of competition. I have to have a goal, and it has to be hard but within the realm of possibility, which is why I’m not running the marathon.

I once did a half marathon…in San Diego…ahem, twenty years ago. My goal is the same as it was then, to just run the whole thing without stopping. That’ll be 13.1 miles and my longest run this year has been 8 miles.

This is what happens when the press awoke the sleeping dragon-lady. And there was never a more graceful lovely dismantling of elite media in my lifetime. This is not McCain vs. Obama, it’s the Obama wing of the media against soccer-mom America…and the media doesn’t have a chance.

These are the new battle-grounds and I love how journalism just got their candidate’s head handed back to them on a platter. Don’t jack with momma bear’s cubs.

Style – 0
Substance – 1

The funny is that half of the Republicans in the room didn’t understand that when McPalin cleans up politics a whole mess of that cheering room is going to get their own pork-packed Republican heads handed back to them on a spit. Keep cheering guys.

It’s official. I’m afraid of seals. They look like bloated, hairy, leeches and seemed harmless until this last weekend when I snorkeled at La Jolla Cove.

These things are huge, I’m talking twelve feet long. Standing on a rock, fifteen seals swirled around and wanted the rock. They didn’t like me up there, and might have seen me as establishing my dominance given I was displaying my colors…my day-glow swim trunks from Target.

I crawled down the rock, snorkel and breathing tube pulled up on my head, and as soon as I put my feet in the water the seals would circle closer, put their head above water and show their teeth. I don’t care how brave you think you are, seals have the exact same sized teeth and jaws of a wolf. Their eyes roll back like a dolls eyes…then out come the yellow, sharp teeth.

Now I see why people whack them in the head as pups because nobody would dare attack them once they leave the pupae stage. Forget wolves, these guys are more like BEARS! Bears of the sea. If a great white was a mammal he’d be a seal. From now on I’m not snorkeling unless I buy a King Neptune-style trident.

Evil seals.

I’m a Conservative Republican. After listening to the speakers at the Democratic Convention I learned a lot about myself I didn’t know before.

I want children to go to bed hungry. I want to ruin children’s education. I want children to perform worse and worse. I only care about children in traditional family structures, I don’t care about other children. I want to sell out the children’s future economically. I want to ruin the world for the future’s children. I work to make animals go extinct and try to make ocean levels rise so children can’t live anymore.

I want the rich to be richer. I only want a few to make all of their money off the backs of poor or real people who work hard. I want people to have unstable home loans to get them into a house, then I want them to lose their house. I try to lose jobs for people. I try to get as many families off of insurance as possible I don’t want anyone to have health care. I want to keep dying kids from getting medicine in Canada.

I hate brown people. I want Mexicans to die before going to the doctor. I want to use Mexicans for work and I don’t want them to get paid. I’ll give you one guess where I want their money to go…I want to give it to the rich! If I don’t vote for a brown person it’s because I’m not ready for brown in leadership. I don’t want women in leadership. I want to obstruct the progress of brown people and women who just want a job or want to succeed in politics.

I want war to last forever. I don’t care about our troops. I want people to die to get oil for the rich. I don’t want to catch Bin Laden. I don’t want to talk to foreign leaders, I want to end talks, go to war and piss off Europeans who have always loved us. I want us to be less prosperous than China and India. I want to give them our jobs. I want American industry to die and go overseas.

I don’t like unity. I want division. I don’t compromise the way the other side does. I just want to divide with my negative politics. I hate positive politics. I want a dirty campaign. I want to call names and not address issues. I want to protect the status que. I hate change if it involves good ideas.

I don’t like Obama because of his name. I don’t like Obama because I think he’s a Muslim. I don’t like Obama because he’s black. I don’t like Obama because his ears are too big.

I want the government in a woman’s womb. I’m against science. I don’t want gays to love each other because they aren’t like me. I want to stop love. I’m against hope. I think saying “we can” is stupid. I don’t think we can do anything. I don’t want those with horrible diseases to get help.

I think Christianity is just for my party. I think God is a Republican. I think we have control over all Christians. I like to take advantage of Christians. I lie. I lie to people to get what I need. I don’t really respect Christians I just want to pretend to be Christian so Christians will empower me to go to war for oil. I love oil. I don’t have any values but to serve oil companies. I’m in the pocket of the rich. I don’t have any agenda of my own but to protect the rich. And the Saudi Family. I just want to ally with the Saudi Family and screw over families in America.

My values are not American. My values are to help the rich. I took away America’s greatness. I’m preventing America from going back to a status of greatness like when Clinton was President. I want to go back to our time of failure like under Reagan. I want another president who will take away America’s greatness just like Reagan took away America’s greatness that Carter built up. Kennedy had him some American greatness, before Nixon came along and took America’s greatness away.

We have no arguments but to bring up Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton. We spend a lot of money to tell lies about Obama.

I want four more years of Bush. I want four more years of secret Cheney puppeteering on behalf of the oil companies. I want four more years of Bush joblessness. I want four more years of Bush expansion of government spending.

I have to be honest, I didn’t know any of this stuff about we Conservative Republicans before the Democratic Convention. I learned a lot about myself this week.

Dear Doug, just a few notes. LOVE YOUR WORK.

Recently, the people we buy are bought as pitches and concepts, not fully written people. You have too many children, too concrete of a world view. Divorce your wife at the end of the second act to put more at stake in the third act.

We’re looking for something unique and different, but not YOU unique and different. Give use unique and different but within the realm of seen-it and same. Can you be any less 6′8″? The audience has higher expectations thanks to people like Bono and Dali. Eccentric but bankable. Think Julie Taymor but talented and easy to work with.

Character is really important these days…I’m told. I haven’t greenlit anyone or anything with character though I once saw a guy tip the valet five dollars. Your character has come up a number of times and we’re hoping to see something new. Like character times character. I suggest you go to a coffee shop and overhear conversations. Try to get a stronger sense of how people talk and hear what sounds natural. Try to incorporate that into your general communication skill-set.

I can already hear you defending yourself against my notes. Middle aged writers like yourself will often defend themselves against notes without fulling hearing the note first. If you disagree with the note, know that I’m not the kind of executive who makes you take my notes. I’m just offering suggestions to make you into a better person. And by better person I mean ‘You without four kids, without your faith and without so much height’. I mean, damn, do you play basketball? (No, I didn’t write that joke. I hired David Mamet and he did a punch up after Darabont.) Anyways, please incorporate my notes or we’re going with another person.

Your first act was weak and that’s usually a bad sign especially when your life is at the turning point. I don’t see any villains either and that isn’t going to work on a hero’s journey. I don’t mean to presume…this is a hero’s journey, right? I mean, you’re 6′8″ so I didn’t think it was a RomCom.

Call me some time after the holidays and we’ll set lunch for a few months after that. LOVE. YOUR. WORK.