John’s Ramblings

Last night was “date night”, and I believe my concept for the evening went pretty well.

• Terri needed to spend the day in Seattle yesterday to attend a couple of meetings for her work.
• I wanted to go to Seattle and see “Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France” at the IMAX theater at the Pacific Science Center.

Getting Terri to “the big city” on a Friday night is not an easily accomplished feat, so I cleverly wrapped the day in a magnanimous gesture by driving her to Seattle through the morning rush hour (she dislikes commuting to Seattle with a passion), then the movie, followed by dinner at the end of the evening. The concept was well received, especially due to the nastiness of the weather as of late.

Well she made it to her meeting on time (thanks to the carpool lane), and I picked her up at 3:45 up on First Hill in the afternoon. We headed to the Seattle Center, parked, and found the proper building for our 4:30 film.

Wired to Win is set in the 2003 Tour de France (Spoiler: Lance wins), and is more a film about how the body and mind deal with the “pain and suffering” than just a film about a cycling race.

The IMAX footage of the race itself is quite stunning, and really leaves you wishing there was more of it. But the filmmaker had a story to tell, and so the race scenes are interspersed with lots of graphics about the physiology behind bicycle racing, and the psychological aspects of dealing with 3 weeks of racing, often through pain. As a teacher of Medical Assisting, Terri liked this part of the movie just as well and could actually see using the film in her class if it ever goes to video.

Lastly the film follows the Tour experience for two riders on the Francaise de Jeux team, Baden Cooke and Jimmy Caspar. Cooke ends up with the green “sprinter’s” jersey, while Caspar must withdraw due to injuries sustained in one of the huge crashes that year.

I’d say that if you are a fan of cycling, this is well worth the $8 to go see. We really enjoyed it. If you weren’t into cycling, however, this may not be your cup of Thé.

We capped off the evening with dinner and some hand-crafted ales at McMenamin’s Queen Anne. Food was good, service was good, and the beer was great!

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