It is not apparent what is accomplished by having actor Lisa Lambe read out a marathon list of synonyms for women's genitalia, nor by the presence of a male actor (Ronan Leahy) wearing a Donnie Darko-esque bunny head.
"I could care less," said Stephanie Shweiki of Bethesda, Md., who was about to run her first marathon — "my bucket list for turning 40," she said.
Evans's "Frame Houses in Virginia" (1936), a deadpan strip of houses trotting horizontally across the frame, looks like a practice run for Edward Ruscha's marathon of a list, "Every Building on the Sunset Strip" (1966), which is laid out in a long, accordion-folded strip.
My mind had already run a marathon through the list of tasks, errands, anticipated conversations, appointments and deadlines before I even began my morning workout.
The "Moby-Dick" marathon organizers assembled a list of "practice words" for readers to mull in advance of the marathon.
"I think Athens has got to go on your short list of marathon races you want to run once in your life," he said.
This spring, running in a different model of Asics shoes, he finished fifth at the London Marathon and joined the list of marathon medal contenders at the Summer Games.
"A lot of people have checked the marathon off their 'life list,' " said Ryan Lamppa, a spokesman for Running USA, a nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara, Calif., that tracks trends in running.
Later that day, I crossed running a marathon off my Bucket List and added a 26.2 magnet to my car.
We call it Team In Training, and for 24 years people have been signing up to run for someone they love, or to get in shape, or to tick a marathon off their bucket list, or to feel a part of something bigger than themselves, or, like me, to celebrate their survival from leukemia.
