Tuesday, April 28, 2015

From Fat To Finish Line the documentary Nashville Premiere

So the last few weeks have been an exciting whirl-wind. I'm practically pinching myself that it all just happened.

Official movie poster! 


After three years in the making, From Fat to Finish Line the documentary premiered at the Nashville Film Festival this past week.

My "industry pass" and screening tickets


Wow. What a trip.

It was exciting and nerve-wracking to think that the film we've labored over for years (and one that showcases one of the most difficult runs of my life) was going to be viewed by strangers on an enormous screen and in a real-live movie theater. 

It started with a little more than half the team traveling to Nashville to be a part of the screening. A few of the team couldn't be there for various reasons and that was the toughest part. It made everything just slightly bitter-sweet because I kept thinking of them and wishing them there. I know that it was hard on them to not be there as well and that made me sad. We are planning on doing quite a few festivals so I'm sure that everyone will get the chance to see it on the big screen and enjoy a festival so that is the good news. 

Aside from Linda who came in a little later that day and Carly who came in for the second screening later that week, the team who was there and myself decided to kick off the premiere day by running a local 5K. It was fantastic and fun. Every run should be filled with that kind of joy.

Allison, Me, Rik, Lealah, Meredith, John

Then we had a nice post race brunch in a fun Nashville spot, relaxed for a bit and got ready for the premiere!  

There was a red carpet and we got interviewed and pictures taken! 

Me
The team and Director:

Allison, Meredith, Rik, Lealah, John, Linda, Me, and Angela
We had two screenings with Q&A's afterward. 

We were flying high and then Runner's World ran an online story about the premiere! How fricken cool.  You can see the article here and they even linked to the trailer

People seemed to really love the movie. 

Here's a girl with her own amazing story who wanted a picture with Carly and I after the second screening. Stuff like this makes all the hard work worth it. I was just blown away:

Carly, Annette, Me 
The plan right now is to do a festival circuit of various cities (I will let you know where and when) and then be ready to distribute for the public by January. 

It leaves me speechless. Who knew that all those years ago when I decided to pick up a pair of running sneakers, and try to run for a minute and made an audacious goal of running a race that it would lead to all this stuff? God/the universe/ whatever you want to call it just works in mysterious ways. I'm so thankful and grateful for this journey. 

XO
Jen 


3 comments:

Frickin' Fabulous at 40 said...

Did that *really* just happen??!!??

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on seeing an amazing project through to the big screen. My loose association with this started well over 1.5 years ago when Katie and John formed our team for Ragnar SoCal - which is (mostly) reuniting this weekend in Indy. Looking forward to meeting Rik and others that have had a part in this as well. Thank you for opening up yourself to share this story - it has and will impact many for years to come.

nikki said...

so proud of you, jen the runner!!!