kellybrothers's posterous

Wildflower and 'A Second Chance'

Hello all you Second Chance supporters!

If I've learned anything this past year and a half, it's that the most careful plans rarely work out. Sometimes that's good, like when the odds of Janelle running again were slim a little over a year ago, and she was running with her pro-teammates in Februrary. Sometimes it's not so good, like when Janelle planned Wildflower, and after an incredibly stressful couple of weeks of "I think I can still do it," she pulled out the week before the race.

We had all planned a great coordinated effort. Janelle would race, we'd film her, posters were out, articles were written, the motorcycles, bikes, cameras, lights were all ready to go, the film would wrap, and we'd move on to post-production full time for the rest of the summer. Our executive producers Myron Tetrault, David Weinkauf and Rose Serpico were putting their full support around the logistics of getting a full crew down to the race, and planning out the intense 3-months of post production that would pull in top talent from around western Canada to put the film together in time for a mid summer release.

When Mike McKeown (my producer) and I arrived in San Diego a week before Wildflower, Janelle was still running on a special treadmill that allowed her to run with only a percentage of her body weight (she was running at 65% Wednesday before Wildflower). It was the last week of her camp with Paulo Sousa, and she made the call that she would finish the camp, and not go to the race.

So we stayed with her in San Diego, while Rose Serpico went on to Wildflower. Ryan Hollings, our Director of Photography, met us in San Diego and we filmed Janelle training, while Mike, Janelle, and I had marathon conversations about the film, Wildflower, her comeback, and the dangers of planning a documentary out too carefully.

I drove with Janelle to her treadmill workout on our last day in San Diego. We talked the whole way about how to move forward. The accident and filming have made her more of a celebrity than she's ever been, and has made me a film director of the most personal and complicated story I've ever told. We're both rookies. And like every rookie, we're making mistakes at every turn. We agreed, in the hallway of the health centre, that we'd continue to make mistakes, but that she'd work like hell at becoming the athlete she wants to be, and I'd figure out how to build her story into a great film.Together we'd learn how to handle the complicated world of public support, sponsors and investors, press, and thousands of people who believe in something that we're slowly putting together.

So we're going at the next race differently. There are too many variables to say "this is the end of the film." I've learned that now. I hope it'll make the end to a great film. And Janelle hope's she'll get the "first race monkey" off her back. But this is a documentary, not a scripted film.

Mike has told me repeatedly over the winter that we'll know when we have the end of the story. For many of you, Janelle's story has in some way already finished - she's gone from coma to now training with professionals. For Janelle, her story's hardly started - she's dying to get out and race finally. My team and I need to pick an ending somewhere in between.

So thank you so much for your support for this project. As David Weinkauf said at a meeting last week, you're supporting an idea right now. You didn't buy a DVD, you didn't go to a theatre, you bought into an idea for a film. That takes faith, and faith in a team who are as human as you. That faith is humbling for us on the other side of the equation. I feel like we're starting the marathon of an ironman. On one hand we're "almost there" and able to start thinking about the finish line, but really we still have a marathon to go. A marathon that will throw a thousand curveballs, that will push us to be rude when we mean to be nice, that will make us hurt, but will also make us smile, inspire us and make us believe. You've been the thousands that have lined the streets to cheer us up Yellow Lake, and now we need you to be the same thousands that line the long road out to Okanagan falls.

Janelle will be racing soon, including the Calgary 70.3 and IMC. At those events she and I will talk about the film and the journey of the past 2 years.

My brother Dave and I started Kelly Brothers Productions so we could tell stories that inspire people. We're working on one right now, and it will be one you will be proud to say you believed in before it even existed.

See you at the finish line!
Treadmill
Rob
www.asecondchancefilm.ca

IMC 2011 Race Report

IMC 2011. First Ironman. How it all went down.

This time my story starts in the fall of 2010, in Todd's brick class
at Tri-it one Saturday morning. A bunch of athletes were talking about
their experience at Ironman, and I left the class thinking "I think
I'd like to be fit enough to do an ironman."

Fast forward 10 months, and Todd was telling me "you can do it," as I
wondered if I really could with anywhere from 5-10 hours of training a
week. I'd get my weekly notice that my workouts were online, and I'd
think "I might make a swim, and if I'm l'm lucky I'll make the group
ride on Saturday and do a 90 minute run on sunday." But every time I
did a long ride or run, I'd think "Todd's right, I can do this."

Then suddenly it was Wednesday of IMC week. I wrapped 5 days of
shooting in Ft. Saskatchewan over the past couple of weeks, I had the
usual "what did I miss" anxiety about the shoot, and had Thursday
morning to stop by the office, come home and pack for the race, and
drive to Penticton with Nina. We got to Penticton, maybe ate something
bad on the way, because we both woke up on Friday feeling like hell
and needing to nap for a good chunk of the day. I was still worried
about the shoot, hoping we had enough footage, and telling myself
"okay, I have a day to start thinking about Ironman."

Saturday I felt good again, and started to feel excited about the
race. I took a short nap in the afternoon because everyone says it's
tough to sleep before Ironman. But then I slept like a rock Saturday
night, hit the snooze button for 1 snooze, and then got up and headed
over to Chris and Lesley's site to get a ride to transition at 5:30
sunday morning. We walked up to transition and I started to get the
usual pre-race giggles that I love so much. The whole thing was crazy
- thousands of people everywhere, lineups for the porta potties,
people walking around in wetsuits up to their waists, sun coming up,
music playing on the loudspeakers, the whole triathlon comedy.

And then we were in the water with the cannon going off and marching
forward to our swim. I started swimming, noticing how much easier it
was to swim in Chris Kennedy's wetsuit than my old one. Didn't stop me
from my typical open-water swim technique, having the guys in the
boats tell me I was way off course, imagining what the garmin was
going to say about my sighting... But it all ended eventually and I
was out of the water crossing the mats. I got into transition, put on
my helmet, and had the strap come off right away. So after several
tries I got it to work and off I went.

The bike started fairly comfortably. I lost my chain on the first
hill, which was fine - put it back on and kept going - though I did
wonder if I should have had my bike tuned up before the race.
Nevertheless, a nice little ride to OK Falls, and then my stomach
started to feel off. A bit of pain, didn't feel like eating or
drinking, and I wondered how I was going to get my nutrition in. Cool
to see Lyndsey and Mike on Richters, but I had this constant stomach
thing going on that I was doing my best to ignore. By the time I got
into the rollers after Richters I was feeling pretty bad, overheating,
I had gotten through 2 mars bars but couldn't stand the thought of
eating any more - stingers, mars bars, sports drink, all my go to
things just weren't working for me. I could only drink water, I
couldn't get any water into my aero helmet, so I kept pouring it on my
face, my back, my legs when I could.

Then I got to the out and back, and all I could think was "where in
hell is that damn special needs station?" It wouldn't end. I grabbed a
coke from my special needs, had a gel, and headed toward Yellow Lake.
By the bottom of Yellow lake all I had was half a bottle of coke. As I
went up the hill I was barely creeping along, feeling emotional and
thinking "okay, feeling emotional is either dehydration or a salt
issue." So when I got to the aid station at the top I stopped and as
John Howey hosed me down with a bottle of water I had a salt tablet
and drank some of the coke he told me to keep drinking. The ride back
into town was hell. I couldn't stay aero for more than a couple of
minutes at a time, I rode along slowly and thought "how on earth am I
going to run after this?" I was in pain, my stomach was bloated and
painful, I didn't think I had enough nutrition, I saw the guys headed
out on the run and wondered how it was going to play out.

Lorne in transition helped me put my singlet on, and I hobbled out to
the run course for my first marathon. I decided I would walk every aid
station, but keep running between them. So I did. I couldn't eat
anything, my stomach hurt to run, and I just kept thinking "okay, keep
plugging away." I did my brother Gord's trick of thinking of the
marathon as a series of 5k runs. Every 5k I thought "done, I only have
8 of these to do." And as the aid stations went by I got rid of my gel
flask, kept popping salt tablets, and putting ice in my cap. Rose Madi
Jordan and Janelle all gave me little pep talks and I kept jogging
along. Lots of cheering fans, the lake looked awesome, the sun was
out, it was pretty damn nifty. The hills near the turnaround were
rough, but I kept at it and they eventually went away. Then around 25k
I drank some coke at an aid station, it went down fine and I thought
"hey, my stomach feels good!" Jordan came by again and gave me another
pep talk, so did Suzanne, and I decided I could pick things up quite a
bit. I did, and started passing people. I had heard how hard 30-40k
were, but after the hell of the bike and the first half of the run, I
surprised myself by how nice 25-35k were. The last 7k were hard, but
it was the hard of running steady, not the "oh my god my stomach feels
like it's going to blow up and I really don't want to be here." By the
time I got back to town I couldn't look at the people coming in on
their bikes, it was too much to imagine doing that whole marathon
again.

And then suddenly I was thinking "2k" then "1k" then "holy shit I'm
going to do this." I crossed the finish line, smiling, happy to see
Erin who held me up and got me sitting down and eating pizza.

Nina found me eventually, and we hung out with Todd, Chris, Lesley,
Kendall, Ian, John H, Suzanne... I got to congratulate Doug and Raf.

It's a solitary sport, but when I think of the day what is so striking
are the people I connected with in some way. All the people who's
names I should remember and don't, all the people who cheered whom I
never met and might never see again, all the friends who took pictures
or encouraged me in some way, the people who cheered and I didn't even
see who they were, the incredibly helpful and excited volunteers, and
the fact that there were so many fit, tanned, happy, helpful people
all the way through the course. As cheesy as it seems, that atmosphere
was what made the day for me. Every section of the course I think
about now I think about someone on it.

We came out to watch the final hour, and stood with Myron, Jill and
Chris, and Madi and Jordan and cheered. Jordan Rapp came out and
cheered on the final folks, and I just kept thinking "this is
awesome."

The next day Nina and I went to the pavilion, I bought the watch, we
went for lunch, went parasailing, and drove home with a quick stop at
the Serpicos. Got home at 1AM, put my feet in the kitchen sink for 10
minutes with cold water on them to try to get the swelling and pain to
go down, and then next thing I knew I was directing a photo shoot by
the middle of the day today, feeling tired, but back to my life, which
I have to say is damn good. Nina has been a rockstar through this
whole process - so many triathletes say that about their spouses, but
it's totally true. From cheering and taking pictures, to buying
supplies, getting my stuff from transition, cleaning up my mess, and
more than anything being an effin good sport while I dominated yet
another weekend of our lives with my hobby.

My legs are stiff, I have some tendon pain on the top of my left foot,
I haven't slept well yet, but I feel good. This is a cool sport, and
though I thought "okay, that's checked off the list" after I crossed
the finish line, the next morning I looked at the times in the paper
and thought "I wonder how this would go a second time around."

Rob

A Second Chance - a film on Janelle Morrison

I'd love for you to join me on a journey that started last December. It's Janelle's journey, but I want to share my side of it right now (contribute to the film and you'll find out all about her journey!).

Last December I had the opportunity to meet elite long-distance triathlete Janelle Morrison, who I knew about, but hadn't actually met. It was 3 weeks after she had been critically injured in a highway collision near Revelstoke, BC, and a small group of us were hoping to capture some of her recovery process on film. Calgary businesswoman and triathlete Rose Serpico (www.tri-it.ca)  and I had talked about maybe doing a tv or internet series on triathletes, and when Janelle seemed agreeable to us filming her recovery, we flew out to Penticton to talk with her in person.

That first meeting, only 2 weeks after Janelle woke up from her coma, she kept talking about how she was going to come back, telling us to believe in her, and that she had been given a second chance. I kept thinking about her incredible focus - all she cared about was jumping back in the game. Her condo had a massage table, a small crt tv, and a dining room set (in the months since, the massage table's been replaced by a bike trainer). Her entire life was designed around rehab.

I came back to Calgary, this was just before Christmas, not knowing what I would do with the footage - at this point we had no idea how or where we would tell her story. 3 weeks later, I was back in Penticton with a film crew interviewing her, her family, friends, shooting footage of her doing dead-bug exercises on her workout table in her living room... and as I drove to the airport after the 3rd day of shooting, I was still wrestling with what on earth we were going to do with the footage I was collecting.

What I kept thinking about was how Janelle was putting everything on that triathlon line - there was no plan b, there was no doubt, she lived and believed in that single vision of her life. As I drove the stretch of highway just south of West Bank, I had a moment of "okay, if Janelle's willing to do that, to take that chance, I need to take the chance too." And I realized down deep I needed to make a feature-length documentary, that the documentary was going to be called A Second Chance, and that it was going to be an awesome story of Janelle's recovery. 

We want partners to help tell that story, and as I write this I wonder what direction the story of the film is going to take next. I'm inspired every time I talk with Janelle, or go out to shoot more footage, and my goal is to translate that inspiration into film. For every one of us who thinks "I don't really feel like it," or "this is way too hard," or "what if I fail," this is for us - it's the story that will get us off our couches and push that little bit more. It'll remind us we're allowed to shoot for the moon, that belief has power. And what's crazy is it's happening right now. This isn't a story that happened years ago, with a nice ending that we all know. It's unfolding today, as you read this.

Join us on this journey - as Janelle would say, it'll be EPIC.

Rob


Kelly Brothers Productions 
#011, 611 - 10 Ave SW. Calgary, Canada T2R 0B2
(403) 261 - 3808

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The Film

Introducing the amazing true story of a school teacher turned professional triathlete who nearly lost everything when a tragic car accident on a mountain road nearly cost her her life. Defying all odds Ironman triathlete Janelle Morrison began her road to recovery the moment she awoke from a coma a week after the accident. With doctors wondering if she would ever walk again, Janelle knew different. Only three months after the accident, she was swimming, biking, and running once more. She has been given a second chance. 

Our Story

A Second Chance is a full length documentary film initiated by a small group of us who were passionate about Janelle's story and the opportunity to share it through film. The film will follow Janelle’s inspiring road to recovery from the car collision that nearly ended her life in November 2010. Help us bring this powerful story of courage, recovery and strength to audiences across the world by helping us to spread the word or partnering with us through a contribution on Paypal or Indiegogo. We are currently looking for supporters to help us film the rest of Janelle's journey through 2011 and cover the post-production and promotional costs in 2012.
Find us on: 
VISIT THE WEBSITE TODAY AND LEARN ALL ABOUT THIS EXCITING NEW FILM & HOW YOU CAN BE A PART OF A SECOND CHANCE TODAY!
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WWW.ASECONDCHANCEFILM.CA