The montage.

In movies having any kind of plot-vital athletic event, a standard scene plays out again and again: the training montage.

Made most famous in the “Rocky” films, segments are edited together to quickly summarize the protagonist’s training routine. Music plays. Awesome music. The protagonist grits teeth while lifting unwieldy objects, bounding one-footed over a mountain (blindfolded), dragging rocks though a pit of rabid boars (aflame) and consuming raw eggs (unpasteurized). The awesome music swells, compelling the audience’s pleasure centers to release endorphins and adrenaline. This quickens heart and respiration rates. In this state, the audience becomes susceptible to the suggestion that it is physically joined to the protagonist’s labors. Suddenly and shockingly the audience is carrying an awkward burden while rambling blindly downward at a hideous pitch. Piercing scorched squeals follow in close pursuit. An undercooked breakfast digests poorly.

These on-line entries will not assume to summon such an effect within you, patient reader.

Gamut Girl Squad is about a third of the way through its own montage. No one’s gone hurtling down a mountain. Yet.

There are tests and triumphs. Last week’s 5-kilometer race was a bright point. Training will become more rigorous as the Girls work up to a 10-kilometer race in February. Each week will hold new challenges they will grow to overcome.

This past Sunday morning, their soundtrack sounded low as feet padded along the Susquehanna River in the cold, still December air. Head colds, body aches and the stresses of running a theater extract tolls that can not be edited out to create a brief seamless tableau. Despite this, all are willing to meet the work head on. All are progressing wonderfully.

Their soundtrack is building. It will reach high pitch in April.