The Runner Chick's Movie Review - Spirit of a Marathon

Last night's visit to NYC's -AMC Theater Empire 25 in the chaotic, sensory overload - cluster shmuck called, Time's Square, was overall well worth the trip (and I suppose worth missing a new episode of Lost as well).

I arrived at the theater on time (shockingly!!) to collect my tickets from my new RUNNYC facebook friend. And my movie date arrived shortly afterwards. After a long queue for 12 stale pretzel bits (don't get me started on the pretzel thing again!) and a joyous trek up 6 flights of escalators, we arrived at our theater a few minutes after the film started. The theater was packed and the only remaining seats in the back row. Good enough and much better than the alternative, sitting under the screen!

The movie started and at first had a dark, slow moving, low budget documentary feel to it. The movie, as promised, visited (or bounce around) upon the lives of six "unique" marathoners as they prepared for the 2005 Chicago Marathon. These runners included 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Deena Kastor, Kenya-born marathoner Daniel Njenga, four average Chicago natives, first time marathoner and grad student, Lori O'Connor, injured Boston Marathon hopeful Ryan Bradley, first time marathoner and single mom Leah Caille and a comically resilient Jerry Meyers who is in his 70's.

The individual stories were amusing, but I found the historical interludes used to segue into each story to be far more interesting. These scenes touched on topics such as the development of the marathon as a race, the history of women's distance running (very interesting!) and they historical/cultural background of running in Kenya. One of these segments showed pictures and gave an account of Katherine "K.V." Switzer as she fought off race officials to be the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon in 1967.

The movie also featured commentary by such phenomenal mararthoners as Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Paula Radcliffe and Jean Benoit-Samuelson. It was great to listen to the perspectives of such respected distance runners and also get a more indepth look the mental process of elite athletes and to see how relentlessly they train. Seriously, watching Deena Kastor pound out a few tempo runs as part of her 140mile/week training regiment was unreal. It's absolutely amazing!

As in all marathons and marathon preparation, there were triumphs and tragedies, but the true "spirit" of each individual's journey was enough inspiration to make you want to set your personal goals just a bit higher and get back out there to pound the concrete.

I had decided to take this upcoming marathon season off and focus on shorter races while experimenting with triathlons. But after seeing this movie, I'm seriously considering Chicago 2008. Watching all six runners as they prepared, visited the expo, obsessed over whether they have every thing in order the night before the race, wonder if they ate enough carbs and if they have their timing chips tightly fastened gave me that nervous-anxious feeling that we all get leading up to the big moment. Watching each runner get up the day of the race in the dark, make the trek in to the start and line up with the masses, justified, yet again, why I am so passionate about this sport.

So, a bit slow at times (I did see a few people dozing off in the audience, but we'll cut them slack since it was the end of a workday), but overall a great documentary that does capture a wide range of what it means (and takes) to commit to the life of a mararthoner.

Today's training:
AM: Yoga - 1hour -
PM: Cardio Kickbox - 55mins, Run - 15mins