Friday, January 25, 2008

So who went to see "Spirit of the Marathon"?

Did you see it? What did you think?

Last night was the screening of the movie "Spirit of the Marathon", a documentary about 5 runners who trained for the 2005 Chicago Marathon. It was a great movie--very inspirational, some funny moments, and lots of tension at the end of the race.


One of the funnier moments--a runner named Ryan Bradley (who is trying to run a Boston Marathon qualifying run) is talking about why he likes Chicago, and he says "The weather is usually nice and cool." Most of the audience laughed at the irony--the 2007 Chicago Marathon was the hottest on record, and Chicago tied a record high for that day. So yes, it usually is nice but not last year!

The training stories climaxed with each runner's longest long run (20 miles for the amateurs), and then moved to the race itself. There's an amazing shot where they show the elites lined up at the start, and then the camera pulls up and back to show you the sea of upwards of 40,000 runners waiting for their race to start. It's staggering to see how many people participate, and it's interesting to think how each one of those runners has a story.

Toward the end of the movie you see the finish of both the mens' and womens' races. I won't spoil it for you...but let me just say I knew who won but was still sitting on the edge of my seat and holding my breath. They really played up the drama in the last couple miles.

After the credits, they showed a "filming of..." segment, and some deleted scenes. It seemed like they were showing you what will end up on the DVD. Who knows?

All in all, a very good movie and a good time was had by the whole group of us that went. It's playing again on February 21--if you didn't catch it but have the chance to then, I highly recommend it...

5 comments:

Tim Wilson said...

Good write up, thanks for inviting me to take a look.

Rick said...

I thought it was well done and I like how it captured the essence of what the marathon means to an average person like myself in the non-ultra individuals it featured. My favorite part in the movie was in the middle of the race, there were some spectators on the side that had a sign that said, "You're our hero Dad! We love you!" I lost it when I saw that.

Jim said...

Tim glad you enjoyed my write up--I liked yours also!

Rick I'm like you, in that I enjoyed how it portrayed us "mere mortals" who have neither the genetic pre-disposition nor the time to run 140+ miles a week, or to run a sub-5:00 mile for 26 miles. I found several emotional points in the movie...glad to know I'm not the only guy who "lost it."

Jim

k998 said...

Jim, really enjoyed your post!

Your post appeared in the second edition of the kdays.com Running Blog Carnival last week. Thought I'd pop over and let you know that issue #2008-03 is now online too.

Cheers,
Kerrin

Jim said...

Hi Kerrin:

Thanks for the comment and for adding me to the Running Blog Carnival! I feel like a big star now. (C:

I'm adding you to my blogroll and will come back to visit often!

Jim