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...