A few ARECers were seen at Towne Center for the January showing of “Spirit of the Marathon,” a movie about, well, running a marathon. A guy in the lobby commented that we were probably “the fittest group in the whole cineplex.” Maybe. The movie followed 2 professional athletes (a Kenyan and Deena Kastor), plus a half dozen other athletes (mostly of the Team in Training ilk) as they prepared for the 2005 Chicago Marathon.
If you have been around the marathon community for a while, you recognize a number of the people interviewed. You also get to see quite a bit of footage of some memorable marathons, including the 1984 Women’s Olympic and the first Boston Marathon with a woman.
If you have trained for a marathon, it all seems very familiar – the travails, injuries, losing faith, and exultation when you finish (or win, in some cases).
My disappointment with the film was that they concentrated on the two extremes of runners (the pros, and the back of the packers). The film was also a bit out of focus (but that may have been the theatre). Finally, following a large marathon may show the “spirit” of the crowded marathon, but it would have been interesting to see more footage of other marathons, like really small ones (where an entire community gets involved) or trail ones (where there is more than just the distance to consider).
Especially ironic was covering Chicago Marathon, where in 2007, they kinda cancelled the marathon in the middle, and the race director (who I booed during the film) blamed the cancellation on runners taking too many water cups when it got hot in the race.
Still, it is an enjoyable film to watch, and there will be an encore performance on February 21st.