Spirit of the Marathon

I went to see this movie last night with Beth (it was my second time seeing it) and still thought it was great. The theater was not quite as full as it was for the first go around but still pretty busy last night.

Here are my thoughts on the movie:

- It was awesome seeing all the early footage of the great marathoners, Salazar, Shorter, Rogers, and Benoit running the first women's marathon in 1984 in LA

- They did a great job describing the draw of the marathon and tried to get into people's mind on why they run a marathon - or attempt to run a marathon

- The camera work was awesome - watching Deena Kastor run is just amazing.

- Elite marathoners have the work effort and strong mental makeup of a warrior - anyone that can log 140 mile a week is a champ in my book.

- It was funny seeing Brian Sell as a pacer for the men's marathon - he has gone form pacing 5 miles in Chicago to a member of the US Mens Olympic Team

- Watching the race was like watching my first marathon in Chicago - it brought back some great memories

- Marketing genius on the part of the Chicago Marathon - her this movie out after the horrible experience everyone had in Chicago this year and the poor management decisions they made during and before the marathon in 2007.

- there were some great shots of Big Red - the building I used to work in when I traveled to Chicago - glad I do not go there any more.

- the finish line at Chicago is so cool - so many people around there - I will never forget finishing a dn looking over and seeing Beth with her sign that said "We're going to Boston"
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The runners -

Ryan - I thought Ryan was a selfish cry baby the first time I saw the movie - now I think he is still wrong about Boston Qualifying but he did support his wife after he was injured so maybe he was not a total cry baby - he finally got his qualifying time. If he could just run faster it would not matter what age he was.

Leah - what a great story - she went from a learn to run program to a marathon. I hope to take some of my "learn to run" athletes to that level. She had some good friends with her in the race and even though she was hurting she was helping those around her too

Deena - man she was hurting at the end. She hung on for her first marathon win and that was cool. I think Beth had her eyes covered like she was watching a scary movie. I wonder what would have happened if she did not have all those Brooks/Hansen guys around her or the other lady had pacers all around her for the race??

Jerry - maybe the wisest of them all - loved when he said "I do marathons for the t-shirt" or "The only runners high is when I stop" or "They tell us that if you run 20 in training you can get through 26.2 in a race - they lie!" He was awesome. Did anyone see Coach Tommy from ATL camera hogging with Jerry during the race - where were Tommy's participants???

Daniel - now here is a snake bit dude (if you can consider being in the Top 5 in the world snake bit). He finished 3rd in 2005, went back in 2006 and finished 2nd, 2007 - 3rd - and do not forget his 2nd in '02, 3rd in '03, 2nd in '04 - he has probably collected more prize money than anyone in Chicago history

Lori - not only did she train and run this race, she raised some cash for her charity of choice too. She has a camera mugger along with her too - the lady in pink. Lori looked the best out of all of them - she just kept on running and looked decent at the finish.

I hope you get a chance to see this - maybe it will come out on DVD - I would buy it and keep it in my collection to watch at a later date.

Happy Training.