Spirit of the Marathon

Thursday evening after work, I did a quick 5 mile run on the treadmill and then decided I wanted to go see a movie. In the running community it was commonly known that Thursday night at 7:30 pm, many marathoners would be at the theaters. You see, a special movie called "Spirit of the Marathon" was playing only on Thursday night at 7:30. A one time deal. And many movie theaters had already sold out. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get a ticket, but I decided to try. My daughter ended up going with me and we got lucky and got in. The theater was full.

Spirit of the Marathon was about 6 runners training for the 2005 Chicago marathon. Two of the runners were elite runners; two were repeat marathoners (one trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon and one who did his first marathon at age 65); and two were first time marathoners. During the movie we saw them at their training groups, training alone, dealing with injuries, etc. It really brought back all the emotions from the thoughts and experiences I had when training for my first marathon.

It was great to be in a theater of runners who understood. At one point in the movie one of the first timers said that when she told some friends she was running a marathon, they asked if she was going to win. The whole audience laughed - because we all have been asked that by someone at some point. Most people still don't even know that all marathons are 26.2 miles.

My daughter actually enjoyed the movie, too, but said she still isn't interested in running. She was amazed that the elite runner from Kenya could run 10 miles when he was only 7 years old. And she promptly informed me that those elite runners are done with their marathon when I'm passing the halfway point. Yeah. Thanks for that reminder.

The good news is that a friend of mine who is doing her 2nd half marathon this weekend was at the movie as well. I've been trying to convince her to take the leap and train for a full one. After seeing the movie, she said there may be a full marathon in her future. It may not be for another year or two, but she thinks she wants to try one at some point. I told her that when she is ready, all she has to do is pick the race and I'll be right beside her the whole way.

If you are into running at all, I would recommend seeing this movie if you can. I think they are doing an encore showing in February in select cities. I'm not sure if it will be out on DVD or anything, but if you can find it, watch it.

In other news, I signed up today for the 3M Half Marathon. Who knows if it will be a good race for me or more of a training run. We'll see what I feel like Sunday morning and what the weather is like. Most of this week has been in the 30s to 40s and rainy/drizzly. It is suppose to warm up some tomorrow and is suppose to be in the 40s or 50s at race time on Sunday morning. Sunday's afternoon high is suppose to be in the low 70s. We'll see.