BostonBound59

In February 2008 the newly released movie "Spirit of the Marathon" was playing in select theatres across the country. On the night it was playing in our area it was a Thursday night, it had just snowed and I was tired after a long work week. However, Cathy convinced me that it might not return to our area so we headed down to the Showcase Theatre in Lowell. I am glad we made the trip. There were many familiar faces in the nearly sold out audience. About two hours later, I was ready to start training for Boston. The movie took four years to make and was a collaborative effort of three-time Academy Award winner Mark Harris and marathon runner Jon Dunham. It is the first ever non-fiction feature film shown in major theatres to focus strictly on the marathon. It follows the stories of six different runners and their preparation leading up to the 2006 Chicago Marathon (the site of my first marathon in 1978). While the movie adds commentary from such marathon luminaries as Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Greta Weitz, Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley and follows race favorites Deanna Kastor (just off her Bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics) as well as Kenyan Daniel Njenga (2:06:16) it does not dwell on the famous. Most of the movie is spent with proverbial back of the packers (like me) who have varied goals: qualifying for Boston, running to recover from a divorce, or simply to finish the race. The movie spends time getting to know each runner and their unique reasons for running this extraordinary distance. I was skeptical when I entered the theatre but left the movie truly inspired and that night (in my mind at least) set myself on a path where 7 1/2 months later I was crossing the finish line at the Steamtown Marathon in Pennsylvania having run a PR at age 49 and qualifying for Boston with 12 minutes to spare. Here is the movie trailer: I had some trouble downloading (it runs about 7 minutes) so here instead is the You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8XSit8XyeM