Running from Zombies

I read a blog post a little while ago about a movie called Spirit of the Marathon. I’d never heard of it, despite it being made only a couple of years ago. I watched the trailer embedded in the post and read the review, which was slightly less than shining, and then carried on with my day without a further thought of it. However, it was recently brought back to my attention by Amy in her blog post, saying that the movie was showing on Hulu…which I can’t get because I’m outside of the US. I don’t know whether it was the fact that I couldn’t watch it or I just fancied it, but I managed to get my hands on a copy and watched it last week.

The feature length documentary follows 6 runners as they train for the Chicago Marathon. Two are professional athletes looking to win, 2 are recreational runners who have completed the 26.2 before, and 2 are first-timers. While there is an equal amount of time spent on each of the runners, it doesn’t quite seem to be enough and you’re left with the feeling that you don’t really know the whole story. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of each person’s training, but I fear that would have made the movie too long.

It all culminates in the marathon. 20 of the movie’s 95 minutes is taken up with the race itself, and it really tries to impress the emotional aspect of the distance on the viewer (though overdoes it slightly with the dramatic music). Not knowing the outcome of the race, I did find myself rooting for one of the elite racers at the end when it started to get particularly close :-)

All in all it was an entertaining documentary which would probably only appeal to someone interesting in running or endurance events. As I said before, I was left feeling like there could have been more to it and would have been interested to more closely compare the training strategies of the eilte and recreational runners.