MOVIE REVIEW: THE SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON

I went to see this movie at the College Point Multiplex. I booked and paid for this back on Feb 2. I can't tell you how happy I am to have seen this movie. Originally, when it came out for a "one-time" only showing, I was unable to go. It was on January 25th, and I was in Cleveland.

SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON (2008)

Everyone is probably laughing at me already. I haven't even reviewed it yet, and you're all thinking how biased I am going to be because I am a runner, and because this is my shtick.

When I entered the movie theatre tonight, I pretended as if I were a lazy fat individual that had no interest in running. In fact, I pretended as if I knew nothing about it. I psyched myself good for about an hour before the show, because I really wanted to get under the skin of someone naive, to see if this movie can hold up on its own merits, without any sympathy from me.

This was a great movie.

First of all the music was incredible. Second of all the documentary kept my interest. I loved how the film blended the elite runner from that of the typical runner. The best emotions that came from me where not from Deena Kastor or any of the elite men duking it out for the championship, but rather the five everyday runners that were highlighted in the film. I felt everything that they felt from the tiredness of waking up in the pitch black to do a run, to the desparation of knowing when you're injured, to the sheer pain and exuberance of running the big one. To completing a Marathon.

As the movie when on it took it's toll on me. I tried as a grown man not to cry from the awesomeness of this film. The ending was so beautiful and so perfect, I felt as if I was actually finishing my own New York Marathon. Everything they said and did, the way they act on a daily basis, all of it. It's all me. To a "T".

If this movie's intention was to bridge the gap between the rest of the world that just doesn't get why it is we do what we do, to those of us that do, then Mission Accomplished. Even if you lived your life under a rock, you cannot leave without now knowing what it is that the average John Doe or Mary Jane is feeling before, during or after a workout. You cannot leave without now knowing why this hobby, this sport, is so important to us. And most of all, you cannot leave the theatre without knowing the peril, the sacrifice, and the ultimate unspeakable and overwhelming reward that the human spirit receives for completing a twenty six mile, three hundred and eighty five yard run.

We are the sum of our life's experiences.

If you like Chicago, you will love this movie. If you like the wonderful story about how Kathryn Switzer, was trying to be taken down physically while running the Boston Marathon, by the Boston Marathon race director himself, for entering in an all-male event, you will love it as well. All of the names in the running industry have contributed with their words. There's also history about the marathon, it's roots, origins. BQ = Boston Qualifier, and you will hear a lot of that in the movie as well.

What a staggering documentary. I want to wake up at 5am for a run, but am still so juiced (and not the Roger Clemeroids way) that I can't even hardly sleep.

There are 83 days left before my 7th Marathon. Phasers on Kill!!!!

RATING: 9 out of 10 GONZOS

I have an idea for the sequel....either that or have "GU packs will Travel"!