Spirit of the Marathon

I went with a small group of tri-buddies to see "Spirit of the Marathon" screening tonight. One of my secret super-powers is that I am very good at getting movie seats. It may sound as simple as "show up early", but it's a little more complicated that. I literally count seats in the row to find the middle seat. I made a blunder tonight though; our seats were excellent, but with a group of 6 people you do 3 people in each of 2 rows, not 6-across. My bad.

The movie started out with me using my spaghetti arms to try to open a bag of Reeses Pieces. Coeur d'Alene-bound Rich offered to help, but it was a matter of pride so I just kept struggling. When I did finally open the bag, it EXPLODED. E.T.'s candy was everywhere. And don't ask me how, but I wound up with Reeses Pieces up my sleeves (which I did not discover until a few minutes later. They went that far up.)

But enough about that: what about the actual movie? Triathletes will certainly compare it to What It Takes, but because Spirit focuses on elite and beginner marathoners, you can relate to it a little better. Also, this screening lacked all of the drama of my What It Takes experience. My favorite "character" is the old guy who says "you hear about the 'runner's high; the only time I've felt that is when I stopped running." He calls it like it is.

Movies like this do two things: they inspire people, or they frighten people. Sometimes both. Although it's an inspirational movie, I'm not sure I can say it "inspired" me. I've done two marathons, and although I'm no speed demon I think I "get it". My own experiences running 26.2 miles will inspire me to try it again. Did the movie frighten me? Yes. I watched all the struggles and the tears on screen and it reminded me of what I'll be going through. Because I'm doing another marathon in June, and I will be going through the same thing these people were. The little difference is that I'll be running my next marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112.

And that scares the crap out of me.