The Terry Fox Run alone has been held annually since 1981 and has raised over $500 million for cancer research with millions of participants from over 60 countries.

Tonight on ESPN (and throughout the next week on ESPN 2 and ESPN Classic) you can learn more about Terry Fox as they premiere “Into the Wind”, a film directed by NBA MVP Steve Nash and his cousin, Ezra Holland.

Here’s the trailer:

The film is part of ESPN’s 30 in 30, a 30 film documentary series telling stories related to the world of sports in the 30 years from 1979 through 2009.

I’m not sure if this will be streamed online anywhere, but if so then leave a comment below and let me know where because I’d like to watch the film and don’t have cable.

(More Information: ESPN – Photo Credit: Jeremy Gilbert)

(If it won’t play here, try clicking through to the hosting site, and you may still be able to watch it directly on Photobucket. Apparently too many people are watching it on my site so they’re limiting how many people can watch from here…)

Now you, too, can enjoy the excitement of 30 miles in the snow but without all the wet feet and scraped shins!

The next TMR Fat Ass is scheduled for March 28^th at Bradbury Mountain.

Now, for the proof:

Greg and Rick have already won copies of the movie, which leaves 3 left. You still have a few hours to win today’s copy by clicking here or one of the last 2 copies by joining my newsletter before tomorrow:

(Click here to skip over Fred’s life and the plot summary and straight to the movie review.)

About Fred Lebow

The movie begins by describing the running scene in the 1960′s, and introduces Fred as an outsider who gets involved with the running community and helps to move them from the Bronx to Central Park after traffic and crime begin to get to the point where its no longer safe to run. Fred worked in the fashion industry selling cheap designer clothes, but his real passion was for running. He built up the Central Park marathon and made it successful, and really wanted to bring running to the the masses.

Fred helped empower women in the sport, creating the first long distance women only event that was wildy successful. He began his interactions with the media by convincing a group of PlayBoy bunnies to promote and compete in the 6 mile race.

After a couple of years, the marathon in Central Park had outgrown its course. There were too many runners for the officials to keep track of what lap everybody was on in the 4 loop course of the park. New York City was suffering from a financial crisis, and the problems with crime and arson were at an all time high.

Fred used the tough times to help sell the city on a race that went through all 5 boroughs, and used a lot of smoke and mirrors to bring everything together. He did such a great job convincing everybody that he had the numbers he needed, even before he did, that they all came together and actually put the fantasy he was spinning into reality.

“26 miles, 385 yards, no one was mugged, no one was hit by a taxi. For the city of New York and Bill Rodgers, the marathon was a resounding success.” — Dick Schaap, NBC News, New York

The first 5 boroughs marathon helped to revitalize the city. There were 2000 runners, the sponsors came through with plenty of race support, and Fred empowered all of the neighborhoods to come out and cheer on the runners and to clean up their streets for the race. Fred brought in Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter, the 2 best American marathoners in the country at the time and used them to promote their rivalry through the media.

Halfway through the movie, the marathon has been run through New York a few times and Fred has become a full time race director. You get to see some of the wacky races that he put on, and are introduced to some of his innovations. Some of the innovations stuck, such as the pasta dinner, and others have largely disappeared, such as the world’s largest urinal trough.

“I can still hear the voice of the commentator, ‘Who is number 1173? She’s going to win the race, set a world record…’”

Grete Waitz almost wasn’t invited to the race. She was a European track star who had never run more than 11 or 12 miles at a time, but Fred brought her to New York and helped to define her career from that point forward. Despite saying she’d never run another marathon after that first win, she went on to win the race 9 of the next 11 years.

Fred built up his own fame and reputation as well, as he went under the assumption that in order for the club and the race to be famous, it needed somebody who was famous at the helm.

He was a schemer and a manipulator, and was often referred to as a dictator or as the “running czar.” He thrived on people criticizing him as long he managed to get publicity out of it, and he had no trouble handling the media and controlling what went out through his antics.

Despite being best friends with Bob Bright, the founder of the Chicago Marathon, Fred and Bob had a rivalry in the media and were thought to be bitter foes. Fred knew that the more coverage their rivalry received and the more the two races competed with one another, the larger they would both become.

The last 10 or 15 minutes of the movie chronicle Fred’s diagnosis of brain cancer, and his positive attitude in fighting it. He was absolutely sure that he would beat it, and defied his doctor’s diagnosis that he only had months left to him by living for another 5 years. He measured out the distance in the hospital hallways, and would run laps between surgeries.

“He got to feel what everybody who ran his race felt.”

In 1992, Fred finally got to run in his own race for the first time. The movie ends with him crossing the finish line with Grete Waitz, both of them wearing their ages as their bib numbers, with a very obvious crowd that followed him for the entire distance.

About the Movie 

I really enjoyed watching this movie. The first 2 to 3 minutes are very slow and the music is very in your face and forced, but once the story moves beyond running in general and begins to focus on Fred’s life and his contributions to the sport it becomes very engaging. For the most part, the music does a good job of setting the mood for a scene without calling attention to itself.

The movie did two things exceedingly well, and that was the use of old video footage and photographs.

It was very cool to be able to see actual video footage of the majority of the events as they took place, especially for the first running of the marathon through the entire city.

The use of photographs was also well done, often seeming to be more video footage despite being stills. The photos were given a life of their own as they were on screen.

Throughout the movie, there were shots of political cartoons of the day and newspaper headings and articles flashed onto the screen, which give you a good sense of the times and how the world was reacting to Fred and his race.

Many of the interviews were filmed for this movie, but there were also interviews of Fred from years past and of other prominent people that were featured in the movie. I especially enjoyed some of the live news coverage from the races, especially the bloopers from Bill Stewart as he tried to describe the finish line and Fred making fun of Tom Brokaw for not finishing a marathon whereas his wife had.

The DVD of the movie goes on sale on October 28^th (available for preorder at Amazon) and there are some limited screenings next week from October 29^th through November 6^th in New York City, the week before the marathon this year. There are also screenings in Philadelphia and Israel this weekend.

I’d like to thank Carly Weisenberg of Screen Media Films for providing me with a screener’s copy of the film, as well as 5 copies of the DVD that I will be giving away through the website next week. Come back on Monday for your first chance to win one yourself!

Unfortunately, there’s no screen time scheduled right now for Maine, so I won’t get to see this when it comes out. Hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to see it later in the year, though. Current screenings and more information can be found at the website: 50marathons.com

(Hat Tip: STTB)

The Spirit of the Marathon is going to be screened 16 more nights, but only in select cities near specific events. Here is a full list of dates and events that the movie will be screened:

• April 17th The Boston Marathon
• April 24th Country Music Marathon – Nashville, Tenn.
• May 1st Indy Mini – Indianapolis
• May 1st Lilac Bloomsday Run – Spokane, Wash.
• May 8th Revlon Run for Women – Los Angeles
• May 22nd Bolder Boulder – Boulder, Colo.
• May 29th Rock ‘n’ Roll – San Diego
• July 1st Atlanta Peachtree 10K – Atlanta
• August 28th Rock ‘n’ Roll – Virginia Beach, Va.
• September 18th ING Philadelphia Half Marathon – Philadelphia
• October 2nd Rock ‘n’ Roll – San Jose, Calif.
• October 9th Chicago Marathon – Chicago
• October 16th Nike Team in Training – San Francisco
• October 23rd Marine Corps Marathon – Washington, DC
• October 30th New York City Marathon – New York
• November 13th Inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll – San Antonio, Texas

The movie will be screened twice at each theater, at 4:30 and at 7:30 in the evening. Tickets go on sale today and will be available through Fathom Events or through the individual box offices until the show begins or they sell out.

If you don’t live near any of the above events but are interested in seeing the Spirit of the Marathon, then now is a good time to begin planning a destination race.

Read my review of Spirit of the Marathon for more information about the movie.

First, on Saturday, February 17^th, the Ford Ironman World Championship from Hawaii will be airing on NBC from 2:00 until 3:30 EST.

Then, on Sunday, you can watch tonight’s Tyson Invitational on ESPN at 5:00 P.M. EST.

Don’t want to wait and have 4 minutes to spare? Then you can watch an advance trailer of the Born to Run movie, which is in post-production right now and chronicles the trip to the Olympic Trials for 6 of the men who competed:

Well, now that the run happened (2004) and the book was written (2006), it is time for the next step. It is time for a documentary!

And what do you know, but a couple of the guys got together and spent a few months putting one together. Kevin Turko and Ryan Pancoast teamed up and put a lot of work into the documentary, so I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I did.

The video is 27 minutes long and details the trip from the West Coast to the East. Interspersed with actual video of the running is some great music, still photographs from the trip, and interviews with the coach and some of the runners.

If you enjoy the video, Kevin and Ryan have entered it into a contest at FloTrack. I am sure that they would appreciate it if you went over and voted for them. The voting page is at: http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/080808_vote.php (Their video is entitled “Coast to Coast Relay 2004″ – The best video is awarded a pair of tickets to the Beijing Olympics!)

Last week, there was a 1 night showing of The Spirit of the Marathon in 1 theater here in Maine.

Crow Athletics and the Spudland Racers got together to send some runners down to Brunswick to catch the movie last Thursday evening.

The catch? They lived in Bar Harbor, which is 130 miles north of Brunswick.

The idea started out as a random conversation between a few friends wondering how cool it would be to do a relay down to watch the movie. Things spun out of control, as they usually do, and the media got wind of what was going on.

“The amazing thing is the word or mouth thing. We never asked for the excess media attention. We just said let’s run to Brunswick, simply because we can,” Gary Allen said. The idea of running from Bar Harbor to Brunswick “happened so quick we haven’t added a lot of hype about it.”

You can read about some of the local media attention here:

• Village Soup » Runners get into spirit of marathon
• Lincoln County News » Maine Runners Make 130 Mile Trek To View Marathon Movie
• Bar Harbor Times » Bar Harbor to Brunswick on Foot, to see a Movie
• Bangor Daily News » Running for ‘Spirit’

So, how far would you run to see a good movie?

The theater was about 3/4 full, and everybody was having a good time. Many of the runners who came to watch the film gathered ahead of time at a restaurant outside the theater, and then chatted in the lobby of the theater as they filtered in. Despite being about 30 minutes early, my wife and I weren’t bored while we since we could listen to various conversations and talk to a few of the people that we knew as they arrived.

There were some hand made posters lining the wall outside the theater, and a van was parked outside that had Spirit of the Marathon quotes and messages scrawled all over it. Apparently, some folks from Bar Harbor decided to run to the race relay-style with each person running about a 20 mile leg today on the way down. It is about 130 miles from Bar Harbor to Brunswick, Maine.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, and I plan on purchasing it if and when it becomes available. Seeing it in the theater with a bunch of other runners is definitely worth the effort, though, because the crowd provided almost as much entertainment as the movie did. It is one of the few times that I haven’t been annoyed by people talking during a movie. When Joanie came on screen for the first time, everybody in the theater clapped and cheered.

The cameo appearances and interviews were well spaced amongst the scenes with the athletes that were followed during their training and throughout the race. The athletes that starred in the movie were well chosen and represented a good variety of different types of marathoners, from the elite level down to repeat marathoner in his 60s to a few first timers.

I was definitely able to relate to quite a few of the scenes during the training, and just about every little detail from marathon weekend through the end of the race brought back a flood of memories of my own marathons that I have done over the years. Given the hushed comments from people seating around me, I wasn’t the only one to experience this. After one scene that took place in a hotel the night before the race, where luggage and paraphernalia are strewn everywhere, my wife leaned over and whispered to me, “She needs a copy of your book.” I should see if I can get some contact info for her and send her a copy.

The final scenes of the race for Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga were a little anti-climactic for me, since I already knew what was going to happen, but my wife and almost everybody else in the theater seemed at the edge of their seats and gasped and clapped in the appropriate places.

The one thing that bothered me about the movie was the score. Jeff Beal is a very talented composer, and for most of the movie he did a very good job. There were a few times, though, when he just hit you over the head to try to force an emotion on you and I actually rolled my eyes. The scene of the start of the race where the camera keeps panning back farther and farther and revealing the field of runners is rather awe-inspiring, but I’m a bigger fan of a more subtle touch than was displayed.

There were some extras at the end of the movie after the credits, including interviews and deleted scenes. I’m disappointed that the scene of Deena Kastor cooking enchiladas didn’t make it into the movie. Watching her cook certainly made me hungry.

Would I recommend that the average person go see the movie? I’m not so sure. As a runner and a marathoner, I (obviously) really enjoyed the movie. I can certainly picture myself enjoying the movie even if I weren’t a runner if I had a family member or close friend who was a runner and had put me at the periphery of the sport. Certainly not all of the people that were in the theater were runners. I am not so sure that I could relate to the movie as a complete non-runner with no connections to running, though. I’ll have to withhold judgement there until I hear from others that have seen the movie.

If you have ever run a marathon, or if you run regularly, then I definitely recommend that you go see it when it rescreens in February.

You can find if it is playing at a theater near you by going to Fathom Events and entering your zip code.

I am looking forward to seeing it tonight and will have a review up tonight or tomorrow morning.

The movie debuted last October and was well received at two film festivals, and will be screening on January 24^th, 2008 for 1 night only in 500 theaters nationwide. I have already bought tickets for my wife and I to see it in Brunswick, Maine.

“I simply went about my normal routine and training,” said Kastor, “and they followed and filmed as we went. I did not find it distracting. In fact, it was motivating.”

“I was struck by the similarities for us as we prepared for the Chicago Marathon,” she said. “Everyone had hurdles and setbacks, and everyone struggled through long runs—it was so similar despite the different levels of training and pace.”

“I went into that race very confident—I don’t know where that came from—but I was supremely confident,” Kastor recalled. “I ended up winning by only five seconds, and I hit the wall for the first time.”

Here is the trailer for the movie:


Here are some more sources of information, listed in the order of current usefulness, if you are interested in seeing the movie or learning more about Spirit of the Marathon:

• Fathom Events » Find Participating Theaters
• Active.com » About the Movie
• Interview with the Director
• Movie Home Page
• Internet Movie Database

I am really looking forward to seeing the movie, and if you are going to be seeing it here in Maine then let me know and say hi when you see me at the theater!

Throughout the entire process, one person who was diabetic sustained multiple stress fractures and had to quit. She was replaced with a former NFL lineman, Steve DeOssie. Of the 13 people who were involved in the program, 12 of them made it to the starting line, and all 12 of them finished the race. All of the participants were sedentary and (technically) overweight before starting the program, and other than DeOssie none had spent much time exercising since college, if ever.

This just goes to show, anybody can run a marathon. I do not necessarily think that anybody should run a marathon, especially on only 9 months of training, but it is certainly a realistic and attainable goal. I ran for over 7 years before running my first marathon, and did not start running them regularly until 3 years after the first one. If it takes a goal like a marathon to force yourself to be active, though, then at least you are getting out the door.

The show aired on PBS on October 30^th, but you can watch it online for at least the time being. I am unfamiliar with the PBS website, so I do not know how long they make their programs available. There are 5 chapters of about 12 minutes each that you can view. Click here if you want to watch the entire program in one sitting; it is about 1 hour long.

I found it very interesting to see how well they took care of the runners. Each member of the team (click here for team bios) went through a body composition test and VO₂ Max test multiple times throughout their training. They had the Tufts University exercise nutritionist available to answer their questions and provide suggestions, and all of them came out of the experience healthier than they went in. Amazingly, 10 of the 13 team members are still running, although a few wish that they were running more than they have been.

I recommend watching the program and then browsing around on the website. The site includes the diaries of 4 of the runners, tips for new runners, and various interviews and suggestions from the experts that were involved in the project.

Last week, John Parker spoke at the Maine Running Company about his book, Once a Runner, and the upcoming sequel. During his talk, he mentioned that the easiest money in the world is to sell the options to your book to somebody interested in making a movie about it. Up to this point, he has optioned the book 3 times, and has only seen one script that was apparently pretty bad.

With that in mind, you need to realize that the following trailer is not real. It may look like a professionally produced movie trailer, but it was created by Patrick Mouser as part of a student project.

Patrick Mouser is a graphic design student at Auburn University and an intern at the Ellis-Harper Advertising company. Along with this trailer, he created an entire website around the fake movie at the aptly named Once a Runner Movie website. (Update: The website has since been taken down.)

The website has a few different trailers, including the one above along with a theatrical and broadcast trailer. You can also see some information about the locations used in the trailers and bios on the “cast” of the movie, both real actors and the actors from the trailer.

Eric Liddell is a devout follower of his faith who thinks that his running brings him closer to god. Harold Abrahams seeks to overcome the prejudice he encounters by being Jewish and to attain fame by being the fastest man alive. Both want to win the gold medal at the 1924 Olympics in the 100 meter dash.

Chariots of Fire is an inspirational story that is worth a watch for anybody that enjoys racing.

The basic story is about a kid who graduates from high school and tries to figure out what to do with his life. He is a very talented cyclist, and has an unhealthy obsession with his Italian cycling heroes. He tries to turn himself into an Italian until he actually meets some.

It took me about half of an hour to get into the movie. I eventually enjoyed watching it through, but it did not seem too relevant to my experiences so I had trouble relating to any of the characters.

I enjoyed watching this movie, but it is not something I would ever bother watching again. You really get drawn into the characters and learn what makes them tick. You relate to their problems and root for them. The running in the movie is secondary, despite being the underlying theme behind everything. It is always there in the background, but the audience does not have to watch endless hours of it. Not that that would bother me.

I like how the characters are not two dimensional. There are no characters that you can just like or hate; they are all real people with virtues and flaws. The four men who run the race are a little bit underdeveloped, but they do not play as important a role. The story really centers around Barry (the coach) and Christine (the runner), with Barry’s politically correct black replacement playing a fairly prominent role as well.

The movie does drag on a little bit, and the racing scenes are very predictable. I still enjoyed watching it, though.

I enjoyed watching the documentary. It follows about a quarter of the people in the race as they prepare themselves in the months leading up to it, and then follows them as they struggle through the ordeal. Some of them finish, and some of them drop out. You get to see people passing out and hallucinating on the side of the road, or just throwing up now and again as they go along.

I got quite a few laughs out of some of the folk that were followed. Even in the middle of the ordeal, they managed to keep their sense of humor. A man in his late sixties finishes the race and informs his wife that she’s out of luck if she expects sex from him; he was not in the mood. After two days of running in 130°_F heat I doubt that I would be in the mood either. At least he finally got his Murphy’s Stout that he had been chasing for the previous 50 miles or so.

This movie in no way made me want to ever go out and run the Badwater, but it was endlessly fascinating to follow along. The set was fantastic. Given that it was filmed on location during the actual race, you can not much beat the desert and the mountains for views. I highly recommend giving this one a rent and taking a look at it.

As a running story, it is well told and will hold the interest of people outside of the running and athletic world. You have the grand epic of a cocky summabitch striving for a gold medal and having to deal with various hardships, you got the kindly old man helping him along no matter how much he resists, you got the hot lady interest that plays hard to get, and you got a fairly good looking guy staring anywhere but forward while he is racing on screen.