Three Lessons from Spirit of the Marathon

Last night Cindy and I went to see a new documentary about marathon runners called Spirit of the Marathon. It was only playing in a couple of theatres in Maryland and then only for one showing.

I think the theatre management thought no one was going to show up to a documentary about running on a Thursday night, not when they could go see The Bucket List or 27 Dresses (Both fine choices, from what I've heard...) Cindy and I got our tickets and sat in the theater with about a dozen other people who certainly looked like marathon runners: thin with chiseled facial features, sunken cheeks, lots of energy. (Are you surprised that I was the only one in the theater munching popcorn?)

Then other people started coming in. In droves. We all sat watching a whole parade of kid-movie trailers, wondering what was going on when a lethargic theatre employee ambled in and announced, "Your movie's gonna be on Screen 14," as he pointed toward the exit. That's good, I thought. There's so many people showing up, they're putting us in a larger theatre.

No. They put us in a smaller theater. Not only that, they hadn't announced to those people that 27 Dresses would now be showing on Screen 9, the theatre we had just left. Plus Spirit of the Marathon had already started.

Lesson One: Avoid Bowie Regal Cinemas in the future.

The film was quite good. Cindy and I had both seen films like it before. The filmmakers usually focus on an event (in this case, the Chicago Marathon), follow six or seven runners of various levels as they train for the event, and keep up with them during the race. Interviews with famous running authorities are interspersed throughout the film.

The personal stories were quite interesting and often gripping. It's interesting to watch the husband and wife runners train for the marathon together, yet painful as you see the husband come to the realization that because of a knee injury, he won't be able to run the race. Or the woman who runs for the organization that helped her get adopted as a child. Her desire to run is unstoppable, yet she's married to a man who thinks that "Anytime you're going any distance over five miles, take public transportation. Every time you runners run, you always end up where you started anyway."





But the most moving story is that of Daniel Njenga, a Kenyan runner who works in Japan in order to send money to his relatives in Kenya. Njenga has come close to winning the marathon several times in the past, finishing as high as #2. He badly wants to win. Yet at his home in Kenya, local thugs terrorize the man's family, thinking they must have large amounts of Njenga's winnings stashed away.

The most interesting part of the film is the examination of why people run. Everyone has a different reason: some are world-class athletes in vicious competition, some just want to stay in shape and some just love it. Some may just be plain crazy.

Lesson Two: Everyone has a story.

When I got home, I couldn't help thinking about the parallels to writing. Everyone (everyone that writes, that is) has different reasons for writing: money, fame, therapy, the love of storytelling, whatever. Sometimes it takes seeing a movie like Spirit of the Marathon to ask yourself why you do what you do, sort of a re-examination of your life.

Why do I write? I've got stories to tell that no one else is telling. But like so many of the runners in the film, I feel like I'm still in training. Sometimes you have good days, sometimes bad. Sometimes you fight injuries. Sometimes you can run sprint after sprint just fine, but the long run wears you out. But...

Lesson Three: You keep going. Okay, you stumbled and fell flat on your face. Get up. Access the damage. Go again. Keep going. You'll get there. It's a long race.