stayfrostyxe As a filmmaker and marathon runner I could see it being difficult to achieve what the filmmakers have done with Spirit of the Marathon. To mix some marathon history into the the stories of several amateur and professional runners might be tough. But they did it wonderfully. I particularly liked what was said by Dick Beardsley and Frank Shorter, two famous runners w/some very inspiring words.I think it was Shorter, who has a great line that kicks off the title sequence at the start of the documentary. Awesome! If you're looking for a "how do I train for a marathon" documentary this is not it! Do your own research, it's out there! Appreciate this film for what it is, a documentary about real people and some very interesting marathoning history.

imdb-15877 I saw this movie with a friend who ran a marathon with me, and we both had the same feeling about it: it wasn't terribly motivating, and didn't even broach the idea of what a training schedule would look like, so that non-marathoners could have an idea of what it would take for them to train and run one. In fact there was almost zero technical information at all. I didn't expect this to be a tech-heavy instructional video, but when that info was near zero then the film just wasn't balanced, and wasn't particularly useful to non-marathoners contemplating their first run.There were other problems. Some of the very first images were people collapsing near death while trying to run a race. Yeah, real inspiring. The timing was also hard to follow, because it was semi chronological, but the filmmakers rarely gave you any good clues as to what point in time you were looking at. And they withheld information. You see that Kantor has an injury, and you just assume it's from all her training, but then several scenes later they finally clue you in that it's because she tripped over a pine cone in her yard.Some parts were very good, though, like the bit about a woman defying race officials who wanted the run to be men-only, and the coverage of a Chicago race where two of the runners portrayed earlier were vying for first place.Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of other chronological documentaries, like Supersize Me, and Grass, where you always know where you are, and you feel like they told you everything you wanted to know.In short, it wouldn't have been hard to make a better marathon film, and as it stands I can't recommend this to non-marathoners to educate and motivate them to try one, because I don't think it will have that effect.

horton-2 For some odd reason it was decided to show this movie throughout the country only once on January 24th at 7:30pm. Because of this every theater in Chicago was sold out of tickets weeks before the event. I wound up driving to the suburbs to see it. Fortunately for those that missed it they will have an encore presentation on February 21st.If you are a runner or have set a goal to one day run a marathon you will love this movie without a doubt. If you also happen to live in Chicago you will love it even more. Oddly enough this movie is released in 2008 but follow people preparing for the 2005 marathon.The strength of this film was that they not only followed the elite runners they followed people from all speeds. One of the people they followed was Deena Kastor, the current US women's record holder for the marathon (and I believe 5K, 8K, 15K, and the half last I heard), one of the best American hopefuls for the Olympics this year. They also followed runners that were attempting to qualify for Boston as well as a few first timers and over 5 hour runners. The only other documentary about marathons I've seen was the Nova version which followed all first timers so it was nice seeing a broader range of views and struggles.I have only ran one marathon so far and after that I became more intent on improving my time than ever before with Chicago being my next one. With an attitude like that it was inevitable I was going to like this film but Jon Dunham did a fantastic job piecing together some very unique footage that helps you appreciate the scale of such an event even more.It gets my heart pumping just thinking about the next marathon.

mightymountaingorilla The movie focused on several people from all walks of life (professional, younger, older, etc.) who have decided to take on the challenge of the marathon. It presents all of their compelling stories and gives us insight into the training (both mental and physical) that goes into preparing for such an arduous run.Additionally, the movie provides a good amount of detail about the history of the sport, with commentary from writers, historians, athletes, etc., who all think of this as the ultimate human competition.The movie is well-written, well-scored, and has very, very genuine people who I could relate to. It does a great job in helping the audience live the marathon race through these characters, feeling elated at their successes, diminished when they fail, and anxious when they see the finish line in the distance.Big thumbs up!