Last night I saw Spirit of the Marathon, and I really enjoyed it. The movie followed six runners who trained for and ran the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Two were elite runners (including the very likable Deena Kastor and a Kenyan guy who trains and lives in Japan), two were young women running their first marathon, one was an older gentleman who was running with his daughter, and one was a guy trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. With the Kenyan guy we got some shots of Japan (which was probably more interesting to me than to most people) and of Kenya, which was nice, and with Deena Kastor we got to see her win the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.

The person who I definitely would have identified most with is the guy trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but unfortunately, he got injured and never did run the 2005 Chicago Marathon. I would have really liked to see him try and qualify for Boston, but if he was injured, he was injured – there was nothing the producers of the movie could do. It did say at the end of the movie that he did eventually end up qualifying in another race, and he ran Boston. I was happy to see that. If you didn’t see the movie, there will be a repeat performance on February 21st. Click here for details!

Tags: marathon, marathons, Boston Marathon, running, Spirit of the Marathon, Deena Kastor,