movies | Running Without Music

Run, Fatboy, Run

This movie has been out for a while, but I do know that a lot of people have not seen this yet. I’ll try to review running-themed movies from time to time. One night, I rented Run, Fatboy, Run because it came highly recommended from a friend. It’s a romantic comedy written by David Schimmer (you know, Ross, from Friends), and starring Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, and Shawn of the Dead), and Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible: II). The main character who Simon plays, Dennis Doyle, gets cold feet right before his wedding, and leaves his pregnant fiance, Libby, behind. He realizes he made a big mistake, but he found out his ex is now seeing another man, Whit, who plans to run the Nike River Marathon in London. Dennis thinks his only way to win his ex’s heart back is to beat Whit in the marathon, which he is clearly not a runner, and has not been training for. You’ll see his challenges, which I know many of you could relate to, during his training.Overall, it’s one pretty funny romantic comedy. Although, not the best, but it’s great to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon with runners alike. I’d recommend this if you can relate to marathon running. If you can’t, you may have a hard time understanding some of the running jokes. For the relationship aspect of the movie, it’s not too strong, but it’s present. Does he, or doesn’t he win her back? I guess you’ll have to pick it up for yourself.

Spirit of the Marathon DVD

A few months ago, people from my marathon team did a group outing of a movie called Spirit of the Marathon. I never got around to it when it was out in theaters, so I was glad to see it released on DVD and iTunes. Late last night, I decided to rent it off iTunes, and stayed up until 2:30am watching it. The movie is a documentary following 6 different endurance athletes of different levels, training for the Chicago Marathon, which is a well known course for setting PRs and its great energy. The athletes are: Ryan Bradley – Boston Hopeful, Leah Caille – First-Time Marathoner, Deena Kastor – 2004 Olympic Bronze Medalist, Jerry Meyers – Four-Time Marathoner, Daniel Njenga – World Class Marathoner, and Lori O’Connor – First-Time Marathoner. It truly captures the essence of marathons, from training, to health, down to the excitement of the race, to the heartbreak of getting an injury. If you’ve ever ran a marathon before, thinking about doing one, you should definitely watch it! Even if you have no interest in it, but know of someone, this will help you understand what they went through, and what kinds of thoughts they have all throughout training.

You read more about the movie here, or download it on iTunes. You won’t regret it!