About this product: Spirit of the Marathon is the first film to capture the passion, drama and essence of the famed 26.2-mile Chicago Marathon. Intimate, fascinating portraits of six runners from all walks of life unfold as the film follows seasoned athletes and amateurs alike in their preparation for the big race. See why the Los Angeles Times said "Even if you've never run for anything but a bus, you'll... get swept up in this movie's inspiring journey"!
Every year thousands of athletes from across the globe flock to Boston to run the city s marathon, known worldwide as the ultimate test of stamina and endurance. But how do you run 26 miles if you have trouble making it around the block? With good coaching, discipline, and lots of group support, as NOVA shows when it follows 13 sedentary people through a nine-month regimen designed to prepare them for the grueling Boston Marathon.
Filled with personal drama, Marathon Challenge also takes viewers on a scientific adventure inside the human body. What happens to our muscles and hearts when couch potatoes become endurance runners? And what are the hidden risks? NOVA s behind-the-scenes portrait of the trials, tribulations, and joys of marathon training reaches a climax at the 2007 Boston Marathon. Here our 13 rookie athletes put all their hopes and hard work to the final test, experiencing hidden rewards and floods of emotion at the finish line.
About this product: this movie was not at all what I thought it would be about. I was hoping for a movie about training and running a marathon, but instead got a sappy movie about a man having a mid life crisis. I did manage to watch the entire movie, but wouldn't reccommend it if you're looking for a "true" marathon movie.
About this product: Boston may have done it first, but the way Run For Your Life tells it, it was the New York City Marathon that put the idea of the big city road race on the map, in the process adding immeasurably to the popularity of running in general. When it began in 1970, the New York event consisted of four circuits around Central Park, where a few hundred participants shared the roadway with baby carriages and hansom cabs. In 1976, when the race expanded to include all five of the city’s boroughs, it attracted some 2,000 athletes, including Olympians Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers (who went on to win it four years in a row); in 2008, the number of runners had grown to 40,000. All of this was due to the vision and persistence of the marathon’s founder: Fred Lebow, "a slight, bearded, transplanted Transylvanian" who "ran like a duck, only slower." Born Fischel Lebowitz, Lebow emigrated from Romania to Brooklyn in the 1950s and, following a stint in the garment industry (where he was skilled at copying expensive designs and selling them on the cheap), became a long distance running nut. The many folks--friends, foes, family, politicians, athletes--who talk about him in the course of producer-director Judd Ehrlich’s film describe Lebow as everything from a brilliant promoter and entrepreneur to a "chaos creator" and a master manipulator, but they all agree that without him, the New York City Marathon would never have hit its stride. It was Lebow who wooed the sponsors, attracted the best runners (also including Grete Waitz, who won the women’s division an astonishing nine times, and Alberto Salazar, another multiple winner), browbeat the city into closing bridges, streets, and such along the route, and dealt with the notorious Rosie Ruiz, who allegedly cheated in the New York race before achieving lasting infamy by "winning" the Boston Marathon in 1980. In fact, Lebow did pretty much everything except compete in his own race, at least until 1992, when he took part a couple of years after being diagnosed with brain cancer (he died in 1994). The documentary includes director’s commentary, deleted scenes, and more. --Sam Graham
About this product: Athletes in every sport except running devote enormous attention to perfecting even minute details of the movements they will be required to produce in competition. Running coaches just tell their athletes to run longer and harder. Runners, and their coaches, have basically ignored technique for years, assuming that their natural stride will give them efficiency and injury resistance. We have found that this simply is not the case. For the past decade, African runners have dominated distance running at its highest levels. Research on what makes these runners faster consistently demonstrates normal VO2 Max and lactate threshold levels for elite runners. Their height, weight, and limb-length ratios all fall into the normal category. Clearly and consistently, what sets the great African runners apart is that they are more efficient than their competitors, running faster without expending more energy. Experts in running economy agree that running barefoot through childhood contributes sig
About this product: Since audiences are inclined to F/X spectacle, it was easy to understand the 1998 box-office battle between Armageddon and Deep Impact, which shared almost exactly the same premise. But two films about the now-obscure long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine? Without Limits and Prefontaine were in production at the same time, with the cheaper Prefontaine rushed into theaters in 1997 while Without Limits was held back until the fall of '98. As it turned out, neither movie scored a deep impact at the box office, but Without Limits is much more satisfying as a competent, heartfelt slice of sports history. Billy Crudup (a rising star who strongly resembles the film's producer, Tom Cruise, in both looks and intensity) plays Prefontaine, or "Pre," the mustachioed runner who blazed out of Coos Bay, Oregon, in the late 1960s. The movie grazes across the major events of Pre's career at the University of Oregon, where he blew away the competition and positioned himself as the leading American runner (and a charismatic hunk) going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich--that star-crossed competition at which Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed members of the Israeli team. Though the film suffers from some of the built-in problems of the true-life biopic, director Robert Towne (who earlier made a remarkable track-and-field picture, Personal Best) captures the texture of the athletes' world. Acting honors go to Donald Sutherland, turning in an emotional performance as coach Bill Bowerman; while tutoring Pre, Bowerman was tinkering with some waffle-soled running shoes, a hobby that later became a little company called Nike. --Robert Horton
About this product: John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) directed this gripping, entertaining 1977 thriller that centers on graduate student Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Tootsie). Hoffman plays a sullen and cowardly loner haunted by the suicide of his father, a suspected communist. He is drawn into a murky web of international intrigue when his brother, CIA agent Doc Levy, played by Roy Scheider (Jaws, The French Connection), is murdered by a former Nazi (Laurence Olivier) who has come to the United States to reclaim a valuable stash of diamonds. Babe (Hoffman) must confront his fears of the past as he runs for his life and tries to avenge his brother's death at the same time. Featuring a classic torture sequence and a terrific cast that includes William Devane and Marthe Keller, this film written by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) stands as a great entertainment and as one of the seminal films of the 1970s. --Robert Lane
About this product: Director JB Benna s inspirational film UltraMarathon Man: 50 Marathons - 50 States - 50 Days, features renowned endurance athlete and best selling author Dean Karnazes, in his attempt to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days to raise awareness for youth obesity and to get America active. A beautiful and epic journey across the United States, during which Dean pushes the limits of human endurance, inspiring thousands across the country to join him along the path while uniting people of all ages and abilities to take the next step.
About this product: Armin mueller-stahl stars as a demanding coach whos training a fiercely independent young woman to conquer the worlds toughest marathon. Its an uplifting story about desire and going the distance. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 06/01/2004 Starring: Armin Mueller-stahl Paterson Joseph Run time: 113 minutes Rating: R Director: Jean Stewart
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