Has anyone ever seen the documentary "The Spirit of the Marathon"? It was available for online viewing on my Netflix account. The program was really well done. They followed 7-10 people through their training to run the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Those they followed included one of the "Elite Runners" -- those that actually run a marathon to win it -- all the way through an over 65 gentleman training to run his third marathon.
The history of the marathon was appropriately intermingled with personal stories. From a woman's perspective, one of the most intriguing parts was the history of woman runners. Apparently after an early Olympics, in which, after completing an 800K run several women collapsed in exhaustion, the powers that be decided that woman are not long distance runners. They attempted to protect women by eliminating all women's long distance competitions.
One actual and ludacris documented reason that women should not run was because "their uterises would fall out". However, as the Boston Marathon grew in popularity a woman, Katherine Switzer, registered to run (1976), by simply using her first initial rather than her first name. So she was registered and given numbers.
The press jumped all over it when they saw a women running. They were amazed and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the moment. However, there was a race official, who taking great pride in the race, jumped into the road, grabbed her and litterally tried to throw her out of the race. Coming to her rescue was her training partner, who came full on with a shoulder block aimed at this man, throwing him to the side of the road instead. The two took off running and both completed the race. Her completion of the marathon sparked a resurgence of running for woman all over the world. To see more about this you can visit her website at www.kathrineswitzer.com.
If any of you watch this documentary, I'd love to hear what you thought.
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