3100: Run and Become

This is the second documentary movie about running that I've 'made' my wife watch with me. The first was The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (a review of which I'll save for another post).  This one is a lot gentler in its own way, though I suspect the average paces maintained by competitors in both races is probably somewhat comparable, given the terrain on the one hand (Barkley Marathons) and the distance on the other (3100).

The movie is structured around a race that takes place within a half city block in New York City (this was also described in Finn's book The Rise of the Ultra Runners, about which I've posted).  The main sections of footage involve various participants in the 3100 mile (5000 km) race that was started by religious leader Sri Chinmoy. Various (if not all) participants are followers of the pacifist movement inspired by Chinmoy, himself an inspirational runner and competitor.

Interspersed with footage from the 3100 race itself, which is a very subdued affair, stretching over days that last from 6am to midnight, kicked off each day with a silent prayer among the twenty or so participants this event attracts. On the surface, these people do not appear competitive, partly because the pace is so slow, but then again, they have to cover a LOT of miles.  The whole idea of pacing yourself goes to a whole new level.

Beneath the surface, there are at least several of the participants who really want to win. This plays out over days, with one racer gaining a few miles over another each day until, several days later, they are in the lead.  Other competitors simply want to finish, and we are given glimpses of at least two of these peoples' lives, through interviews that include key family members giving support throughout the race.

Interleaved with the main 3100 racer sections are three others: 1. Kalahari hunter/gatherers 2. Navajo runners in Arizona and 3. Marathon monks.  Footage from different parts of the world highlight how human beings have linked running to belief, religion, livelihood, and healing. These interlinked issues are given some historical positioning, but we also realise that running goes much deeper than that recorded in written history, back to when knowledge was transmitted orally, and stories about running intersected with stories of the hunt, of connecting with the gods, and of basic freedom.

These other sections break up the main story of 3100 miles in NYC nicely, but we are eager to get back to these stories as well. We see the main character, an incredibly humble man from Finland, going about his daily life back home, and then we see him, in a very similar way, doing very everyday things during the course of the race: eating, sleeping, setting a timer, chatting with people, and come to realise that there really is no distinction between running and not running: it's just a matter of degree.  Slow motion footage of his feet moving alongside the chain-link fence that runs beside much of the course make this point visually: it looks very much like fast walking, and indeed, as in all ultra-running, a lot of it is walked.

To summarise: my wife ended up loving this movie (just as she had with the Barkleys one), and we had a good discussion about it. I would have like to have heard more about the other three threads of information, but the movie is already two hours long, so I'll have to resort to my books about running to pick up that other information at some time.