My Scene

As much as I love running, I have never been a fan of “running movies”, per se.  I never jumped on the Forrest Gump train like so many people have over the years, especially runners.  I saw Forrest Gump a couple of times, but I was never able to get into it.  I saw Prefontaine and loved the story.  Pre was an exceptional runner but after watching the film, I quickly dismissed it as a one-time watch.  I have never seen, and frankly, I have no interest in seeing movies like Chariots of Fire, Without Limits, Personal Best, On the Edge, etc.  If one of my friends were to come over with one of these movies I’d be willing to give it a watch, but I would not go out of my way to rent or purchase it.  The reason for my lack of interest in such movies is because more often than not, movies that revolve around running are dramatic and intense.  I generally enjoy these types of movies, such as the Rocky series, however, drama movies about running don’t entertain me.  From the day I decided to start running in December of 2008 in Michigan, I have always possessed a light-hearted attitude towards the sport.  Yes, I wanted to be able to run long distances and yes, I wanted to be fast, but I have never been one of those intense runners who dreams about winning races, counts their teeth every morning, and trains so hard that they’re not enjoying the sport.  Of course, running is my primary method of staying fit and healthy, but I view running as a relaxing, therapeutic, lose yourself in the moment type of activity, especially when running in the wilderness and on mountain trails.  Even if I’m flying down a trail or hauling ass during a road race, I ensure that I have fun and enjoy the experience.  When I feel like I’m getting too serious during a run I’ll smile to remind myself to loosen up.

 

Most people who become runners in their adult life possess inspiration that can be traced way back to when they were a young child seeing something that involves running on TV, such as the Olympics or a running movie.  Children’s minds absorb like sponges and sometimes just one movie or one scene can inspire people to become runners.  I am one of the people whose first jolt of inspiration derived from a movie.  It wasn’t a running movie, although running did play a significant role in the storyline.  The movie that got me into running is none other than “Meatballs”, a late 1970’s comedy film.  My parents liked the movie a lot and showed it to me for the first time when I was eight years old.  Released in 1979, Meatballs stars a very young Bill Murray as Tripper Harrison, the head counselor of Camp North Star, a summer camp for kids.  The camp is packed full of bratty kids and a coed group of college students working as counselors in training or CITs.  The CITs engage in romance with one another and are often seen losing their tempers on account of the actions of the ill-behaved children, which serves as one of comedic elements of the movie.  Among the campers is a socially awkward misfit named Rudy Gerner.  Upon witnessing Rudy being bullied due to his lack of athleticism and sensing his loneliness, Tripper takes him under his wing.  Tripper is seen throughout the film running on the trails around camp early in the morning.  Inspired, Rudy begins waking up early and running with him every morning, which leads to the two of them bonding with each other and becoming good friends.  A sub plot of the movie is Camp North Star’s rivalry with Camp Mohawk, which is located across the lake and is chock full of snobby, wealthy, more athletically gifted kids.  At the end of the film, the two camps participate in a two-day series of sporting events known as the Olympiad.  Camp North Star gets their butts kicked on the first day, but thanks to an inspiring (and laugh out loud hilarious) motivational speech by Tripper that night in the lodge, the campers are infused with hope and beat Camp Mohawk in every event on day two, including a hot dog eating contest.  The final event is a one on one four-mile trail race, in which the winner is the crowned champion of the whole Olympiad.  No one from Camp North Star is willing to participate so Tripper volunteers Rudy to compete.  He reluctantly agrees to run after Tripper gives him a pep talk.  All the running he did throughout the film with Tripper pays off, and Rudy beats the runner from Camp Mohawk by merely seconds, thus resulting in Camp North Star winning the Olympiad and Rudy becoming a hero among the campers and counselors.

Watching Rudy dash through the finish tape for the first time made my jaw drop.  The part of the movie in which the four-mile race takes place is only about seven minutes long, but my mind was fully engaged the whole time.  In my eight-year-old mind, running four miles was an impossible feat.  I saw the movie several times throughout my childhood and the part at the end where Rudy wins the race became my sole focus.  Watching this kid go from zero to hero by winning a four-mile trail race would have a tremendous impact on my life, though I didn’t know it at the time.  Sensing my fixation on the movie, my dad told me that distance running is a competitive sport and many people run the Marathon.  “They run twenty-six miles.  Some of these guys run eight or nine miles even before they go to work in the morning” my dad explained.  My mind was blown.  After my Meatballs revelation and listening to my dad talk about the Marathon, I went running two or maybe three times around my neighborhood before my young mind became distracted and focused on something else.  Even though I didn’t get serious about running until my early twenties, I ran occasionally during my youth and often placed in the top ten in my physical education class when we ran the mile.

 

Years later, I stood at the start line of the 2009 Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving Day in Downtown Detroit.  It was about five minutes before start time and I stood among the crowd trying to keep warm in the chilly morning early winter air.  Out of nowhere, I heard a voice behind me say “Liam! Hey man”.  I turned to see the familiar face of a guy from my high school who was part of my graduating class.  Over five years had passed since graduation, but I remembered this guy very well.  He was fiercely competitive and consistently ranked among the top five best lacrosse players in the state throughout our high school years.  He also played football and was exceptionally gifted at virtually every sport we played in our physical education classes.  If that wasn’t enough, he was also a straight A student.  I had never seen anyone with so much talent.  The one thing that always irked me about him though, was his arrogance.  He used to mock me for my light-hearted attitude towards sports and found it necessary to constantly remind me that he was a much better athlete than I was.  Despite this, things were generally good between the two of us off the field and in the classroom and hallways.  We didn’t part ways on bad terms, but we hadn’t spoken since graduation.  We exchanged small talk and began running once the gun went off.  Just after the five-mile mark, I came up behind him.  My alter ego wanted to blow right by him without a word as if to say “Now I’m kicking your ass.  How does it feel?”, but I’m not a spiteful person so instead, I slowed down along side him.  “Good job dude!” I said with a smile before continuing.  I finished the race about three minutes ahead of him.  At the finish line we congratulated each other with a knuckle pound.  Beating him didn’t matter to me, but what did matter to me was the look in his eyes when we saw each other at the finish line.  It was my Rudy Gerner moment.  This guy may not have thought much of me in high school but that day, for the first time, he looked impressed by me.  I felt like I had finally earned his respect, much like Rudy did among the campers and counselors in Meatballs.

        

To this day, Meatballs is still one of my favorite movies.  It’s funny and inspirational and contains all the elements that I could want in a running movie; lots of laughs, a few heartfelt moments, a little romance, and a character who is unanimously viewed as the outcast and ends up becoming a hero by winning a running event.  Who knows what kind of running flicks Hollywood will conceive in the future.  There will hopefully be some good ones, but Meatballs will always be my running movie.  Rudy Gerner is the man!