On Thursday I went to see the Dean Karnazes movie with Helen, Doug, Andy, Jen, Brian and Bridget. I read Dean’s book on the eve of my first Boston so I was familiar with some of the quirks that were mentioned.
The movie focused on his fifty marathons in fifty states in fifty days. It was fun to see some of the beautiful courses he ran. My favorite was probably Alaska, where they saw a moose leg on the course.. And then a bear who was taking care of the rest of the moose! The audience chuckled as Dean recounted that that was when they picked up the pace!
I will admit that I’ve felt that much of Dean’s efforts are self-serving, but this movie helped me to like him more. Yes, he garnered incredible publicity for himself with this tour but he also managed to inspire many others. At the time the tour was being planned I had considered running with him and now I really wish I had. One thing I thought was interesting was that I’m pretty sure Pam Reed, another amazing distance runner, joined Dean at Green Bay. Much has been said about their rivalry and I thought their running together was supposed to dispel these rumours. No mention of Pam was made at all (although probably most people were not aware of this anyway).
All in all Dean was portrayed as very down to earth and unassuming. I was amused by the frequency with which he basically posed,shirtless. I couldn’t help but find that rather contrived.
I enjoyed the movie, although I had been familiar with the story.. I’d followed Dean’s race reports at the time. I knew that after the tour he had set out to run home from New York. I was really amused at my friend’s response-she called him a ‘bleeping idiot’. As though fifty marathons in fifty days were completely normal!
