11 Movies That Will Inspire You to Run Today
Recently, I started to get really into running documentaries. I searched the depths of Hulu and Netflix to find sports documentaries, but had a hard time finding any specifically about running.
All of the movies below I found through Amazon Prime Video. I was actually surprised at just how many running related movies they had. If documentaries make your brain melt, don’t worry, I did add one comedy in the mix.
Each of these movies has inspired me to run even more and explore the world of ultra-marathons. One of the most inspiring themes I found in each one of these movies was this: no matter your age or level of running experience, everyone faces some sort of struggle. What I like most about these movies is that it shows us that the best way to deal with a challenge is to face it and keep going. I hope these movies inspire you to run and just keep going! I ranked them in order of what I thought was the most entertaining:
11. Ouray 100
Avery Collins is an elite athlete and ultra runner. Within the first segment of the race, he takes a wrong turn on the course. By the time he doubles back and is back on the race course, he’s nearly in last place. Instead of letting this mistake ruin the race for him, he stays in the race and keeps pushing to get back in the lead.
I picked this movie because it shows that even elite athletes struggle during races. I think we can all relate to those moments where we think we’re doing well and then we hit a wall. It was inspiring to see that even with this huge setback, Collins kept running the race.
He’s the kind of runner who runs races to win. He could have dropped out, saved himself the trouble of running the rest of the race and just got back to training for the next race. Instead, he decided to stay in the race and give it all he had to catch up to the leading spot.
10. 100 Head/Heart/Feet
This is another movie that deals with failure and pushing through until reaching success. Zak Wieluns isn’t a professional runner, but he has experience running ultra marathons. He ran the Vermont 100 Endurance Race a few times before but always failed to finish.
This movie follows him as he prepares to run the race again and documents his whole race day experience. Even though he has tried and failed to complete this course multiple times, he’s still determined to finish.
Wieluns didn’t get into long distance running until he met his current wife while he was in college. From their first run together, he kept running and increasing his distances. What I like about his story is that he didn’t have a long history of running. He started small, fell in love with running and kept pushing himself to go further and further and reach that 100 mile milestone.
9. Spirit of the Marathon 2
This movie follows several runners from many different backgrounds, ages and running levels as they train and run the Rome Marathon. My favorite part of this movie was the variety of the runners they followed. Running isn’t just for elite athletes or just for men or just for young people. Running is for everyone and everyone can benefit from running.
Most running documentaries I’ve watched center around male runners. They may show a few women in the background who happened to also participate in the race, but the filmmakers rarely give them a voice. I liked that this movie had a good mix of male and female runners that they interviewed. They also interview Kathrine Switzer who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon—even as race officials were trying to physically pull her off of the course. It was very uplifting to hear her story and how she made space for women in a male dominated field.
8. 3100: Run and Become
Did you know, that there is a race in New York that is 3,100 miles long?!? I didn’t either until I watched this movie. The runners have 52 days to run the race, averaging nearly 60 miles per day. The race course is about a half mile block in Queens and the course is open from 6am to midnight. The runners can run as much as they like during those hours and take breaks if needed.
Even though this sounds nearly impossible, people still sign up and do finish this race! From interviews with the runners, you hear their story and for a lot of them this is a very spiritual experience. Some of them are running for spiritual enlightenment and some are running as a form of prayer. These people are putting themselves through immense pain (physically and psychologically) just to become better people once they finish.
You don’t need to run thousands of miles at a time to experience enlightenment. It’s definitely something you’ll feel once you start running longer distances and push yourself past your limits—or what you thought your limits were.
7. Breaking 60: Challenging the Impossible
The Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge is another unique race. Runners run along 4 separate trails in Hong Kong including trails on Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island. The trails may cross each other, but their start and finish points aren’t connected. They cover a total distance of 298 km (about 185.1 miles). To complete the challenge, runners must complete all 4 trails in under 60 hours. If you go over 60 hours but still finish the tails, you’re considered a “survivor.” At the time they started filming, no one had completed the challenge in under 60 hours.
One of the key takeaways from this movie, is the concept of failure. This race has a high failure rate, but people keep signing up and try to complete the challenge. Many of the runners in the film have tried to finish the race before. Even though they weren’t able to finish the race or complete the challenge, they don’t give up. They keep training and just keep trying to complete the challenge.
6. Rx Run
This one is a much shorter movie, but I want to include it because it hones in on the relationship between exercise and mental health. Dan McGann is a therapist and he runs a group therapy program for teens struggling with mental health issues. In group therapy he talks to them about the benefits of running and how it improves mental health, then he takes the group on short runs.
They interview a few teens in the program along with their parents. You get to hear real stories of people suffering from depression and anxiety. They show what it feels like from the teen’s perspective and also the parent’s perspective. At the same time, they also show just how much running has improved their mental health. I really feel there should be more programs like this in schools where kids who may not be athletic enough to play sports have an outlet and group setting for exercise.
5. Desert Runners
The 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series is considered the hardest race in the world. It consists of 4 separate races with a distance of 250 km (about 155 miles) for each race in the most extreme deserts on the planet. In this movie, the races took place in the Gobi desert, Atacama desert, Sahara desert and finishing at the final desert—Antarctica.
Again, we get to follow a variety of runners from different backgrounds as they attempt to complete the Grand Slam by running all 4 races in ONE YEAR! These runners are pushing themselves to run through extreme temperatures and extreme elevation changes at extreme distances. On top of that, they do this 4 times in a single year.
One of the most compelling stories is that of Samantha Gash. She’s a professional endurance athlete from Australia. During the Sahara desert race, she almost dropped out due to a traumatic experience on the race course. She was on the verge of quitting, then asked to be taken back to the checkpoint she dropped out at so she could finish that day’s stage of the race. She went on to become the first female and youngest person (at that time) to complete the Grand Slam. If she had quit, she wouldn’t have accomplished such a groundbreaking feat.
4. Finding Traction
Nikki Kimball is an experienced ultra-runner who often places in the top spots at races. This film follows her as she attempts to become the fastest person to complete Vermont’s 273 mile Long Trail. The Long Trail isn’t an official race, so she and her crew are out there completely on their own supporting her as she attempts to break the male record for the Long Trail.
I loved watching Kimball run for so many reasons. She talks about her struggles with depression and how she started running to combat it. Part of why she’s running the trail is to raise funds for Girls on the Run. Girls on the Run is a non-profit program which promotes female empowerment and incorporates running into it. I really enjoyed Kimball’s perspective that once you get to the ultra-running level, the ground starts to level out between men and women. She says that these longer distances become more about mental strength than physical. Women become much stronger contenders because of their mental strength.
3. Brittany Runs a Marathon
If documentaries don’t interest you, I highly encourage you to watch this movie. It’s based on the true story of how Brittany O’Neill changed and improved her life through running. Jillian Bell takes on the role of Brittany and does so well balancing the humor and depth of this character.
Not only was this a fun watch, but the story was also very relatable. When you start running you go through so many changes physically and mentally. You lose weight, get in better shape, your mood and mentality change, your lifestyle and circle of influence change. I went through all of this myself when I trained for my first marathon. It was cathartic to see someone else go through a lot of the same things I did. This movie will definitely motivate you to start your own running journey!
2. Running for Good: The Fiona Oakes Documentary
Here we have another strong female lead. I have to say that Fiona Oakes is now one of the women I look up to. She is both humble and a total badass! At 17 she lost one of her kneecaps in an injury and was told she would never walk again. Now, she’s an ultra-runner who not only wins races, but also shatters course records and world records. She’s dedicated her life to two things: running and her animal sanctuary. Any prize money she may get from winning races goes directly to running her animal sanctuary. She spends most of her day taking care of the animals then will go on 20+ miles runs—and then continues to do work on the sanctuary.
Most news media outlets either ignore her accomplishments or refuse to interview her because she promotes a vegan lifestyle. Oakes works so hard to win these races so she can bring awareness to veganism and animal rights. She keeps running, winning races and breaking records to build her own platform to speak from.
1. The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young
By far, this is one of the most entertaining running movies out there. Lazarus Lake and Raw Dog (yes, that’s what they call this guy) created a race so difficult that only 10 runners have ever finished the race in its first 25 years. Most years, no one manages to finish the race. It’s a 20 mile loop that the runners must run 5 times to finish the race. Most runners aim for completing the “Fun Run” of 3 loops and consider that a huge achievement in and of itself.
The race is as unique and charismatic as it’s race director Lazarus Lake. The application process is a secret, the trail is unmapped, runners have to collect a page from several books that are placed throughout the course and there is no set start time (a conch is blown 1 hour before the start). This race is unlike any other race out there!