Hood To Coast

Last night, I went to see the only showing of the Hood To Coast movie. For those of you not aware of what Hood To Coast is, here is a brief synopsis of the movie taken from the website.

"Each year 1,000 teams (12,000 runners) in 2,000 vans cover 197 grueling miles as a relay, putting themselves through an arduous physical journey that as an individual would be impossible.

Some run to test their personal limits, some to overcome personal obstacles, and others leap in blindly looking for a way to shake up a complacent life. As we follow four teams from their preparations through the big day, we realize that winning isn't everything in a film that takes a celebratory look at personal motivation and attempting the extraordinary."

Hood To Coast Movie Trailer from HoodToCoastMovie on Vimeo.

I didn't go see this movie by myself however, I went with about 17 of some of my closest running friends. There were so many of us we took up an entire row at the AMC 25 in Times Square! Not only were these 17 people runners, they just happened to be 17 people I would join to run the Reach The Beach Relay in May.

The movie overall was great. Each team they followed was engaging and their own story was interesting. I'm still not sure why they put the "Elite" team in there since they only spent about 3 minutes with them throughout the film, and honestly, they were too focused on winning to be interesting.

I could go on and on about Team R.Bowe and how their story broke our hearts and made us cry, or how Team Heart N Sole's story reminded us how ingrained running is into our daily lives, but what really hit me was towards the end of the movie.

One of the team members from the Dead Jocks said that when you finish, it's not just about you, it's about the 11 other people that helped carry you 197 miles, and all together how you were able to achieve something extraordinary, something that alone, you wouldn't have been able to do. I think when he said that out entire row looked at the person sitting next to them. We realized what a huge thing we'll be accomplishing together, and when we cross the finish line it's not just about one person, it's about the other 11 people on the team that help you the past 24 hours. It was a really cool to think about the finish being something larger than just you--so often running can be a lonely thing.

Let's just say, we were all ready to run home last night after the movie. GO TEAM!