Back in the 1960s runners in New York City were viewed as oddballs as they sped through Central Park. Now the New York City Marathon is a major media event and a massive competition that attracts famous athletes and thousands of ordinary people.
In this documentary, sports historian and filmmaker Pierre Morath charts the evolution of running in the United States and Western Europe through reports on the activism of Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon; Noel Tamini, editor-in-chief of the once popular Swiss running magazine Spirirdon; and Katherine Switzer, who almost singlehandedly spearheaded the long campaign to give women the right to run in marathons. One of the most powerful scenes in Free to Run shows the race director of the Boston marathon trying to drag Switzer off the streets. She wanted to prove that women were strong enough to run the 26.2 miles in these large competitions without drastic physical consequences.
A lot of time is given to Lebow's immense contributions to the sport by moving the New York City marathon from the Bronx to a route covering all five boroughs and finishing in Central Park. He worked hard to draw celebrities and top-drawer athletes into the race. There are several memorable shots of running heroes of the past, including Frank Shorter and the late Steve Prefontaine, who died in a 1975 car crash when he was only 24 years of age. Both of these men contributed to the continuing boom in the sport of running.
Morath ends this up-tempo documentary with coverage of the cancellation of the 2012 New York City marathon due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. Afterwards, many New Yorkers realized for the first time that participating in this major event was mainly for the rich and not for the poor. Yet 50,000 people are willing to put their bodies to the test in one of the world's major marathons where you can move for fitness, for a runner's high, or for self-expression and the lifting of one's spirit.
<iframe width="580" height="326" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fiIZgqCSWfc?rel=0" allowfullscreen></iframe>