Today, as I slammed my front door shut and ran down the street in a rage I was reminded why I originally started running. It wasn’t so that I could get fit or lose weight or run a marathon. No, it was so that I could do things like look all scerene and medatative running down a beach, have somewhere to go in a dramatic fashion when I strop out of the house and so that I can run quickly away from bad guys without having to stop at the first lampost and getting caught. Yes, I wanted to be like the people I saw in the movies, and tonight I actually felt like one of them. So in celebration of this, here’s some of the things that films have taught us about running.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Lesson: If you need to get somewhere fast – don’t take the car, run there. Ferris has time to chat up some girls in bikinis and he still beats his sister home. Note to self – include more fense hopping in workouts.

Forrest Gump
Lesson: When you’re tired – sleep, when you’re hungry – eat and when you have to go (well you know) – go! Oh, and nothing clears the head like a good long run.

Rocky
Lesson: tough guys run. So if you want to be a tough guy, you’d better start running… in the cold… and punching meat. And make sure you’ve got your finishing line celebration prepared. I did a Rocky at the end of my marathon, but that’s a video for another day.

Loneliness of the long distance runner
Lesson: running is escapism in a literal and spiritual sense of the word. Oh, and England was very muddy and grey in the 1960s.

Got a favourite running scene from a film? Leave it below.
Janathon Day 13
3 angry miles worthy of an Oscar nomination.