All language subtitles for Free.To.Run.2016.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

af Afrikaans
ak Akan
sq Albanian
am Amharic
ar Arabic
hy Armenian
az Azerbaijani
eu Basque
be Belarusian
bem Bemba
bn Bengali
bh Bihari
bs Bosnian
br Breton
bg Bulgarian
km Cambodian
ca Catalan
ceb Cebuano
chr Cherokee
ny Chichewa
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)
zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)
co Corsican
hr Croatian
cs Czech
da Danish
nl Dutch
eo Esperanto
et Estonian
ee Ewe
fo Faroese
tl Filipino
fi Finnish
fr French
fy Frisian
gaa Ga
gl Galician
ka Georgian
de German
el Greek
gn Guarani
gu Gujarati
ht Haitian Creole
ha Hausa
haw Hawaiian
iw Hebrew
hi Hindi
hmn Hmong
hu Hungarian
is Icelandic
ig Igbo
id Indonesian
ia Interlingua
ga Irish
ja Japanese
jw Javanese
kn Kannada
kk Kazakh
rw Kinyarwanda
rn Kirundi
kg Kongo
ko Korean
kri Krio (Sierra Leone)
ku Kurdish
ckb Kurdish (Soranรฎ)
ky Kyrgyz
lo Laothian
la Latin
lv Latvian
ln Lingala
lt Lithuanian
loz Lozi
lg Luganda
ach Luo
lb Luxembourgish
mk Macedonian
mg Malagasy
ms Malay
ml Malayalam
mt Maltese
mi Maori
mr Marathi
mfe Mauritian Creole
mo Moldavian
mn Mongolian
my Myanmar (Burmese)
sr-ME Montenegrin
ne Nepali
pcm Nigerian Pidgin
nso Northern Sotho
no Norwegian
nn Norwegian (Nynorsk)
oc Occitan
or Oriya
om Oromo
ps Pashto
fa Persian
pl Polish
pt-BR Portuguese (Brazil)
pt Portuguese (Portugal)
pa Punjabi
qu Quechua
ro Romanian
rm Romansh
nyn Runyakitara
ru Russian
sm Samoan
gd Scots Gaelic
sr Serbian
sh Serbo-Croatian
st Sesotho
tn Setswana
crs Seychellois Creole
sn Shona
sd Sindhi
si Sinhalese
sk Slovak
sl Slovenian
so Somali
es Spanish
es-419 Spanish (Latin American)
su Sundanese
sw Swahili
sv Swedish
tg Tajik
ta Tamil
tt Tatar
te Telugu
th Thai
ti Tigrinya
to Tonga
lua Tshiluba
tum Tumbuka
tr Turkish
tk Turkmen
tw Twi
ug Uighur
uk Ukrainian
ur Urdu
uz Uzbek
vi Vietnamese
cy Welsh
wo Wolof
xh Xhosa
yi Yiddish
yo Yoruba
zu Zulu

Original subtitles

**

Yeah, I remember running back here in..

...late 1960s.

I could do a full loop

6 miles around Central Park

and...I might see..

...4, 5 other runners back then.

That was it.

In the course of a... an hour run.

And..

I would say I -- I knew every one of them back then.

And if I didn't know them by name

I -- I certainly recognized them.

Said hello to them.

There weren't many of us and, uh..

We were considered pretty odd, yeah.

Kind of, kind of weirdos

I would say, at that time.

Sure changed now.

[instrumental music]

-Runners used to be an eccentric minority.

You know, no -- nobody really took us seriously.

- I used to go out at night because

I was embarrassed

ab -- about being seen in public, running.

[speaking in foreign language]

[music continues]

[dog barking]

-I think we were looked as odd balls.

We were strangers to, to people.

Seeing people running down the block

in their underwear, I guess, you know

and white shorts.

- I once got stopped by the police

while I was out running without a shirt in a park

because they thought I was

a, a -- a pervert of some kind that..

- What's so attractive about running?

-It's so earthy, you know.

[laughing]

That's a little exaggerated.

But, uh, it's -- it's something you -- you do all on your own.

You -- you create your run.

Nobody helps you and nobody hinders you.

Uh, and you're just out there in the environment

wherever you may be.

And -- and it's just you, you and the world.

[instrumental music]

- When you run, you get this pattern

of beautiful forms and colors

the leaves in the forest and the blue sky

and you're breathing the air

and you just, you feel alive on this Earth.

And to me, it was always a miracle.

* Today

* Was a pretty day

* No disappointments

* No expectations on your whereabouts *

* And oh *

- In the spring when you, when it's, when you're in the park

and you can smell the grass growing

and, an -- and then the buzz and then

in the summer, I mean, there's nothing

like, uh, running and sweating

and then having a beer after it, you know.

[music continues]

[speaking in foreign language]

[instrumental music]

- Running was a way of self-expression.

It was very simple.

You'd almost, you need no equipment.

We ran, not naked, but close to it.

And so, it was our equivalent of going to Woodstock

and listening to music and doing something quite natural.

Um, so -- some people

express themselves through music

and some people express themselves through drugs.

I expressed myself through running!

[instrumental music]

- One Sunday, a friend of mine said

"You know, did you ever run a marathon?"

I had never run more than a mile or two miles.

And, uh, he said, uh

"Let's go down to Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx.

"And they have a marathon called

the Cherry Tree Marathon and we'll run it."

- In the mid 1960s, anyone who went running outside

the stadium was frowned upon.

Unless they were a well known athlete.

A city as big as New York could only bring together

a small group of running freaks, who met up every Sunday

to run a marathon through the streets of the Bronx.

The city's roughest area.

- I started around Yankee Stadium, around and around

and I said, "Oh, this is easy.

"This is a jog, this is easy.

You know, anybody can do this."

So, I kept going around and it was cold.

I was freezing cold and, uh, so I'm running around and around

for -- for 5 miles, 10 miles, I got up

about 15 miles and boom!

I just couldn't take another step.

And I stopped in front of a church u -- up in the Bronx

and all the people were coming out of the church

and, uh, one fellow saw me, I swear this is true, he saw me

I was, I was so, I was just frozen up and I was blue

because it was, you know, in the middle of, uh

in the middle of the winter time.

He took off his coat, then he took off his shirt

and he gave me, he wrapped his shirt around me

and he said, "You can do it, keep going! Keep going!"

So I took and I kept going.

Well, I -- I went another mile.

I just, oh, well, I couldn't walk for a week!

-It's a lot of fun to run.

But if you're going to hasten your death

that's no fun.

Running is the worst thing in the world you can do

because you're taking the chance

to shorten your life by 20 to 40 years.

[panting]

- So in those days, you were seen as

some kind of masochistic weirdo if you went road running.

The situation was even worse for women.

They were not even allowed to take part

in distance races of over 800 meters.

And things had been that way for a long time.

[instrumental music]

- That 1928 women's 800 meters was amazing

from many points of view.

One was that the women, in reality, ran so well.

The other aspect of it is that it was misreported

probably with a de -- degree of deliberate manipulation

by the Olympic Association that they all collapsed.

-And it told...at the time

uh, there were 11 women in the race.

5 didn't finish

5 collapsed at the finish.

- What actually happened was that 1 woman

as she crossed the finish line

leant forward and fell over.

Just as runners very often do

at the -- at the finish of races.

The film footage focuses on that

and makes it look as if there is devastation.

That was taken as the truth.

Doctors all around the world said

"Women will harm themselves.

"They shouldn't be doing this.

"They -- they carry too much fat.

They're -- they're too emotional."

And the 800 meters

was cut from the Olympic Games

until 1960.

So from 1928 to 1960, women had nothing

in the Olympic Games longer for a while than the 100 meters.

* When my baby goes out

* I don't chase her about

* My baby comes home to me.. *

- It was a whole mindset

of the '50s and '60s

that I grew up and they said

"Women weren't capable of doing it.

"They weren't capable of going to medical school.

They couldn't have a credit card in their own name."

- People whispered about

you know, "If you, if you ran you're gonna get big legs.

"And you're gonna grow hair on your chest.

"You're gonna turn into a man.

"You're gonna turn into... maybe something else.

You're never gonna get married, never have children."

-I was a nurse.

And -- and the tradition was

uh, the saying was "If -- if you ran too much

your uterus would fall out!"

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

- I didn't understand that at all, um

because I felt fabulous whenever I was running.

So I refused to believe these myths.

And I decided to play sports, be feminine

and be anything I wanted to be.

[instrumental music]

- Back then, Kathrine Switzer had no idea

running would play such a big part in her life.

She was just a typical American teenager

when her father first suggested to her

that running would help her get into shape

and boost her chances of getting on to

the school's field hockey team.

-He said, "All you have to do is

"go and run a mile a day and you'd be

the best player on that team."

And I said, "What, a mile a day, dad?

You know, it's like climbing up Kilimanjaro?"

I began running this mile every single day

and the most amazing thing happened.

Every day I ran

I felt so empowered.

I felt like, I -- fearless.

Like I could do anything.

I could conquer the world.

[music continues]

- When Switzer went to college

a few years later in 1965

she soon realized that there was no provision

for women who wanted to run.

Nonetheless, she hunted down the track coach

and asked to join the men's team.

- It was really funny to see his face

because he kind of went like this

and he said, "Uh, well, um

"I've been the coach here for 30 years

"and we've never had a girl before.

"But I have to tell you it is

"against NCAA rules

to let you run on the men's team."

- The NCAA was the federation that ruled

over college athletics in the USA with an iron fist.

But Switzer didn't care about that.

Through sheer persistence, she managed to get accepted

onto the college track team

but they asked her to train alone

with an elderly coach, Arnie Briggs.

- Arnie Briggs, he was a mailman.

And he delivered the mail in Syracuse, New York

and then he worked out every afternoon.

And he did this for one day in his life

that was extremely special to him.

And that was a day in April that he ran the Boston Marathon.

And he had run the Boston Marathon 15 times.

And he would tell me a story.

Everyday it would be another

story about the Boston Marathon.

[instrumental music]

- The 53rd annual Boston Marathon

will take place tomorrow.

Over 200 people will run the 26.2 miles

of this unique marathon.

- Kathrine Switzer had heard so much about the Boston Marathon

that she ended up asking her coach if she could run it.

Briggs flatly refused.

- And I said, "Arnie, look

"regardless of what you believe or you don't believe

"I'm not running with you any more

"until you believe that a woman

some woman, can run the marathon distance."

And he says, like this, he says

"If any woman can do it, I believe you can do it.

"But you would have to prove it to me.

"In fact, if you showed me in practice

I'd be the first person to take you to Boston."

[instrumental music]

- So Kathrine started training daily.

Gradually increasing her training time

and distance until she could run

the full 26.4 miles

of a marathon without a break.

One year earlier, another girl

living thousands of kilometers away

had exactly the same idea.

- And I wrote for my application blank

and I got a letter back from Will Cloney

who was the race director and it said

"Women are not physiologically

"able to run 26 miles

"and furthermore, under the rules

"of the Amateur Athletic Union

"they're not allowed to run

more than a mile and a half competitively."

But I convinced my mother to drive me to the start.

At first, she thought I was nuts

so I said, "Mom, it's not just for me

"it's for all women, don't you see?

"You know, this is a little chink in the armor.

This is an opportunity to change things."

- Running without an official race number

Bobbi Gibb chose to blend in discreetly

with the pack

and she kept a low profile.

The following year in 1967

the situation was very different for Kathrine Switzer.

-You know, I signed my name KV Switzer.

That's something I started doing

when I was in high school

and because my name was misspelled

and on my birth certificate and when the entry went in

with Arnie's and -- and other team members

um, they thought it was from a guy.

[instrumental music]

When we got to Boston, it was snowing

and sleeting all the way into Boston the night before.

And the morning of the race it was really coming down.

So, as we all moved to the start line together

you know, there I was in a baggy grey sweat suit

looking like hundreds of other people.

[gunshot]

- Wearing her official race bib

Kathrine Switzer ran between Arnie

her coach and her boyfriend Tom.

- Then we got to about the 2 mile mark

in the race and a ve -- very strange thing happened.

The press truck came by us.

- There happened to be 3 runners running alongside.

1, 111.

And the middle of the 3 runners

the middle one took the hood off..

...off her head, off the head

and we.. And I said, it was a woman!

- On this bus were the two race directors.

A guy by the name of Will Cloney

and a guy by the name of Jock Semple.

-Now, one of the writers said

"Jock, there's a woman in your race!"

Jock looked.. "Stop the bus, stop the bus!"

- I heard behind me shoes, leather shoes

sounded, you know, scraping and they were going fast.

And all of a sudden I turned, like you'd turn

like, when you hear a dog chasing you.

At the last minute

and Jock Semple grabbed me like this.

[instrumental music]

He grabbed me by the shirt

and threw me back and he screamed

"Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!"

and went to try to pull off my bib number.

And I pulled back like that.

All of a sudden, Tom, he threw a shoulder block

into Jock Semple

and I thought...that I saw

Jock go through the air.

For a split second I thought

"Should I, should I step off the course?"

And the journalists were asking these very aggressive questions

like "What are you trying to prove?"

You know, "Are -- are you a suffragette?

Are you a crusader?"

Oh, and, you know, I'm thinking

"I -- I just wanna run here.

What's -- what is this all about?"

- Despite everything, Kathrine Switzer managed

to complete the 26.4 miles

and finish the race.

But a few days later, she received a letter from

the organizers of the Boston Marathon

telling her that she had been disqualified

and banned for life from the AAU.

The American Athletics Federation.

- That was my first big brush

with discrimination.

And it opened my eyes a lot.

And I thought, you know

you've always been taught to be responsible

to finish what you start.

And it's gonna be my responsibility now

to try to give other women this opportunity.

To tell them how wonderful this running can be.

And I didn't know how I was going to do it

but when I crossed the finish line

I knew that that was a life plan.

[instrumental music]

[indistinct shouting]

-You can be somebody's wife, you can be somebody's mother

you can be somebody's lover.

You can be somebody's anything but you can't be somebody!

* Yesterday

* Any way you made it was just fine *

- Women, black people, Puerto Ricans

Mexicans and all the minorities

all of us must stand up together

and say, "No more."

* Didn't you know

* You can't make it

* Without ever even trying

* And something's on your mind isn't it? *

* Let these times

* Show you that you're breaking up the lines *

* Leaving all your dreams too far.. **

-We're gonna talk now about the exquisite, exquisite agony

of the marathon runner.

Uh, Kathy Switzer is here.

Kathy was just -- just to set the stage

she was the first woman ever to run in the Boston marathon.

She did it illegally at the start.

- In the years following her participation

in the Boston Marathon, Switzer became

the toast of the US media.

Her story went around the world

eventually reaching Switzerland

and the ears of a certain Noel Tamini.

[speaking in foreign language]

- In Switzerland, as elsewhere, women were banned

from taking part in road races

by the athletics federation.

But Tamini managed to persuade Kathrine Switzer

to come and take part in the Morat-Fribourg race.

A European version of the Boston Marathon.

Only even more inflexible.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[men shouting]

[gunshot]

- I knew the situation in Switzerland

for women wasn't terrific

because I mean, I believe women couldn't even vote..

...in Switzerland at the time.

It was something that really appalled me.

[instrumental music]

- This time, Kathrine completed the race unhindered

but wearing a fake race number.

So once again running incognito.

From Switzerland, she dashed off

a postcard to a girl friend.

"Dear Suzy, here in Europe

"everything's going wonderfully.

"Though, I'm sorry to say that here too

I'm the only woman runner."

[music continues]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

[speaking in foreign language]

- "Spiridon" is the name Noel Tamini chose

for the international running magazine

he started in Switzerland around the same time.

The magazine was produced on a shoestring

and from the very beginning campaigned

for the rights of all runners

and foremost the rights of women runners.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

As well as campaigning, "Spiridon" conveyed

a whole new philosophy of running.

An ascetic, mystical

"Back to nature" ethos of sports.

[music continues]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

- Noel had a, had a particular

in a way genius.

His pictures were terrific, you know

I, uh, I -- I haven't seen

those kinds of pictures since then, you know.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[helicopter whirring]

- Meanwhile, in New York

the lives of the Bronx marathon freaks changed when one day

a funny little guy

no one had even seen before showed up.

He went by the name of Fred Lebow.

And he wasn't much of a runner.

[instrumental music]

- He was totally, uh, new to us.

He wasn't the fastest guy.

He -- he had a sort of a shuffle.

- Everybody who ran was serious.

Nobody jogged and, uh

people were suspicious of him at first.

They'd say, "Who is he? Who's this person?

"We -- we don't even know who he is.

"He's not one of the

the die-hard runners, you know."

-I -- I don't know, he was a strange sort of guy.

Uh, I -- I think he liked my wife.

Uh, I know he liked my wife!

He'd run after every girl in town!

- Fred came from a different background.

He came from

the fashion industry

in New York City.

Which is very fancy

and slick and, uh, business like.

And he had come to New York from, uh, Romania

and then he spent time in Dublin, Ireland

and then he came here.

Uh, and he was very successful.

-Fred at heart was a promoter.

- He said, "Listen, the sport is not going to be popular.

If we stay here in the Bronx."

-I don't know why, but he wanted to make it grow.

- "I'm going to s -- suggest that we go down to Manhattan

and we have it in Central Park."

Well, people said, "Oh, that's ridiculous!

"You know, Central Park!

"You know, wait, how can you run in Central Park?

Nobody ever ran in Central Park."

-We were happy running just, uh

every Sunday, meeting with people

and running races and, uh

making it bigger, huh!

That didn't, uh, that wasn't my concern.

[instrumental music]

- Lebow nagged them until he succeeded in getting

the marathon moved from the Bronx to Central Park

in the heart of Manhattan.

A massive change, but perhaps less so than it seemed.

- It was basically a nothing race.

Not many runners, not very well organized

in, in terms of water and other things.

Uh..

...old fashioned running.

- I mean, it was just on the schedule and

I had worked the night before and we had 3 children

and, um, I think my wife just wanted to get out of the house.

But, uh, yeah, it was a very lucky, lucky day for me.

You know, no matter what happens

I won the 1st New York City Marathon.

- For several years, the New York Marathon was held

in Central Park, in these very amateurish conditions.

Then came 1972.

- Frank Shorter appears to be running to victory

winning an unexpected gold medal for the USA.

It's incredible.

He seems to be just jogging in the streets.

-That was, uh, definitely a, a game changer

for, for marathon running in this country

or long distance running in general.

- I think Shorter really appealed to the American public

because he made it look so beautiful.

I won't say easy, but, uh, but he made it look

he made it look like poetry and this was a sport

that, until then, its image had been suffering

grimacing, exhaustion, collapse

something that was dangerous.

That really ignited both the running movement as a whole

but most specifically, the marathon.

Suddenly Americans wanted to run the marathon.

- For the bicentennial of the United States of America

the annual marathon race organized by the New York

Road Runners Club with its usual setting in Central Park

and take to the streets of the city's 5 boroughs.

-We all loved Boston so much because it was in the streets.

And Fred said "We could do that in New York"

and everybody thought it would be impossible.

-"Say what? Say when, how?"

Well, and -- and I think there was a tremendous amount

of kind of skepticism that you could actually run a race

through 5 boroughs and have runners go from start to finish

without some kind of catastrophic event happening.

[intense music]

- At that time the city was in decline because financially

in crime, and it wasn't, wasn't a good time for the city.

- New York City, for months, it teeters

on the brink of bankruptcy.

-We are facing up to the financial crisis

confronting this city and the state.

-That was the payroll, we don't get the -- the check for the day

we don't get nothing.

Don't ask me about the people with -- with children and

the thing is.. I -- I don't even know what..

- People had, were in despair, you know.

Their -- their moral was low

and, uh, he said, "Oh, listen!

"We'll run through the streets. We'll lift the whole world up.

We'll lift up New York City."

But Fred Lebow knew that merely running through the streets

of New York wouldn't be enough to put his marathon on the map.

Despite the limited means at his disposals

he somehow managed to get the 2 stars of US running

the Olympic gold medalist, Frank Shorter

and the US record holder Bill Rodgers

to take part and provide the necessary glitter.

-He knew that..

...he needed to get Frank Shorter.

Frank Shorter was the 1 runner that everybody knew

he was beyond the sport.

-I've always maintained one of the reasons I told Fred Lebow

that I would come run in the race was

I had to see for myself that they could

close down streets in 5 boroughs

in New York City...uh, on a Sunday.

[instrumental music]

[crowd cheering]

- It was like a dream unfolding to see

runners come off the bridge and go through Brooklyn.

- The Hasidic Jew population came out of the synagogues

standing on the sidewalk, and they were just..

Y -- you know..

And that's when I realized it was going to work.

I did.

[music continues]

- Everybody saw this.

When it was just a marathon

in Central Park not too many people watched and they could

just say to themselves "Crazy runners taking up the park!"

Now it was out on the streets and you see it.

It's just so inspiring to see a marathon

to see that first runner coming in, looking so small

and then he passes you and you realize

how fast he's running.

It's a tremendous statement about human spirit.

And it makes you want to do it too. Lebow knew this.

-385 yards. No one was mugged.

No one was hit by a taxi.

And city of New York and Bill Rodgers

the marathon was a resounding success.

Dick Schaap, NBC NEWS, in Central Park.

- And it lifted the city, it united the city

you know, because each borough, you know

and it gave people hope.

And, uh, before you know it..

...everything started to get better, you know and financially

it wasn't the only reason, but it was part of it.

- I did have that perspective of seeing this detached

in a way that I'm..

...I'm watching... a -- a miracle happen.

[music continues]

-Oh, yeah.

The Central Park, uh, in many ways is a legend

you know, to the, to the sport.

This park here around the reservoir

was not used for running before that, hardly at all.

In the 1970s there was crime, it was, it was dangerous

you wouldn't walk in the park, you wouldn't walk in here.

- I'm not a track coach but I just figured out

how she can break, Kathrine can break 3 hours.

-How?

-You run alone in Central Park at night!

[laughing]

-And then as the runners came, the, the crime

and all, all the other problems disappeared.

And then the politicians and people said

"Well, let's, let's re -- rejuvenate the park.

Let's put some money into it. Let -- let's make it better."

[instrumental music]

- On most days when you ran, it was so crowded.

Sometimes you could hardly move.

And on the reservoir or on the street

you would routinely pass

Jackie Onassis, Robert Redford

Dustin Hoffman, uh, famous people running

in the same grubby shorts and T-shirt.

- Why are 10-15, 20 million Americans out

jogging and running these days?

-Well, I think they're getting smart finally.

-Well, it used to be, people used to run

only for competition, or because they had to, in gym classes

or whatever, and now people are understanding that

not only is running for fitness, running can be fun.

-Um...I just want to get the body back into shape.

- How does it feel? -It just feels terrific.

It doesn't feel so good when I am going around..

...but it feels great when I'm finished.

-Take a person like me..

When I was 35 years old

I weighed 15 or 16 stones.

I smoked 40 or 50 cigarettes a day.

I drank too much.

I started running and it was as if I were operating

a time machine in reverse, suddenly I felt better

than I had felt probably in 20 years

and now, at the age of 46 I'm sure I feel as good as

I felt when I was 15 or 16 years old.

[speaking in foreign language]

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

- Some are grandparents, some are grandchildren.

Some are fast, some are not so fast.

Nevertheless they all share 1 goal

to get to the finish line in Central Park

and to make that journey as painless

and enjoyable as possible.

- Fred was among the 1st, I have to say

if not the 1st, who began to see

uh, the benefit of doing this

uh, over and above accomplishment.

What he did, is he set the stage for that and he created

an atmosphere that was very welcoming to people

who just wanted to participate.

Where the great benefit of sports is to be with others.

And that's the beauty of the marathon, you start together

you start with the best, you know

you race with them and you finish.

- He had a wonderful analogy for what was appealing

about the marathon.

And that was, "We all wanna be on the stage.

"Not everyone can be a champion, an Olympic athlete

"a performer on a Broadway stage, but for that 1 day

"you're on your own stage, 26.2 miles.

And you're doing it, by the power of your own 2 feet."

[instrumental music]

- Inspired by the New York City Marathon

people everywhere took up running.

In Europe, the magazine "Spiridon" grew into a massive

grassroots movement that swept the continent.

Noel Tamini and his friends had grasped that the desire

to run free was catching.

Their example and their impassioned style spawned

new races here, there and everywhere.

The orange "Spiridon" running shirts started appearing

all over with the famous slogan "Run With Us."

[speaking in foreign language]

- Because despite appearances, people were still

by no means totally free to run.

And the athletics federations continued to impose

their outdated rules on road races and runners.

But not for much longer.

Revolt was in the air.

In Europe, it was epitomized by the Marvejols-Mende road race

a half-marathon that had originated in the heart

of the French countryside, a wildcat event

maintained despite being banned

by the National Athletics Federation.

[instrumental music]

[speaking in foreign language]

- As long as only a handful of eccentrics wanted to run

road races, the federations and the athletics establishment

had more or less turned a blind eye to them.

But with the movement growing, much more was at stake.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

- Road runners were not the only ones butting heads

with the governing bodies.

Track runners also had to remain amateurs

if they wanted to take part in the Olympic games.

In the USA, where they were not allowed to earn a single cent

from their sport, on pain of being disqualified for life

the situation was dire for leading athletes.

But they gritted their teeth and submitted to

the federations' bullying.

All that changed when Steve Prefontaine

burst on to the scene.

-Well, I think there's gonna have to be a reworking

of the whole amateur athlete as a whole.

Um, there's a lot of things that I think that should be changed.

I don't think that we have time to go in -- in them all

because I could talk probably for a couple of hours on 'em.

- Pre, uh, was the

was the champion of runners' rights.

He wanted equality for runners.

Every other athlete in the world got paid

for doing their sport, runners did not.

And he thought that that was this huge injustice.

[instrumental music]

- But Prefontaine was not just a powerful spokesperson

he was first and foremost

an exceptionally talented runner.

At just 21, he already had a 2 year unbeaten run

and held all the US track records

from 2000 to 10,000 meters.

[instrumental music]

- Steve Prefontaine was maybe

the most exciting athlete I've ever seen.

He had a ferocity that was just in his personality

and in his eyes, and in his, in his actions

and in his attitude that I've never seen anywhere.

-Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods

there is something that whatever they have, Pre had it.

- A performer, he was a performer.

There was no question.. no doubt.

People were louder for him.

More people connected with him than with anyone who would come

before then and as it turns out, anyone who's come since.

- The combination of his track success

his charisma and his outspokenness made Prefontaine

the people's champion.

Crowds went wild for him

especially on his home track

in Eugene, Oregon, where his appearances sparked hysteria.

[gunshot]

- Prefontaine in a surprise move there.

He said he didn't enter this race to be second!

[audience chanting]

[instrumental music]

- Season after season, ever bigger crowds flocked

to see Prefontaine win, generating colossal revenues..

...but not for Pre himself.

To remain an amateur, he had to scrape by and live

in a trailer while others cashed in on his performances.

-I'd like to possibly go to the '76 Games

if financially possible, um

but right now, I'm just kinda floating along and..

- The workers were getting peanuts

and the director was, uh

making, uh, reasonable money

for himself and for the federation..

...and it didn't feel good.

It didn't feel good at all, it felt like slavery.

-Running doesn't pay your bills.

Uh, you've, you have gotta make a -- a lot of sacrifices

uh, to be an amateur sport in this country

considering it's so professionally oriented.

-He was a consummate, uh, spokesperson

for the sport of running, not just Prefontaine

and who am I, but he was, he reached out and the AAU battle

started right away, because here's a guy who was not

gonna follow the old archaic

out-of-touch rules of the old governing body.

- In his campaign for a better deal for runners

Prefontaine soon found support in the shape of a small running

shoe company that had just started up

in his home state of Oregon.

As soon as he was out of college, they recruited him

to help with their PR operations.

- The image of Prefontaine as a rebel, as running free

with his long shaggy hair and his big moustache

and kind of fighting the establishment.

I mean, that was, that was there, that was..

...true, I think to an extent.

And then Nike..

...as a small company, uh, embraced this.

- The company was small, there may have been

less than 15 people.

I don't know, I don't remember, very small.

-The first logo that we came out with was a script logo

and you know, a script, lower case script logo

and the, and the beginning of the N had a

had a little lead into it

which looked like another leg and it looked like

an M as much as it did an N

and so a lot of people misread it

and asked that very question, "Who is Mike?"

-It was youthful.

It was, uh, kind of carefree

because you didn't worry about too much.

Everybody was involved with running

in 1 way or another.

We were trying to do anything we could to help the sport get

better and I mean, put on a road race, um

battle the governing bodies

support Pre, whatever it was

the collectiveness of that added value

big time to the running boom.

- So Prefontaine was able to count on Nike's help when

in 1975, he decided to take matters into his own hands

and organized the very first competitive athletics circuit

set up by athletes for athletes.

Overt challenge to the Amateur Athletic Union

which had always forbidden athletes

from competing in unofficial events.

And to make sure it was a success

Pre also invited Finland's leading runners

to come to the USA.

-The athletes have enough hassles without being

uh, uh, told what to do, when and where and

and throwing in new rules now and then to, to, uh

benefit themselves instead of the athletes.

- You know, at the end of the day the most important

thing you get out of all this international competition

is the friendships.

These are our friends, this is, here's where we are

this is really cool, come see this

we wanna share this with you.

That was the atmosphere, um, for these competitions.

- Pre's independent circuit came to a triumphant end

on May 29, 1975 in Eugene.

Pre won the 5000 meters ahead of his friend

Olympic medal-winning marathon runner Frank Shorter

and was already planning the next step

in this struggle for athletes independence.

- He was willing to, uh, go to the mat with those people

and did, and, uh, he stood up to them.

He was a rebel.

But he was always fighting for the

the cause of the athletes.

And putting himself at risk sometimes.

-Until today, Steve Prefontaine was ahead

of everyone in this country as a long-distance runner.

He held the American records in the 3000 meter, the 2 mile

the 3 mile, the 5000 meter, the 6 mile

and the 10,000 meter races.

Early today, his sports car jumped a curb

on an Oregon highway and flipped over.

He was alone, and he was killed. He was 24.

-Never a shock...as it is possible for me to ever again

anything like that now.

His incredible... life just gone.

-He was our glory and we were his.

And it's up to us now to hold in mind clearly..

...to remember him as he touched us

and infuriated us and challenged us.

Time holds him..

...green and dying..

...though he sang in his chains like the sea.

-I was lost in my own thoughts.

I was lost in my own thoughts.

Um..

I don't know.

-At the end of it, these various people, uh, you know

talked about him and then, um

you know, now we'll have a moment of silence and picture

him running his last lap of what would have been a world record.

And..

Yeah, you...uh, it

it was a pretty, pretty emotional day.

[audience applauds]

- As we all know, part of what

caused that revolution

in road running, was Prefontaine.

His standing up to the AAU

was the first part of it

but the second part was

his death really caused people

to assess what was important

and to them it was freedom

and being able to make a living doing what you love to do.

You know, having somebody who was the most famous person

in American track and field..

...take a stand, made it easier

in the years to come for others to do the same.

-Bill Rodgers, the best marathon runner in the country

proved that again today by wining the Boston Marathon

for the third time, even broke his own record

today he ran 2 hours, 9 minutes and 27 seconds

- We all wanted to be professionals.

We wanted to be respected like other athletes

or anyone in America who had a job

gets paid for it, you know.

Or anywhere in the world, if you're good at it, you're paid

so why were we so different?

And we didn't feel we were.

-The hundreds of thousands of people who will watch

the New York marathon run a week from Sunday

will watch a race exploding

in controversy, more from Reggie Harris.

- Next weekend more than 16,000 runners will participate

in the New York City Marathon.

Technically all of them are amateur athletes

and amateur runs for competition not for money.

But the New York Times reports coaches of some top marathoners

say under the table prize money is being offered

to get big name runners to show up.

That would violate rules

of the International Amateur Athletic Federation

or IAAF which sanctions the New York City Marathon

and if prize money is being paid

it would jeopardize the amateur status of many athletes

who hope to compete in the 1984 Olympics.

The New York Road Runners Club Fred Lebow

declined to confirm or deny

the Times' allegations, but he says it's time

for marathoners to win big prize money.

-I, I believe a -- a runner like Bill Rodgers

who, uh, uh, who trains twice a day

uh, every single day of the year

is as much an athlete as a Reggie Jackson.

-Uh, Fred Lebow was paying runners from the start

at the New York City Marathon.

Uh, not openly but they were getting paid.

-There's been a lot of dispute about under the

under-the-table payments for these so called world class.

Do they get paid?

-Well, I'm not, we're not going to ignore this situation

uh, but this has been going on for a long time

in track and field, whether runners get paid or not.

It's a subject that's under very deep discussion right now

within the Athletic Congress

and the world bodies on this subject.

- They could lose their amateur sta -- standing, that's right?

-That's right and we wouldn't do anything

that would jeopardize their eligibility

to compete internationally.

-I understand that.

- I hope you're not paying for anyone.

That's what the -- the maj.. Hope you're not.

Oh, he said, "No, no, I would never do that.

I never pay for any.."

Meanwhile, he was paying everybody.

And they.. They said, "I hope you're not giving away

all the money. This is supposed to be.."

"Oh, not at all, no, I would never do that."

Meanwhile, all these people started appearing

from all around the world.

Everywhere, Australia, Japan, Europe, France

oh, my God, they -- they all were coming.

- In the late 1970s, the practice of making

under-the-table payments to top athletes

became commonplace in the road-race community

whose members were the first to raise their voices

against the federation's hypocritical attitude.

The farsighted Fred Lebow who had never been afraid

to be provocative

decided it was time to clear the air.

He wrote a book that openly referred to those payments.

- "The total prize money we paid over the years

"to the highest finishers in New York

reached a million dollars."

- New York mayor, Edward Koch

gave the road runners a new deal.

For every dollar the club now spends

on appearance fees and prize money

it must also give a dollar to the city.

In effect, the publication of Lebow's book

may have cost the road runners more than $300,000 this year.

-Uh, in retrospect, I

if I knew the ruckus it would cause

I would have not published the book in the first place.

It turned out as the most expensive book ever published.

- We paid millions of dollars to the city

for the police protection

um, for 26 miles.

But that -- that's been going on for some years

although those fees have been going up.

- Nowadays, running has become a race

just as much for money as for glory.

In Chicago today, the winners of the marathon

got $45,000 each!

-Early '80s, they were saying..

"We don't care about your rules, we're gonna take

we're gonna give money and take money."

And, uh, and they, th -- they threw down the challenge

and the, the amateur officials couldn't answer it.

And before, before long

the -- the entire sport was open to

whatever you can get, take it.

[guitar music]

- Male track-and-road champions were not the only ones

to throw off their shackles at the end of the '70s.

Women had also gradually won the right

to run on roads alongside men.

But there were still far fewer women than men

running in races

until Kathrine Switzer heard of a madcap scheme

proposed by a major cosmetics firm

to create a women-only international

running race circuit.

-Wow, this will be the avenue to get women into running.

Not saying, "Hey, come join us in the marathon

"where there are 2 women and there are 800 men

"because you're gonna feel slow and -- and -- and not welcome.

Come in a women's-only race."

[instrumental music]

- More than 400 runners

competed in the first all-female 15-kilometer run

in Arizona this morning.

- 650 women setting out to do

what was once considered the impossible.

- More than a 1000 women compete in a half-marathon.

- I don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg.

It's, it's really incredible.

[music continues]

- We had to overcome centuries of beliefs

that women have inherent weakness

and passivity as Aristotle said.

And it's been really all those years to make a -- a change

a cultural revolution, a social revolution.

And I say, "We need an intellectual one as well."

- It was just an amazing feel to give that back

to so many women around the country

and really, around the world.

[speaking in foreign language]

- They were so poor that they'd never had anybody that said

that they could be somebody.

And when they finished a 5K race or a 10K race

and we gave them a T-shirt and a medal

and a lipstick gift...and said

"You are somebody," they-they understood

this sense of empowerment and fearlessness

and they really, really... changed their lives completely.

[instrumental music]

- You know, whether she made the best time or what

for her it's an improvement, and that's what counts.

I just, uh, would like to thank 'em for the opportunity.

I think it's a fantastic thing.

- It became phenomenally good for the corporation

because they were getting very excellent publicity

doing something that was unusual

in capturing the public imagination.

And everybody agreed that women did deserve

an opportunity in the Olympics.

[music continues]

- It's gonna be a new world record

for Grete Waitz!

- Perhaps the greatest marathon ever run, Joan Benoit!

- Every year, the women's marathon time keeps going down.

In 10 years, it has dropped almost 45 minutes.

This was the first year in more than 10 years

that the men's record has dropped

and that was just by a few seconds.

- In the early '80s

1500 meters was still the longest distance

the International Athletic Federation

would sanction for a women's race.

And although women were now free to run

many people were still prejudiced against the idea

of women running long distances in the Olympic Games

even more so, for the marathon.

[speaking in foreign language]

-Yeah. Yeah, that's what we need.

-Marathon in the Olympic Games! - Yeah.

[instrumental music]

- In 1980, 4 years before the Los Angeles Olympics

Kathrine Switzer cleverly chose

to hold her circuit's annual marathon in London

where the International Federation, the IAAF

had its headquarters.

- A sunny, warm day dawns in London

for the 3rd annual Avon Women's International Marathon.

This is a turning point for women's running.

The representation of 27 countries at the starting line

now surpasses the International Olympic Committee's requirements

for a new event.

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

- We had excellent performances

we had... incredible media coverage

we had the endorsement of the IAAF.

And the IAAF then made a recommendation to the IOC

to get the women's marathon in the Olympic Games.

I remember when Monique Berlioux stood up

and made the announcement.

She said, um

"This was not an easy decision

but it was a very important decision."

And I turned to my, my friend who was in the audience with me

and I said

"Nobody's gonna understand how important this moment is

"until the first woman comes through that tunnel

and into the Olympic stadium."

[instrumental music]

- Joan Benoit is running in a direction

away from the rest of the pack as well.

- You know, Al, people speculated

that it would either be a tactical race

or that Joan Benoit was gonna

eventually take it out very hard.

And here she is. It looks like she's gonna make her move really early.

[music continues]

- You know, when it came time for the Los Angeles Olympics

um, ABC asked me to be a commentator

for the women's marathon.

[crowd cheering]

- Right now anticipating

the imminent arrival of Joan Benoit

as she gets into some welcome shade

and then very surely, out again into that sunlight once again.

- I was trying at this point n -- not to get emotional.

I was trying to be very, very calm.

And as she entered the tunnel, Al Michaels turned to all of us

and he went..

[no audio]

"Let the crowd take it."

[indistinct chattering]

[crowd cheering]

[instrumental music]

To me, that moment was, was as important

as giving women the right to vote

because it represented the physical equivalent

of total acceptance into society

and that people around the world

not just those 90,000 people in that Olympic stadium

but people around the world, in their millions

were watching on television

and realized that somebody had just run

26 miles, 385 yards, 42.2 km

the most difficult event in the Olympic Games

and run it with heroic courage and grace and speed.

And it changed forever people's attitudes

about what women's capability was all about.

- A dramatic step forward for women in sports

for women athletes all around the world

indeed, for women in general.

It attracted the attention

of, literally, hundreds of women's groups.

How much does that particular historic fact

have to do with the degree of elation you feel right now?

-Well, again, Jim, I don't think it's set in

and as I said earlier, there are so many people

I have to thank, uh, this marathon for.

If it hadn't been for the work

of countless women pioneers in this sport

we wouldn't be here today.

And let's hope that in 1988

we can also run a 5 and 10K

because we showed today that women can be

very competitive over this distance.

- We were just wrapping up our coverage

and just about ending this show

and I was feeling, you know, relieved

when all of a sudden

out of the tunnel and into the stadium came

the very, very crippled-over image

uh, figure of Gabriela Andersen-Schiess

from Switzerland.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

[speaking in foreign language]

And I thought, "Oh, no.

Oh, no, uh, this can't be happening."

Because they're going to make a media frenzy

of a woman in a distressed condition.

So, when she finished and was carted off

I just sort of left the studio thinking

"I don't know what's gonna happen now with the women's marathon."

- Still on the Los Angeles Olympics

we've had an update on the health of Gabriela Andersen-Scheiss

the female marathon runner who touched hearts everywhere

the day before yesterday

when she finished the race in a state of total exhaustion.

And it's good news!

It seems she was just severely dehydrated

and has made a very quick recovery.

In fact, she's already back in training.

-Afterwards, uh, my husband, Roger Robinson, uh

wrote one of the best statements about it.

He said, "One of the most amazing things

"about the 1984 Women's Olympic Marathon

"the inaugural, was

"it allowed women

to be exhausted in public."

Maybe that's what equality is also all about.

[helicopter droning]

- Today, the New York City Marathon

has become the world's most famous race.

And this Sunday, 24,000 lucky people

will have the opportunity to run

its 26.4 miles

a challenging distance for any level.

- Even in the height of what we would call the running boom

the early running boom, the first running boom

Fred used to say, "This is nothing.

This is nothing. Just watch."

[instrumental music]

- Fred really wanted the whole world of running to grow

and the New York Road Runners

to be a leader in that.

And so bigger was always better.

- When I read that there are 34 million Americans

who run or jog

I wondered where the rest of the 60 million are

that should be running

or at least race-walking.

-New York suddenly realized they had this, this event

that was bringing money in for the city on an economic basis

which they had never really dreamed about.

-And other cities started seeing that this was happening

and along came

London, Chicago

Los Angeles, Honolulu.

[instrumental music]

[speaking in foreign language]

- In the 1990s, cities throughout the world

understood that there was big money to be made

from organizing marathons

even though New York remained, by far, the most glamorous.

-I happen to think, uh, that New York City's very special

and I'm proud that it is the, uh

marathon, uh, capital of the world now.

-Many marathons around the world have copied

much of what we are doing

from bar codes to, to computer scanning

to, uh, uh

timing and scoring devices

uh, but the one thing that no marathon in the country

or the world can match

is the vitality of this city.

-He would have these plans in his mind

that it would be increasing the sponsorship

increasing the number of people who could run.

- He said, "Look, I want every runner here

"who comes to this marathon to have the best experience.

"I wanna make sure they have a cover

"I wanna make sure they get the, the food.

"I wanna make sure they have, uh

that they're taken care of in every way." You know?

-"Oh, well, let's have coffee and donuts

at the starting line."

"But, Fred, that's not a healthy thing to do."

[laughs]

"But they'll love it!"

- "We'll have the race, uh, uh, on Wall Street."

"Wall Street? How can you have a race there?"

Then he got the back, going-backwards race

people running backwards.

-Press agents were out in force

at the Empire State Building

staging a publicity stunt so silly

but we decided to cover it.

-"Let's run up the Empire State Building!"

[laughs]

What, what, what a great idea it turned out to be

but at the time..

- They'd given people jingle bells

so that they can make noise when they run.

And people are dressed in Santa Claus outfits

and reindeer and they have antlers on.

A-and..

And I'm going, "W -- what happened to my sport?"

[dogs barking]

- What next?

-There's just a lot more to do.

[instrumental music]

- Nobody is indispensable

but as far as the marathon is concerned

Lebow comes as close to being indispensable

as anybody.

- He was like the Pied Piper.

You know, the, the story of the Pied Piper

who plays his flute and the rest of us follow.

Those were his workers, but those were also the runners

and the other people who took advantage

of the events he put on.

They loved what he built

and so, that was his gift

that he could bring us all into his vision..

...and that he could create from his vision

an event that appealed to millions of people

whether you ran or whether you watched.

That was Fred's genius.

[instrumental music]

* Run

* Run and you'll be thinner

* Run to give your heart a thrill *

* Run

* Run to be a winner

* Not just run-of-the-mill

* Keep up the pace and we promise *

* You'll hit new highs

* Stay in the race

* And your spirit's will rise

* Rise rise

* Run *

-Well, I sure hope you like

our new, uh, award ceremony program.

It surprised me.

- I was at the dinner. It was a big dinner.

You know, you used to have the big dinner for awards, you know?

And, uh, he, uh, got up to speak.

And up to that point there was nothing, you know

I mean, he was fine, you know?

And he got up to speak

and right in the middle of his speech

he stopped talking.

You know, he forgot what to, what to say

you know, he, which he never did, you know, ever.

I was concerned about it, so I sent him, actually, on my own

right the next day up to my hospital

to get an MRI of the brain.

And that's when the, you know, the tumor was there.

Right away we detected it, you know, almost immediately.

-Um, he had a kind of brain tru -- tumor

that you can extend your life, but nobody recovers from this.

It's still one of the le -- most lethal forms

of, of cancer.

But Fred never saw things that way.

- I would go see him. I saw him, uh, when he was at Mount Sinai.

He, he had a pole, you know, he had the pole, you know

with the intravenous in the bag and all that stuff

and he had, around the corridors

he had it marked off to how far was a mile

and he was going down the corridor.

He was going like this, and the nurses say

"All he does is, he keeps going round and round."

So he refused to accept it, you know, he refused.

He fought like the, like the devil.

- I don't have a wife, I don't have any kids

but it -- it's like nurturing a child.

For 22 years, that's all I did.

You know, I worked also

but the marathon

is the most consuming thing in my life.

I've run 68 other marathons, but never New York City.

A few months ago, I turned 60.

I told myself, "No, no parties, no receptions.

"I just want to give myself a gift.

That's to finish the marathon."

- If visionary race director, Fred Lebow

manages to cross his own finish line today

He'll have finally captured his own American dream.

For 23 years he's staged New York City's biggest hit.

Today, his entry will provide a lot of the drama.

[instrumental music]

[crowd cheering]

- I always say that outside of having my two children

it was the most remarkable experience

I'd ever witness.

I had the pleasure and the privilege

to run behind Fred and Greta in that marathon

and I don't think

anyone has ever gotten the cheers and support

along the course that Fred did.

[crowd cheering]

-Jim, we're coming up on the halfway point

and I really have to take my hat off to Fred.

He's been clicking off 12-minute miles.

I've seen a lot of cancer patients in my day

but I haven't seen many that can do this.

I am truly impressed.

- And to this day I can barely talk about it

without choking up.

You understood that it was the ultimate statement

of Fred saying

"I'm alive, I'm here."

And it was then that I fully understood

that's why all of us run the marathon.

It's the ultimate way of saying

"I'm alive, I'm here."

[crowd cheering]

* And gravity

* We won't fall

* No we won't fall

* Ha ah ah

* Whatever it takes

* Wherever you are

* We won't fall

* No we won't fall

* Whatever it takes

* Wherever you are

* We won't fall

* We won't fall *

- Fred died two years later.

In his lifetime he ran 69 marathons

across the world.

The last one was in New York in 1992.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

- In the space of a decade

Fred Lebow's insatiable appetite

had transformed the New York City Marathon

from a small association of volunteers

to a large professional organization

whose revenues swelled

to tens of millions of dollars.

- To Fred, money was only a vehicle.

He had no interest in it personally.

And he, he used money

and greed of others

to create power.

And he thought he could control it all.

[instrumental music]

- Americans now spend

more than 500 million dollars a year

on shoes to run in.

- The initial few hundred runners had become

tens of thousand

then, millions worldwide.

All these runners in need of shoes, clothing and gear

represented a willing target for all those involved

in the overgrown-business of running.

[children screaming]

However, for some other people

it spelled the end of an era

and the loss of the romance and innocence

of the early days.

-Once that exposure started

uh -- uh, and more people came to it

we were no longer unusual, we were no longer the freaks.

[speaking in foreign language]

[instrumental music]

[speaking in foreign language]

-Uh, the pressures, really the commercial pressures

of continuing the magazine

meant that you had to go look for sponsors.

And the sponsors always want something

and the sponsors wanted to sell running shoes

or sell shirts or sell, you know, uh

vitamins or all this.

And so in a way they sold out

the, you know, the spirits

of the early, you know, uh

uh, spirit of running

to this era of commercialism.

You could argue, but what could we do?

And In a way I'm glad that Noel decided to stop.

[speaking in foreign language]

- As running grew

we all kept congratulating ourselves

that we were in a movement

that was entirely positive

healthy, open, inclusive

raises a lot of money for charity

helps health, helps society

brings cities like New York together

is symbolic of freedom

you know, like at Berlin in 1990

all of those very positive things.

And then we got bigger and bigger and bigger

and then the crunch came

and we have had to back off and look at ourselves and say

"It's actually not all positive

there is a darker side to what we've achieved."

- Hurricane Sandy is now approaching

the East Coast of the USA.

People of New York City

are preparing for the crunch.

-We have not experienced anything on this scale.

-We just want everyone to know

that we are hurting down here and we need help.

- Mayor Michael Bloomberg refuses to cancel the marathon

despite New York's struggle

to recover from the devastation

caused by Sandy.

-Uh, the city of New York right now

is talkin' about getting water out of the Battery Tunnel

and preparing for a marathon.

We're pulling bodies out of water.

You -- you see the disconnect here?

-Every single person on this block

lost everything.

[speaking in foreign language]

- I wanna go home, but there's no home!

I can't go home, and that's killing me!

-They're gonna run a marathon

and worry about, well, how many people are in the car

before they're worried about who's got electricity

and who's got water to drink.

-It's been quite the last 24 hours

since the mayor decided

that the best thing for the city of New York

was for the marathon to go on on Sunday.

They were some tough days.

They were days where the challenge was

what is the right thing to do and what's possible..

...for the city, um

and, ultimately, for runners.

-This has always been known

as the greatest day in the life of the city.

And if this city is on the road to recovery..

...to show its resilience

to show the world

that this is the greatest city in the world

then this race goes on.

We were convinced

that the marathon had to go on.

That was the history of the marathon, it lifted the city.

And, uh, in hindsight, we were wrong.

[speaking in foreign language]

-Good evening, Brian, well, the anger

was really triggered in earnest today

and a large part, by these generators behind me.

Race organizers brought them in to power things

like, like race clocks.

They're large enough to power 400 homes!

And as the anger grew today, the mayor had to respond.

Finally, he cancelled the race late today.

-Thank God!

My reaction is, I believe they're coming to their senses

and realizing that these resources

are gonna be needed where it's truly needed.

-You don't pull the plug at the last minute.

He could have made that decision days and days ago.

-We are very angry.

We spent thousands of dollars to bring our family here

pay for hotel rooms, airline tickets.

-We were still inside at the expo

buying tickets for the pasta dinner

buying paraphernalia, spending hundreds of dollars..

[speaking in foreign language]

-Some runners say they're going home as soon as possible

others say they're gonna stay in the city

and try to enjoy it the best they can.

A few say they're running on Sunday, 26 miles

even without the race.

[indistinct chattering]

[instrumental music]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

[music continues]

- The marathon movement, the whole running movement

had to confront the fact

that not everybody loves us.

That...we socially

running had not achieved all that it could achieve

that socially, even though we've grown

even though we're huge

we're actually only huge

in a very small segment of society.

And if you look at the average income of marathon runners

it's over a $100,000 dollars a year.

Well, if you're living on Staten Island, you know

that's, that's a different planet.

And that's, that's not a

that's not an activity

that you feel you relate to.

[music continues]

And we realized

that we should not continue to expect

that poor people will stand along the streets

and cheer for rich people.

[speaking in foreign language]

[indistinct chattering]

[indistinct yelling]

[speaking in foreign language]

[panting]

- You know, it's like the Robert Frost thing

the road, the road less taken

you can always go on the road less taken.

[instrumental music]

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

-You know, people who go out every single day

and lookin' at their watches.

Throw the watch away.

[laughs]

Look at the stars look at the, look at the sky

look at the..

Yeah.

- This sport is still whatever you wanna make of it.

[music continues]

[instrumental music]

* Hey

* Hey

* Hey

* Remember when we sat in your car *

* And you told me all about the stars *

* And how you'd make it up there one day *

* And I would hum and whistle through *

* And you would try to get the tune *

* But you'd never really heard it anyway? *

* You told me about the only one *

* Who'd ever really shown you

* Something you had truly never seen before *

* Up until that very moment

* Nothing else had seemed important *

* Everyone had disappointed so

* Oh oh oh

* I've been holding you up

* So you'll know

* As the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up

* So you'll grow

* Just as the waves aren't tied to the shore.. *

- Tamini, well done!

- Well done.

[speaking in foreign language]

- I'm George, can I have one for me?

- Yeah, please.

[indistinct chattering]

[speaking in foreign language]

My magazine. I have a magazine a long time ago.

Thirty years ago, about, uh, about the..

[speaking in foreign language]

All with us, yes, like today.

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place we are the same *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* I've been holding you up so you'll know *

* As the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll grow *

* Just as the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll know *

* As the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll grow *

* Just as the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* Oh oh

* Oh oh

* Oh oh oh oh

* Oh

* Oh oh

* Oh oh oh

* Oh oh

* Oh oh

* Oh oh oh oh

* Oh

* Oh oh

* Oh oh oh

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place we are the same *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* We all move away we all change *

* There's a place there's a place we *

* I've been holding you up so you'll know *

* As the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll grow *

* Just as the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll know *

* As the waves aren't tied to the shore *

* I've been holding you up so you'll grow *

* Just as the waves aren't tied to the shore **

[music continues]

Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.