This 24 minute film covers four athletes as they prepare for and compete in the 1978 Johnstown marathon. (This marathon has remained much the same now as it was then, a small local event with about 100 participants who run through a very scenic route each October in western Pennsylvania.) In this film, director, producer, and editor Steve Alpert (read interview below), with his crew of 6 cameras, captures a host of filmmaking techniques to pull together a production that earned him numerous film festival honors, both domestically and internationally. The use of light, close-ups, panning shots, long shots, slow motion, overhead and low angles, gives any viewer a cinematography experience. George Grande is the narrator and the storytelling is woven to tell four distinct stories that transition well between one another. The first half of this movie introduces each of the athletes and during the marathon each runner plays out their own race experience. Here are the "hometown stars" in order of appearance:
Sam DiFrancesco is a 45 year old attorney, and family man, who has been running for 10 years. He says that he is trying to kick the tranquilizers that he has taken for 26 years and with his self doubts and low self esteem you wonder if this may catch up to him during the course of the race. He also does not believe in "the wall" that many runners describe at around the 20 mile mark when energy reserves run low.
"I've always viewed myself as being a failure. I'm 45 and really what have I done?"
"I think I can go the whole distance. I think I can finish it and I think I can finish it in a respectable time."
Jennifer Amyx, at age 8, is an experienced runner with 55 world records ranging from the mile to the marathon (see current marathon records by age). She runs with her older brother, David (a record holder in his own right), and her father, Doctor Herb Amyx who points out "I guess in a sense they are guinea pigs. Medically, scientifically, you have to say there is not enough data to know what the long term effects in small children are." They are running over 100 miles weeks, as much as two months prior to race day, in preparation for this marathon.
"I'd like to beat my best time in the marathon this year and I'd also like to run the 50 miler."
"Because they have been able to achieve at an early age they have a feeling of self worth and they feel good about themselves" ~ Pat Amyx
Christine "Teeny" Thompson is a nurse and grandmother and at age 53 has decided to run her first marathon. Following a stress test she began increasing her daily 3 mile run by a half mile each week until she reached 50 mile weeks. Her husband, Joe, states "Physically she is a very strong person, mentally an exceptionally strong person, probably stronger physically and mentally than I am."
"Men around my age say I've gone far enough, now don't go any further, you'll hurt yourself, you'll have a heart attack. But I just wave and go on and say ‘well, I haven't filled the quota for today so it'll be a few more miles’."
"I'm determined to finish it. The only way to get me off the course is to drag me off. Once I've started I'm determined to run the whole way."
Kerry Green, at age 24, is an Olympic hopeful and the local paper is predicting him to win the Johnstown Marathon. He describes his strategy of going out hard and using the hill at 17 miles as a place to make his move if other runners are still in contention.
"I think that is the whole thing with life, if you enjoy what you are doing than you can get the maximum at it. And even if it takes a lot of work, and a lot of hard effort, it's still what you enjoy doing, so you can put more effort into it."
"In the background you're thinking: I'm going to put myself through that effort again that will just feel so awful. Am I ready to do that? Are the people around here ready to do that? And you're not sure; you don't know."
To see how these athletes take on their challenges (and the results may not be what you think) you will want to view the rest of this movie yourself. Thankfully, Steve Alpert (sapix(at)earthlink(dot)net) has taken this film off the shelf and has made it available in VHS format for those who send a payment of $19.95 (includes shipping and handling). Send your check or money order:
Running Movies: What initiated you to make a film that followed four people in competing in a marathon competition?
Steve Alpert: At that time I was working as a film editor at WCBS-TV News in New York. I was 27 years old and felt stuck in the job. I knew I wanted to be a producer and had to have a film to show as a resumé piece. I had just completed running the Yonkers Marathon in April, 1978 and I felt that the marathon experience would be a terrific subject for a film.
RM: Were there other films that influenced how you chose to make Marathon Fever?
SA: No, just my own personal marathon training and race experience which was life altering at that time in my life. It gave me tremendous belief in myself and in what I could create if I was willing to do the work.
RM: Where did Marathon Fever film fit into your career as a filmmaker?
SA: It was the film that launched my producing career. It got picked up by Home Box Office, and USA Network, both fledgling cable networks. Marathon Fever also won numerous film festival awards here in the states and internationally. It sold well as a non-theatrical film for many years. As a resumé piece it got me work for years and years. It landed me a producing job at WNBC-TV News in New York. It really was the lynchpin of the early part of my work life.
RM: The stories you share are very personal. Have you maintained contact with the principle runners in your film?
SA: I did maintain contact with most of them for many years after. But time moved on and my Marathon Fever relationships began to fade with the calendar.
A year ago I showed the film in a class at the School for Visual Arts in New York City, and I came home after the class and called Sam DiFrancesco, this is after twenty-five years had passed since completing the film, and after I told Sam who I was, without missing a beat he said, "You're not gonna get me to run another one of those f---- marathons!" Subsequent to you calling about marketing the film again I did contact Jennifer Amyx who was just ten at that time. We emailed a few times just after that.
I have mixed feelings about contacting anyone else in the film because I want to remember them as they were, vibrant, healthy and full of enthusiasm. I became quite close to all of them during the year of making the film. I've made many films over the years but few of them as personal as, Marathon Fever. You know, writing this is actually making me think about contacting Christine and Joe Thompson, who I have not spoken to in at least twenty years. Last I saw them was at the 1979 Boston Marathon that I ran with Christine. You know, maybe I will give a call!
RM: As you watch your film today, over 25 years after it's making, is there a message that you personally walk away with?
SA: Yes, and it is the same message I understood as I crossed the finish line at the 1978 Yonkers Marathon in a freezing rain, there isn’t anything I can’t accomplish in my life as long as I am willing to pay the price. This is a universal truth and it continues to guide me through my life.
I am now a happily married man (got married at 42) and accomplished oil painter because of what I learned on that day I crossed that first finish line. I have worked very hard to create this new career for myself, visit my website www.stevealpertart.com, (a little shameless self-promotion, thank you), and even completed my fourth marathon, the Jersey Shore, nice and flat, in April, 2000. I think it is my last, although in the back of my mind there is that little voice saying, "one more, one more." I am not listening to that little voice right now -- the training demands are not what I am willing to spend my time on now, but you never know.
RM: Your film was unavailable for many years. What sparked your interest in returning it to public access and how can people obtain your film today?
SA: Actually, it was you Mark, who conjured up this little revival. Thank you for that. People can get the film by sending me an email at sapix(at)earthlink(dot)net.
RM: Thanks for taking the time in answering my questions, Steve. Is there anything else that you would like to share with the readers at RunningMovies.com?
SA: I appreciate the opportunity to have the film available again. The marathon experience is very profound and life altering for many people. It is not something you decide to do capriciously. There are deep seated motivations for wanting to drive yourself beyond to do what you think you can do. The training is arduous and demands a quality of commitment that many have never experienced. And crossing the finish line? That lives with you forever.
When I completed my last marathon, my goal was to cross the finish line with no pain or discomfort, and to help at least one person. It was a warm day which does not agree with my body, long distance running and heat, and I walked where I had to, I wanted to enjoy the day not kill myself. I crossed the finish line a little after five hours which I am still somewhat embarrassed about since I know I was way undertrained, but I was smiling and happy and my wife and friends were waiting there for me. A far cry from that freezing solo journey in Yonkers twenty years earlier.
At mile 19 I came alongside a man in his 60’s who was faltering. He wanted to quit. He told me he had been sick for the week before but his wife said he should run anyway. I told him it was alright to walk, and I gave him water and a few packets of Goo and encouraged him to get to the finish line any way he could. I told him he could do it. He did. He finished way ahead of me which gave me a chuckle.
The marathon experience gave me so much, and I hope that all those feelings are in Marathon Fever. Thank you for making me reflect on the rich experience the making of Marathon Fever truly was.
in a freezing rain, there isn’t anything I can’t accomplish in my life as long as I am willing to pay the price. This is a universal truth and it continues to guide me through my life.