My Run - the Terry Hitchcock Story

This is a documentary made 11 years after the event - when Terry Hitchcock apparently "ran" (walked) what the marketing says is "75 marathons in 75 days" but what amounted to 28 miles in 8 or more hours per day, which comes out to walking for 8 hours a day. He started in Minnesota, wanting to do some kind of publicity gimmick and remembered the real life hero, Terry Fox, who was a young man with bone cancer who ran across Canada to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Terry Fox had only one leg, due to the cancer. And unfortunately the cancer spread into his lungs and he was unable to continue his run. He died. But he raised over $24 million. Now that is a real true hero story if I ever heard one. Not the same with this Terry Hitchcock version.

Everyone seems to think it's very inspiring and heroic, so I should probably just stay quiet but I didn't see it that way at all. After such a long detailed bit in the movie describing the poor wife and what she had to go through with Breast Cancer, and her death, it would be logical for something like this to be done to raise awareness and money for Breast Cancer. Instead, it appears that Terry had such a hard time raising his kids without her that he felt so sorry for himself and wanted to find a publicity gimmick to 'raise awareness for single parents' :\

That's pretty much a fail. Not all single parents are in need, or poverty stricken, nor need any awareness raised. Only those who think "poor me" as Terry obviously did. Why wouldn't you know what size pants your 5 year old wears? Come on now. Was he that goofy and out of the daily goings on with his own family?

He hadn't ever run before, was fat, on blood pressure meds, and had a heart attack a couple of weeks before he started. But he had the marketing/ PR machine in high gear and decided to go forward. He decided to run to Atlanta, where there was a TON of reporters and LOTS of publicity to be had.

We're very dramatically shown time and time again how he "nearly died" trying to complete this foolhardy stunt. Putting himself and his health at risk was silly. It showed that he didn't care if his 3 children were left with no parents. Why not gamble with his own life? Sure - why not. And putting his kids in the position of total responsiblity for him day in and day out during the run, tending to HIM, taking care of HIM, making sure HIS socks got changed 15 times per day - good grief - the ultimate in childlike and selfish behavior.

This is the story of a man who craved the spotlight, number one. Acted like a spoiled brat when he wasn't center stage (yelling at his son, throwing bananas, being an ass). Put himself and his children at risk for NO REASON AT ALL. And where is the foundation? I've googled it and don't see what foundation was started, or how much money was raised or what did that foundation ever do for anybody (besides Terry Hitchcock) ?

Not only the details of the foundation are missing - even more stunning is there are no details of the end result. No "Amazingly Terry lost 45 pounds during the 75 days, his blood pressure is normal and he no longer needed medication" etc. Statistics like that would be great to hear. In the movie when he got to Atlanta he appeared very much the same weight, which simply cannot be if he really did the walking/jogging that he says he did.

He does admit "Well, after the Run, I found myself in a hospital for three months nursing the fractures and the mental stress of the actual Run." That's a huge statement. 3 months for mental stress? One wonders - why? Who paid for it? What kind of breakdown did he have? And if it was such a heroic and wonderful experience, what intense mental stress would happen as a result of it?

My other criticism involves his many stops at radio stations and schools to do publicity. He is filmed saying to the microphone and to kids "I'm running from Minnesota to Atlanta, Georgia" only.... he's not. If I were one of the kids I'd answer "No you're not, you're standing here in our classroom talking!" Dean Karnazes is at this moment Running Across America. When he talks to press it's by phone (while he's running) or on an few minute break - AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. Why? Because that's where he is. They have to come to him because he's out there running!

Another inspirational story is Marshall Ulrich - he ran across America at the age of 57. He has a book coming out "Running on Empty" this month and shares his many stories as an ultramarathon runner and adventurer. I believe his stories to be more authentic and real than this movie was.

I found this to be a waste of my time, certainly not inspirational. It was very sad.