Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had film footage of Greek messenger Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C.E.? While he didn’t survive it, it’s an event that has been disputed by historians and with a documentary, we’d know exactly what happened!
Fortunately, we do have many other historic running moments on film, including Katherine Switzer being harassed by Boston Marathon race officials (she was the first registered woman to run it!) and Eluid Kipchoge running a sub two-hour marathon (we’ve come a long way since Pheidippides ran!).
For a display of our favorite sport and some top moments in time, we collected the best running documentaries to keep you company when you’re off the road. They will inspire you with their record-breaking, trailblazing stories, and show you even more reason to get up and run.
More From Runner's World
Breaking Three Hours
Learn more about the Black American women who have run sub 3-hour marathons.
Since 1975, 14 million runners have finished a marathon in the U.S. But only 280,000 of those have completed an American 26.2-mile race in under three hours. Before 2021, fewer than 20 of these sub-three-hour runners were Black women born in the United States. Breaking Three Hours: Trailblazing African-American Women tells the stories of nine of these women, all of whom are National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame inductees. There’s a great soundtrack available, too! (1 hour 20 minutes, most streaming platforms)
Leadman
Get a reminder of what bravery really means, as shown by Dave Mackey.
In 2015, ultrarunner Dave Mackey fell 50 feet down a mountainside and a 300-pound rock landed on his leg. In case you don’t know the story, we won’t reveal what happened next, but we will say that Mackey is an inspiration to both runners and non-runners. Leadman: The Dave Mackey Story recounts not only his many records and awards, but also his recovery and decision-making around his injury. (25 minutes, YouTube)
Endurance and Runner
Learn about runners who escaped hardship and went to the Olympics.
Haile Gebrselassie is one of the greatest distance runners of all time. Endurance includes dramatized scenes of his youth in (at the time) war-torn Ethiopia, interspersed with training and race footage. (1 hour, 23 minutes, Amazon Prime Video)
Another extraordinary story belongs to Guor Maker, the subject of Runner. This documentary includes interviews and news reports on the war and famine in Sudan, and Maker’s path to running success. He competed in the London and Rio Olympics, and is now in the United States Air Force. (87 minutes, runnerdoc.com)
15 Hours With Amelia Boone
Injured? You can make a comeback, just like this runner.
While it’s a short film, viewers spend 15 Hours With Amelia Boone as she returns to competition after a suffering a stress fracture in her femur in 2016. She had won races as an ultrarunner and obstacle course racer, and then took off two years due to her injury. (24 minutes, YouTube)
The 41st Day
Ryan Hall makes tough decisions about health and the desire to run.
Although he has accomplished more than most runners, in terms of speed and wins, Ryan Hall’s story is one with which many of us are familiar. He was tired. His health wasn’t quite right. He would run well for a while, and then, suddenly, everything would change. The 41st Day explores what it’s like to choose yourself and your life over running. (1 hour 29 minutes, AppleTV and other streaming platforms)
Breaking2
Watch an insane record get broken.
Nike’s Breaking2 project was the talk of the running world in 2017. Three Nike runners, led by Eliud Kipchoge, tackled the Italian race track in Monza in an effort to do the impossible in marathoning—break the two-hour mark for the first time in history. The film goes through the year-long process it took to get to race day. (55 minutes, DisneyPlus)
Skid Row Marathon
Learn how one person helped make running more inclusive.
Skid Row is a roughly 50-block area in Los Angeles that houses up to 11,000 of the city’s homeless population, and many of them suffer from alcohol or drug addiction. Skid Row Marathon explores how a criminal court judge tried to bring some light and hope to people who, he believed, should not be dismissed, forgotten, or ignored. (1 hours 25 minutes, Amazon Prime Video)
The Human Race
Age is just a number in this running documentary.
The Human Race spotlights six runners over the age of 50 who are training for a variety of monumental races, including a father attempting his very first 5K with his autistic son by his side, running revolutionary Kathrine Switzer, and an 80-year-old running a half marathon to celebrate a birthday.
Unbreakable, Karl Meltzer, Finding Traction, and Desert Runners
Get to know what ultrarunning is all about with this lineup of four running documentaries.
Unbreakable: The Western States 100 follows a four-way matchup. It includes two-time defending champion Hal Koerner, undefeated 100-miler Geoff Roes, Anton Krupicka (who, at the time, had won every ultramarathon he started), and a young Kilian Jornet. (1 hour 45 minutes, YouTube)
There’s a lot to love about watching accomplished runners go through experiences we also have—it shows they’re not perfect, but they keep moving. In Karl Meltzer: Made to be Broken, the ultrarunner runs (and falls and runs again) the Appalachian Trail in record time. (42 minutes, Redbull website)
Finding Traction follows Nikki Kimball—an ultrarunning icon who has won the Western States 100 along with several other endurance races—in her attempt to set the speed record on Vermont’s 273-mile Long Trail in August 2012, when she was 41 years old. Reality at its best. (56 minutes, Amazon Prime Video)
Finally, everyone in Desert Runners is in excruciating pain as they complete the 4 Deserts ultramarathon races, which include races in Namibia, Mongolia, Chile, and Antarctica. Each race is more than 150 miles. Did we say brutal? We meant to. (1 hour 39 minutes, Amazon Prime Video)
Boston: The Documentary
Take a look into the history of running in this iconic city.
Boston: The Documentary chronicles everything from the origins of one of the world’s most iconic race to the 2013 finish line tragedy. Narrated by a Bostonian more important than Samuel Adams: Matt Damon. (1 hour 54 minutes, YouTube)
The Barkley Marathons and Where Dreams Go to Die
Learn more about the ultimate ultramarathon.
The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. The name says it all. For years, the Barkley Marathons was a race that nobody talked about. You had to know somebody who knew how to enter to even get a chance to get to the starting line. This documentary teaches us a little more. (1 hour 29 minutes, YouTube)
For more on this race, Where Dreams Go to Die documents the two-year stretch during which ultrarunner Gary Robbins attempted to complete all five loops of the Barkley. (1 hour 16 minutes, YouTube)
Run for Your Life
Watch how one runner transformed the sport.
Learn about Fred Lebow, who made the New York City Marathon what it is today by watching Run for Your Life. It describes how he transformed the New York Road Runners Club from a small group of men running in the Bronx into the group that manages the biggest marathon, crossing all five New York City boroughs. (1 hour, 35 minutes, Amazon Prime Video)
Showing Up
Get a glimpse into the community aspect of the sport we love.
Follow the lives of several November Project runners and athletes as they explain why they got into the grassroots, free fitness movement. The movie chronicles every day people in New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and Kansas City, showing up at 6:30 a.m. for workouts and each other. Chris Mosier, an elite transgender duathlete, speaks to the importance of community. (27 minutes, YouTube)
Spirit of the Marathon
If you’re about to run your first marathon, you need to watch this one.
This film follows six runners, including American legend Deena Kastor and Kenyan elite Daniel Njenga, through their training and lead-up to the 2005 Chicago Marathon. You get a great look at how top runners train and mentally prepare for 26.2 miles, but you also see how regular folks prepare for their own big races. For anyone thinking about signing up for the marathon, this is a great, first-person look at what it’s like to put in the four months of work before race day. A follow-up documentary, Spirit of the Marathon 2, follows runners as they prepare for the Rome Marathon. (1 hour 44 minutes, Amazon Prime)
Into the Wind
Tune into this documentary for a message of hope for those with disabilities.
Follow the journey of Terry Fox, an amputee runner who was diagnosed with cancer, as he attempted to run across Canada in 1980. The film premiered in 2010 as part of the 30 for 30 series on ESPN. The filmmakers (one of which was NBA player Steve Nash) spoke with those closest to Fox as he set out to cover more than a marathon distance each day in hopes of raising awareness and money for cancer research. Fox was was just 21 years old at the time, and although it’s a true story and easy to find out what happened to the young Canadian, we won’t play spoiler about how it ends. (51 minutes, ESPN+)
Hailey first got hooked on running news as an intern with Running Times, and now she reports on elite runners and cyclists, feel-good stories, and training pieces for Runner's World and Bicycling magazines.
Chris Hatler is a writer and editor based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but before joining Runner’s World and Bicycling, he was a pro runner for Diadora, qualifying for multiple U.S. Championships in the 1500 meters. At his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, Chris was a multiple-time Ivy League conference champion and sub-4 minute miler.
