Guts to Glory

Feet On Film: The Odyssey of a First Marathon

By Lani Jo Leigh

George Eliot wrote, “It is never to late to be what you might have been,”
and in 2002 I decided to take his words to heart.

Lani Jo Leigh

I had recently moved to Portland, OR, with my husband, daughter, and grandson, and I arrived with a long “To Do” list: Find a church, find a hairdresser, become a hospice volunteer — those things I could manage in the first few weeks or months. Get in shape, find my voice as a storyteller — those items were a little tougher to cross off the list.

First of all, I didn’t even know how to begin to get in shape. I was a complete couch potato. I grew up in the pre-Title IX generation in which women weren’t considered athletes, and in my small Oklahoma hometown, after a one-day-a-week, one-hour gym class in one semester of the 7th grade, there were no athletic activities afforded the female half of the population outside of half-court basketball and cheerleading.

As for finding my voice as a storyteller, I had been working as a technical writer of one sort or another for years, but could I actually be creative?

I started out by joining a gym and by signing up for a writing workshop. The gym deducted money from my bank account each month, but I was seeing little benefit. The writing workshop was getting my creative juices flowing, but I wasn’t following through to publication.

So in summer of 2003 I decided to try another storytelling medium — filmmaking. I started with a single class at the Northwest Film Center School of Film, and was hooked. I took documentary production in the fall and decided to look around for my own project.

One of the few times I managed to show up at the gym, I saw a flyer for a group called “Women Walk the Marathon.” I was a bit incredulous, thinking, “You mean to say that someone like me — a middle-aged, non-athletic, couch potato can walk a marathon after training for ten months? That’s 26.2 miles. Impossible.”

My incredulity transformed into intrigue. “Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone,” I thought. “I’ll get in shape and I’ll make a film at the same time. If I want a Hollywood happy ending, I’m going to have to push myself to train hard and cross that finish line, no matter how long it takes.”

My husband was on board to handle the camera work. Ellie Hodder, the coach, trainer, and inspiration behind Women Walk the Marathon, was a bit skeptical at first, but willing to let me have a go at it. So we began a road of discovery in January, filming the first introductory meeting, and then continuing to film formal group walks, social walks, individual training, acupuncture appointments, even shoe shopping.
As far as filming was concerned, the hardest part in the beginning was getting other group members to feel comfortable with my husband, Roger, and the camera. At first we had lots of shots of hand waving every time they saw him shooting from behind some bushes, but within a few walks, he became part of the landscape.

For me, it was difficult getting up early and it was hard to walk the new distances each week. I documented a 6 am rainfall in April, sweltering heat in mid-July, a torrential downpour in September. I also shared the accomplishment on camera of my first 8-mile, 10-mile, 16-mile, and 20-mile walks.

I’ve found that I’m an organic, process oriented filmmaker. I don’t like to presuppose what the story is going to be. Would the film be my personal story? I wanted to hear what other women had to say about the process of becoming an athlete, and I interviewed 25 women (plus our one token male.) Some of them were newbies like me, others were seasoned athletes with numerous marathon medals hanging on their walls. Many of the women faced obstacles and challenges; many walked to heal from personal loss. Their stories shared on camera were ones of great determination, courage, and camaraderie.

I’m happy to say that my documentary did have a Hollywood happy ending. I crossed the finish line in 9:08. I found that my personal story was iconic for most of the women in the group. We had similar fears, dreams, and athletic aspirations, but being together to train and compete made the fears become challenges that could be overcome, and the dreams became the reality of our lives.

I am a different person for having trained and walked the marathon. I am a different person for having directed this documentary. Since 2004 I have walked an additional six marathons; my last Portland Marathon had a time of 6:46. I’ve also made another feature length documentary, which was just honored as a featured selection at docFest Stratford in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

I know firsthand that we do not have to live with “what if…” or “if only….” Step out, take a chance. It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

Lani Jo and her husband, Roger, live in Portland, OR with their dog, Elvis. In addition to filmmaking, Lani Jo is finishing a book of short stories. More information is available at their production company website: www.lifeograph.com.