Movie Scenes That Inspired My Running Journey

It’s not so much that I enjoy running, but that I enjoy being capable of it.

And honestly, what inspired me to run—other than my wife, who became a long-distance trail runner—was three scenes from movies.

One is Jurassic Park, where Ian Malcolm has to run from the T. rex.

In hindsight, standing still would have been a better bet.

The second is a scene from Mission: Impossible, where Tom Cruise is on a foot chase to save the world.

Broken ankle and all.

The third is The Pursuit of Happyness, where Will Smith has to run for everything.

"This part of my life is called running."

There's also a scene from some other movie where a dad has to run his son through a city centre to a hospital. Can't remember the name.

Fear will get you moving, so anybody can run from the T. rex. Though probably not fast enough.

Having the capability to run means you can run to save the world—not just run to save your own ass, but run to save the world. I’m sure it’s happened a time or two.

But if you can pick up a child and run with them to save their life, that’s heroic in the sense that you became capable of doing it just in case.

Just being able to do it in case you ever need to may be the best reason to learn to run.

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Mat Coker is a trailing running photographer in Ontario, Canada.