Five inspirational movies about running

Preparing for your big fall race and looking for inspiration? Here are five movies about running that will get you all pumped up:

St. Ralph
A Canadian movie about a ninth-grader who trains for the 1954 Boston Marathon in order to wake his mom from a coma. I personally haven't read it, but Nancy Holland recommended it and the plot looks good. Next race, I'm renting this!

Run Fatboy Run
Features Simon Pegg (of Shaun of the Dead fame). Pegg plays Dennis Doyle, a lazy layabout down on his luck. He decides to train for (and run) the London Marathon in order to win back the love of his life and mother of his child. My favourite part: where Dennis faces the virtual runner's wall, then crashes through it. Whenever I think I can't go on, I remember him crawling to the finish with a broken ankle.

Rocky
Ok technically this isn't a running movie, and everyone knows this rags to riches story of Rocky Balboa, a club fighter from Philadelphia who trains for the world heavyweight championship. If you've watched the movie, you'll know there are also plenty of scenes with Rocky training to the tunes of "Eye of the Tiger" (one of my favourite running tunes), running up and down stairs, and racing his trainer on the beach.

Chariots of Fire
Truth be told, I've never watched made it past the scenes where Harold Abrahams completes the Trinity Great Court Run. It's a story about two athletes of different faiths who train to run in the 1924 Olympics. Considering it won 4 Academy Awards in 1981, including Best Picture, I think I'll add it to my list of movies to watch before a race.

Forrest Gump
"Run, Forrest, run!" Need I say more? Let's just say the pure joy Forrest Gump shows when he's running is something I long to hold on to throughout a race or a training run.

Those are my five. What running movies do you recommend?

~ HRG