The LA RoadRunners Movie Club   

(updated 10/10/05 by

Nancy Ditz and Movie Club founder Philip Steinman.  Nancy won the 1986 and 1987 LA Marathons.  This photo was taken on October 8th, 2005, the day she gave an inspirational talk to over 800 LARRs about her life accomplishments.  She received a standing ovation.  If you'd like to stay inspired throughout your marathon training season with more terrific running stories, consider joing the LARR Movie Club, now in it's 5th season.

With over 2,000 people annually training for and completing the Los Angeles Marathon, the Los Angeles RoadRunners are the largest, most diverse marathon training group anywhere in the world.  This is the homepage for the LARRs Movie Club.  LARRs can join the MC for only $10 for the entire 2005-6 training season and see 26 movies about running by taking home one movie a week.  Each week you bring your movie tape back and bring home the next one on the list until you've had a chance to see all 26 inspirational running movies.  This is a great way to stay motivated while you are training to complete a marathon.  LARR Walkers and Runners are both welcome to participate.  Download the Movie Club Brochure and read more below.  

• The Blue Tape Group sign-ups open began 10/1/06.

• We will start a waiting list after signing up the first 26 members, should someone leave, then you get in!

R The MC offers you the wonderful opportunity to see 26 inspirational movies about Running (one each week).

You've just undertaken the challenge of a lifetime: training to complete a marathon.  These 26 movies are like the 26 miles you are going to run in March; all different and all inspirational with unique stories about triumph through running.  They will help you stay motivated the entire training season.  The movies range from stories about real life Olympians to personal accomplishments about people like you and I, to documentaries about ultra-marathoning.  Just imagine, "It's Friday night and you are not going to go out partying because you have to wake up very early Saturday morning and do 16 miles (or more!) with the LARRs.  But you are happy, because this is your inspiration time.  You slip in another movie about running and go to sleep dreaming of your own success tomorrow."

R The Movie Club has a discussion board for topics about running movies at the LARR's bulletin boards.

You can read movie board posts instantly by clicking over to the LARR Movie Club discussion board site.  You do not have to be a LARR or a MC member.  To post messages to any of the boards, including our own Movie Club Discussion Board, you need to register a username and password and verify it with from your email.  Simple!  And thank you Matt Keys! (LARR website guru).  The LARR bulletin boards are now open to the public ;-)

R The Movie Club season is ongoing from Oct 1st 2005 to March 11th, 2006

If you become a MC member you will receive a new movie each Saturday morning at the Westminster School and return the movie you have just seen.  The club is a non-profit idea and the $10 annual members fee helps the club with ongoing expenses such as replacing tapes and acquiring new movies.  The $10 nonrefundable members fee covers the entire LARR training season Oct 1st, 2005 through March 11, 2006.  The 21st LA Marathon is March 19th, 2006, and you will cover many miles in training before then.

R How to sign up for the MC:

The Movie Club roster is open first come, first serve each Saturday at LARRs Westminster School at the Movie Club corner lunch tables where you will sign up with 1) your name; 2) your shipping address; 3) your phone number; and 4) your email address (on 3 separate index cards: one for me, and one each for your partners.  In return you get the contact info on an index card from each of your two partners.  You trade movies in sequential order, so you need your same 2 partners contact info.  This info is pertinent to coordinating the rotation of movies amongst the club and allows us to stay in touch with each other.  The Movie Club continually accepts new members so long as there's an opening on the 26 person list.

R Look at the LARR **Movie List**   for a complete rundown and description of the 26 movies. 

Our list includes 26 running movies that have taken me 5 years to collect (many are rare that you will not find at Blockbuster, or even specialty video stores.).

R Once you are a registered member take a look at the season schedule:

Blue Tape Season Schedule (The Blue Tape Group can have 26 members, we currently have 6).

Please sign up in person Saturday morning after the training run at Westminster School in Venice at the lunch tables.  We will need your 1)Name, 2) email address 3) phone number, 4) home address, and 5) $10.  Then if there's an opening left, you will be assigned a spot on the White Tape Season Schedule.  You'll get to see the remaining movies for your spot on the schedule roster.

Here's How it works

It’s a ‘round robin’... round and round the 26 person list the 26 different movies go, one by one, week by week  Each week at LARR training you bring back your running movie.  You give your movie to your partner (the person above you on the Season Schedule list of 26 movie club members).  You get your new movie from the person below you on the Season Schedule list.  As the movies rotate through the list you 1) always get your new movie from the same person below you on the list, and 2) give your old movie to the person above you on the list.  So make friends with these 2 people.  You will be given their name, address, phone #, and email address.  It is the Movie Club etiquette that if you cannot make it one week, then you US Priority Mail your tape to your partner, or have a friend give it to them.

FAQ

1) What if I’m absent one week? 

If you are not able to attend LARR training one week, please contact your exchange partner and get them the tape by mail or a friend.  Inform your other partner of your absence and maybe they will mail you the tape or drop it off at your place.  You can also skip that week, if you do not intend to watch the movie.  But do not hang on to your old tape and make the next person miss their week with that movie.. keep the movies moving through the list please.

2) When & Where do I exchange my movie?

Please try to exchange your tape directly with your partner each Saturday before or after LARR training runs… it is recommended that you exchange tapes at the MC lunch table, but it’s up to you two to determine precisely when & where.  If you cannot find your partner, just place your tape in your Movie Club’s bag of movies.  Movie Club members meet at 6:45-7am at the corner lunch tables to exchange tapes, or drop their tape in their Movie Club's bag.  After the run, if they haven't directly exchanged with their partner, they typically pick up their new tape from the Movie Club bag.  Please keep the White Tapes & Blue Tapes in separate bags.

3) How do I know what movie I will get? 

If you start with movie #1, next week you will get #2, then #3 and so forth.  Each movie will be assigned a #1-26 and be clearly labeled with this # on it’s boxed cassette.  After movie #26, you get movie #1.

4) What if I missed a movie? 

If you are absent one week or if your partner did not return their tape (rude! don't do this!), then you have unfortunately missed your 1 week opportunity to see that movie.  Please make every effort to keep the movies rotating through the list so this does not happen to someone else.  Remember, if you cannot make it to LARRs, just mail your partner the movie, or have a friend bring it to them.  Don’t be shy or afraid to contact your partners by phone or email.  Each member only has 2 partners.  It’s up to the 3 of you to make it work for the 26 people on the Movie Club list.

5) Can there be more than 26 Movie Club members?

There could be more groups (White Tape, Blue Tape, & perhaps a Red Tape group), each with their own set of the 26 Running Movies for their 26 people.  These decisions are made seasonally if interest demands more groups, and we have enough help from veteran movie club members who can help out.  If you for some reason are no longer actively participating, please gracefully bow out of the Movie Club by emailing or calling me (be sure to return all outstanding movies).  We will take your name off the Season Schedule list and cheerfully allow another LARR to take your place!

6) This Movie Club sounds great how can I help?

You can help the Movie Club by watching the movies; both at home and at the lunch tables, so people who don't know what the MC is do not accidentally walk away them.  Explain to people how it works, and encourage their participation by joining the club.  From time to time we will need a designated person to take the Movie Club "Bag of Movies" home for the week.  Inevitably some people do not come one week and do not get their movie, so it stays in the Movie Club Bag, and this must be taken home and brought back each Saturday.  You can help out by volunteering to take the bag and bring it back.  (Just email, phone or contact me.) 

7) How do you get more Running Themed Movies? 

You can also help by tracking down and buying for the club rare Running Themed Movies.  To date all of the  movies in the club have been purchased by me on ebay, amazon.com, and the like over the last 3 years.  The low cost of membership has not nearly covered the initial expenses & time I put in to keep it going.  The runningmovies.com website is the all inclusive list of movies, documentaries, or training videos having anything to do with running.  If you'd like to help make an addition to our Movie Club library, by all means, please do so!

8) Will there be a DVD Movie Club? 

It's a great idea, but most of the top 26 running movies are scarce, and have only been released on VHS.  The good news is that 4 more LARR MC movies have been released on DVD in just this last year.  So we'll keep the possibility of DVD Movie Club open for the future.

9) The 2006 schedule only has me seeing 23 movies, not 26?  

Yep, the LARRs official training starts later this year, on September 17th. The Movie Club began on October 1st, one week after the St Monica 5K.  So this means there are three weeks less training in the schedule, so movie club scheduling runs through all holidays and events with no breaks, and you still get a chance to have 23 weeks scheduled.  That's the best we could do this year.

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