Hood to Coast
Rating = B+
This
film was quite the moving-going experience. We knew the movie was about a relay race from Mt.
Hood to the coast of Oregon 197 miles away. But we didn't know how the race worked (one thousand
teams of 12 people each, with each person running three of 36 race legs). We also were
completely surprised when 6 or 8 women from one of the four teams featured in the movie was
at the movie showing at the request of the theater in order to talk to audience members.
Four of the seven audience members at the showing we attended did stay and talked to the
racers. They were all over-50-year-old women, including now 70 year old Kathy who had been 67 the year the
movie was filmed and was determined to run the race again after collapsing and nearly dying
in the previous year's race. The movie does a good job of telling a complicated story, and normally I
would only rate it a B, having the racers there to talk to raised the rating to a B+.
[2011-03-16, Living Room Theater, Portland, OR]