Written by Michael D. Reid for the Times Colonist and published Friday, March 28, 2008.

If you were thinking of doing the Times Colonist 10K, don’t worry if you’ve missed those running clinics. Trust me: You’ll find all the motivation you need at the multiplex without having to break a sweat. And why wouldn’t you want to take advice from a lazy-ass lapsed runner who would never be mistaken for Simon Whitfield?

 Maybe that’s why I was so inspired by Run, Fat Boy, Run. With a pudgy Everyman as its marathon-running hero — a hapless dude who insists “I’m not fat, I’m unfit” — it’s a goofy comedy that speaks to me and surely many others. It’s one of two running movies — the other is Spirit of the Marathon — that are inspirational in very different ways.

Run, Fat Boy, Run is tailor-made for folks who, like me, would happily never exercise if fitness could be achieved with a magic pill. We love that famous, often misattributed quote: “Whenever I feel the urge to exercise I lie down until it goes away.”

That sums up the title character’s philosophy until he discovers the agony and ecstasy of running.

It helps that Dennis (Simon Pegg), a security guard at a lingerie store who impulsively promises to run a London charity marathon to win back the heart of his pregnant fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton) bears no resemblance to athletic pretty boys like Billy Crudup. (Crudup, you’ll recall, persuasively embodied Steve Prefontaine in Without Limits.)

That Libby’s new boyfriend Whit (Hank Azaria), a cocky American broker and marathon runner is almost as handsome, not to mention rich and fashionably fit, fuels the misguided man-child’s vow that he, too, can go the distance.

As loopy as it is, I love how Run, Fat Boy, Run at once lampoons the obsessiveness of marathon runners and allows an undercurrent of sentimentality that marvels at their perseverance. It’s a comic crowd-pleaser with a message.

If this lumpy actor of Shaun of the Dead fame — a guy whose character is “coached” by his roly-poly Indian landlord, spewing insults and whipping him with a spatula — can make it to the finish line, there’s hope for us all.

Indeed, there aren’t many movies that can induce both guffaws and tears, as when Pegg’s chain-smoking runaway groom, a fellow hitherto incapable of running far enough to catch a bus, implausibly hobbles to the finish line.

Spirit of the Marathon, to be screened April 9 at 7 p.m. at SilverCity, is another story.

Marathoner Jon Dunham’s stirring and visually stunning documentary is beyond inspirational. An absolute must-see, it vividly conveys the drama, discipline, triumphs and humanity of distance running by focusing on the 2005 Chicago Marathon.

Whether you’re a seasoned runner or like the cynic who flashes a “You’re All Crazy” sign as hundreds of runners zip along “the Everyman’s Everest,” as someone calls the famously flat course, you will be moved by this passionate portrait.

Its subjects include U.S. Olympic bronze medallist Deena Kastor, world-class Kenyan marathoner Daniel Njenga, and amateurs like septuagenarian Jerry Meyers, running his fifth marathon, first-timer Leah Caille, a single mom, and Ryan Bradley, a Boston Marathon hopeful who faces an unexpected challenge.

Spirit of the Marathon is in a league of its own, the latest in a roster of movies that address the allure of running.

Few are as inspiring as Chariots of Fire, the 1981 Oscar winner about English runners competing in the 1924 Olympics (cue the Vangelis theme). Then there was Gallipoli, Peter Weir’s moving First World War drama starring Mel Gibson as a gifted sprinter drawn into battle, or Running Brave (1983), a respectable account of racial prejudice faced by American Indian Billy Mills (Robby Benson) on the road to his historic 10,000-metre victory at the 1964 Olympics.

And dare we mention Marathon Man, although that thriller inspired a fear of dentistry more than a passion for running.

It’s amazing how movies can propel you. During my first half-marathon, I couldn’t stop thinking of a comically accented Rob Schneider uttering his catch-phrase “You can do it!” in several Adam Sandler comedies.

And it’s thanks to Saint Ralph, Michael McGowan’s Canadian gem about a Catholic schoolboy who vows to win the Boston Marathon, I found myself saying Hail Marys on the home stretch of another gruelling run.

Whether such a themed movie is terrific — Run Lola Run or Atanarjuat — or a dud, they’re all winners if they make you get off the couch and lace up those cross-trainers.

So run, moviegoers, run to a theatre near you.