This movie is unrealistic big time, contains some spoilers

for those of us who are not runners, the unrealistic running times do not come into play at all. and the funnest part of the movie is when he's maybe got a shot at winning when everyone was scoffing at him the whole movie. they thought "hey, maybe this kid can make a miracle.." the whole school was cheering for him, maybe his mom will be okay...

imo, that's what this movie was about. not running realistic times.

I just wanted to reply to a couple things:

--Folks have suggested that Ralph should have been an older teenager, but not only would none of the coming-of-age sexual humor have worked in such a case (it would have had to have been much more lurid if he were 16 or 17)...but more importantly, Ralph would have lacked the innocence and the openness to belief that were prerequisites to him adopting his "miracle mission". A 17-year-old wouldn't have had those "Hmm...a miracle" moments, which led Ralph to adopt his plan.

--The 4:25 time on that last mile repeat was *aided by God*. Ralph was literally flying. To say the time is unrealistic is similar to saying "I don't believe E.T. could have actually propelled Elliot's bike over the gorge. It was just too wide for his powers."

--Others have already said this, but comparisons to sci-fi and fantasy stories are not at all out of line. This is a movie about miracles and faith - both of which are either fantasy, or sci-fi, depending on your take on things. And so what that the Boston Marathon, a real race in a real place, was the setting for the fanstasy? Indiana Jones movies take place within a historical context too. So does the aliens-on-Earth story "Taken" for that matter. It wasn't the Marathon that was affected by the otherworldly--it was Ralph. They didn't distort or corrupt the Marathon - they just inserted a miracle boy into it. And the reality of the setting, the knownness of the Marathon, helped to underline the miraculousness of Ralph's effort. In other words, it's precisely because everybody knows it would have been impossible for him to do what he did (we all know the reputation of the Boston Marathon) that it works.

--Lastly, a few folks have said that Ralph should have gotten in the race, but then failed in a more realistic fashion. "He still would have won everyone's respect," they say. First off, winning everyone's respect was not what Ralph was after. In fact, he perservered in his mission despite losing almost everyone's respect/friendship along the way. Secondly, the dramatic point of the movie wasn't him winning their respect - the point was him getting everyone to believe that miracles could happen. For that point to be made, Ralph had to show a real potential for actually winning the race. Him placing a respectable 300th or whatever would not have been nearly miracle enough (to get through to Fitzpatrick, or to wake his mother up, for example). Also, to carry off a happy ending for Ralph (given all the loss he's suffered at such a young age), we need to believe that he has a chance at his next miracle, winning the Olympics. That's something that would just seem delusional had Ralph placed 300th at Boston. Instead, we the viewers (at least, the less cynical of us) believe that Ralph has a damn good chance of achieving his new dream, or at least enough of it to make the point.

Your lack of faith is what caused him to get second instead of first. Thanks a lot. This movie is about a miracle. You criticize his 4:25 final mile yet look past the fact that he was running in mid air. A morale victory wouldn't have been a miracle. "Hey, good job, you finished," would not have rallied his whole town. You, sir, missed the point of the movie.

super-hero movies are unrealistic....you dont put a thread saying UNREALISTIC!!!!.....go post a thread like this onto a superhero movie.

I did 14 mile repeats training for Boston the other day.

You take yourself and running far too seriously.

I don't deny this movie was farfetch, however most sports inspirational films are. Rocky was not even close to realistic, and yet it is loved by millions world wide. Now I'm not saying this film is on the same level as Rocky, but both you can argue are far fetched. And one of the reasons Rocky was such a huge hit is because it made the viewers believe the impossible. And that was kind of the premise to this movie. A young man who desires a miracle to happen so bad that he places his faith on winning the bostin marathon in order to acheive that miracle. The priest who trained him told him that faith is when you believe something to be true even if logic says otherwise.


And yes the 20 mile repeats were a bit ridiculous, but I don't don't think its far fetched to believe that someone Ralph's age could run at a fast pace.

I've recently become a marathon runner, and I kind of wish I had started running marathons when I was a teenager, because I was a lot faster back then. It was way easier for me to keep a fast pace back then, than it is now.

Once again, I'm not denying that this movie is far fetched, I'm just saying many people have run faster when they were teenagers than they have when they were adults.