Young, Fit & Dying: The Truth about Running

With my boss just completing a 5 day cycle from Edinburgh to Chelmsford, I thought I'd watch something that kept with the theme of sporting feats.

With this, I stumbled across 'Young, Fit & Dying: The Truth about Running' and I'm glad I did. The 59min film follows Michael Dorgan's '8 marathons in 8 days' from london to Brussels in an attempt to discover the truth behind sudden deaths in young and healthy runners.

He truly pushed his body to its limits and the film was a more compelling watch than I had expected. He backs up the main plot with research at various sports/science centres, straps himself to heart monitors, speaks to experts and most importantly has a reason for doing so. He is raising money for the QPR Tiger Cubs.
I was pleasantly surprised by this and feel the film could sit well among programming surrounding the next big sporting event. Michael's no Davina McCall but his interest in the research means he doesn't have to be.

If I were to pull out any kind of criticism it would be that although talented producer and girlfriend, Felicity Mungovan runs alongside him at one point to keep him going, it almost took a little away from the film, mainly as this was a programme following one man on a mission. It doesn't completely ruin it, but I think the achievement of reaching the end would seem bigger if he did it completely 'alone'.

The ending brought back that little bit of jeopardy the film needed in wondering whether the crew would beat him to the finish line or not as Brussels is completely shut off from traffic.

Producer Felicity - with sale for yesDocu, Israel

It's a really good investigative film from Go-Forth and I would certainly like to see it on mainstream UK TV. Israel, the Netherlands, Finaland, denmark and Norway have already acquired the film to broadcast - all Michael needs to do is go for Sport Relief and make the film again :D But seriously, a nice surprise when sifting through the VT at Sheffield and one I'd recommend to any sports fan or fitness fanatic, particularly if you're worried about the rise in sudden deaths among young and fit sportsmen and women.

View the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1575398425/

Director: Michael Dorgan, Daniel Smith
Producer: Felicity Mungovan - http://www.goforth-films.com/
Check out more on the London Film School Blog: http://news.lfs.org.uk/2014/05/michael-dorgans-documentary-young-fit.html