Try to think of marathoners you know who haven’t divulged their training updates or race recaps online or in person.
It’s probably a short list.
The phenomenon of runners sharing (and oversharing) details about their racing is one the team at Above Average, a website that creates original comedy videos, hoped to capture in their latest sketch, “First Person To Run A Marathon Without Talking About It.”
The clip follows the character Kim Novelle, a runner training for a marathon who has inexplicably refrained from mentioning it to a soul. It opens with an account from her on-screen husband, who says, “I started noticing a pattern—six runs a week, a long run every weekend. Eventually it just hit me. She was going to be the first person to run a marathon without telling anyone about it.”
The sketch was penned by Matt Moskovciak, a staff writer for Above Average. He says he wrote the script this summer after noticing the trend of friends posting marathon updates on his social media feeds. Though no one at Above Average is a regular runner, the idea resonated with Moskovciak’s colleagues—they had all witnessed the serial onslaught of Instagram shots featuring GPS watch data.
“Taking something that’s silly like this but giving it the same super serious treatment that [ESPN] gives to huge sporting moments… the contrast makes it work,” Moskovciak told Runner’s World.
Modeled after ESPN’s documentary series 30 for 30, the mockumentary is titled “Kim Novelle: The Secret Marathon.”
“Any hobby you get into takes over your life,” said Moskovciak, who added that he jogs a couple times per week but has never run a race. “Naturally, that’s going to be the thing you share about, but for others, it may be like, ‘Hey, I’m not really interested in hearing updates about your runs three or four times a week.’”
This sentiment is shown later in the piece when the film crew tries to interview Kim. She turns them away, saying, “Why would I have talked about something that’s not interesting to anyone else?”
The sketch was filmed at the end of the summer, mainly in New York City’s Central Park. Above Average opted to time its release for October 22, ahead of the New York City Marathon.
Despite his role in creating the sketch, Moskovciak said he doubts he will ever hop on the marathon bandwagon. He added, however, that shorter races might be in his future.
“A marathon seems like a huge leap from the five-mile runs I do now,” Moskovciak said.
In the meantime, Moskovciak said he hopes runners don’t take the clip too personally.
