I'm Not a Runner (ATOM Study Guide)

I’m Not A Runner is a moving and inspirational film about strength, tenacity and the power of learning to trust your body. It’s about facing your fears, confronting self-doubt and embracing the possibility of change and transformation. Over the course of fifteen months, we join six brave, resourceful women on the journey from their couches in Adelaide to the New York City Marathon. Struggling out of bed early three times a week to pull on their runners, the women run headlong into a sense of their own limitations. They discover that who they think they are and what they are capable of is ultimately so much more important than what anyone else thinks. The film celebrates resilience, perseverance and overcoming obstacles. It interrogates the ways in which our identities can be informed and limited by what others think of us and, even more importantly, what we come to think of ourselves.

Curriculum Links:
I’m Not A Runner is an engaging film that provides a rich context in which to explore themes including body image, gender, relationships, ageing and the socio-cultural forces that inform identity. The film could be utilised within Health & Physical Education (HPE), from upper primary to all secondary levels.Health and Physical Education offers experiential learning, with a curriculum that is relevant, engaging, contemporary, enjoyable and developmentally appropriate. In Health and Physical Education, students develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to support them to be resilient, to develop a strong sense of self, to build and maintain satisfying relationships, to make health-enhancing decisions in relation to their health and physical activity participation, and to develop health literacy competencies in order to enhance their own and others’ health and wellbeing.