The story behind Brittany Runs a Marathon began on a couch, after work, back in 2011. It was late, even for New York, but roommates Brittany O’Neill and Paul Downs Colaizzo were still deep in conversation in their Upper West Side apartment.
O’Neill was having an existential crisis. Her work at an underfunded off-Broadway theater company wasn’t leading anywhere, the resulting long nights of drinking were wearing on her, and she didn’t like the body she saw in the mirror. She knew she needed to change. But how the hell could she break out of her cycle of work, booze, and crappy food?
“It came down to what she could control right then,” Colaizzo says. After hours of deliberation, they decided she needed some sort of physical activity, and then eventually, that she should go on a run. After all, they concurred, none would be more productive, effective, or easy to start than running. “I didn’t grow up doing any sports, so there wasn’t anything else I knew how to do,” O’Neill says.
So the next Saturday, O’Neill threw on the closest thing to running gear she owned—15-year-old Aeropostale shorts and a T-shirt—and stepped outside. She started off small, making it a few laps around the block. She returned to the apartment feeling sore, but with a sense of accomplishment she wasn’t getting from her dead-end job or binge-drinking with friends.
Her new life began to take shape. She ran almost daily in Central Park, where she felt camaraderie with the diverse group of runners who populate the park at all hours. She left the theater gig to work in tech, which allowed her to schedule runs into her workday. She finally felt positive life momentum, her body was slowly resembling the athlete she’d become, and the self-confidence started to pile on.
Three months after she challenged herself to make it around the block, she set her next big goal: run the full 6.1-mile loop of Central Park. For weeks leading up, she researched the route for its most common breaking points, like the 80-foot climb up Harlem Hill. “I had turned it into this big monster in my mind,” O’Neill says. “I was prepared to fail and had given myself permission to walk it if I had to. But at the same time I thought if I could just keep running, no matter how slow, that counted.”
When finally she tackled the hill, she kept running, even when her legs ached, her lungs burned, and walkers began passing her. Finishing that loop was one of the proudest moments of her life. “There were no cheering crowds and no ribbon there at the finish, but the feeling I had was special,” O’Neill says. “For lack of a better phrase, it felt like I wasn’t a loser.”
Her friends noticed how much she was changing. During O’Neill’s training and trials, Colaizzo, an accomplished playwright, began writing a semi-biographical movie about her transformation called Brittany Runs a Marathon. The idea had come to him when O’Neill left for her very first run, and he worked on it in secret for two months before sharing the concept with her. Colaizzo wasn’t sure exactly how she would react to being caricatured, but O’Neill was more concerned about her character’s marathon results.
“The first question Brittany asked me was how fast she did it in,” Colaizzo says. Given the green light, he started to take the authentic moments O’Neill was experiencing and added farcical fictional elements, like a snobby influencer roommate. Brittany’s last name was changed to Forgler, and Colaizzo wrote her as a hot mess who gets tired of being everyone’s comic relief and starts running as part of her efforts to be taken seriously.
Colaizzo took the treatment to Hollywood contacts, where Tobey Maguire’s production company quickly bought the movie on the verbal pitch alone. “I told them it was about my friend getting her shit together and trying to run the New York [City] Marathon,” Colaizzo says.
Even though O’Neill never asked for any compensation, Colaizzo gave her part of his writing payment as something of a “friendship fee.”
“I had no problem signing away my life rights,” O’Neill says, laughing. “I didn’t have anything to do with composing the incredible dialogue that Paul had put together. But it was intensely accurate to how I was feeling during that time.” She used the money to get certified as a personal trainer and nutritionist. These days she still trains clients, using her own experiences to motivate others, in addition to her current job for humanitarian aid organization, the International Rescue Committee.
Since Colaizzo revealed the movie’s concept to her, O’Neill began toying with the thought of running her own marathon. She was already participating in nearly every 10K or 5K that came through Central Park, but wanted a bigger challenge. “I was excited by the idea, because it was the last thing that people would expect from me,” she says. “I had always been big, and I liked the idea of showing people that looks don’t tell the whole story.”
She set her sights on the 2012 New York City Marathon, and, after missing out on the race lottery, raised enough money to earn a charity bib.
Six months out from the marathon, O’Neill developed an ankle injury during the Brooklyn Half Marathon. It was bad: a bone spur and tendon tear that would require surgery. Suddenly off her feet, she fell back into old habits and spent months on the couch eating Chinese food and re-watching Six Feet Under. “I could have probably been more productive with that time,” she jokes.
The 2012 marathon would be canceled by Hurricane Sandy, but there was a silver lining—at least for O’Neill. She could save her bib for the 2014 marathon, and she had the time to properly rehab after having the tendon stitched and bone spur shaved down.
Given another shot, O’Neill fully committed herself to the process and started training not just hard, but also smart.
“I learned from that experience that the most important thing about training is not getting hurt,” she says. “I did an excessive amount of research, and read about nine books on marathons.” During her days of 5Ks and 10Ks, she had never shied away from a night out with her friends, but the months leading up to that November were different. “I was so focused,” O’Neill says. “That period took a lot of understanding from my husband and my friends.” The dedication paid off.
O’Neill remembers that marathon as the happiest day of her life, despite getting married just a month earlier. “I’m sorry, but it’s the truth!” she says. “The tension that I thought would be there wasn’t, it was all excitement.” Runners saw one of the coldest and windiest starts for the marathon in years, with temperatures in the 40s and gusts reaching 40 miles per hour. “The wind was so strong going over the first bridge crossing that I thought our bibs were going to fly off!”
The harsh conditions faded into the background when O’Neill saw the spectators waiting on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Bridge. They were clapping and screaming her name—which she had taped on her shirt. “I felt like a rock star for just about four hours.” She had set the goal of finishing in less than four, and despite the wind she clocked 3:55:57.
Colaizzo was waiting for her in the finisher’s area. He had stopped at three different spots including the finish line to cheer with her husband and take photos. “I get choked up just thinking about it,” he says. “The fact that she came from this stagnant existence to this tremendous personal achievement.”
When plied for details on how her true race experience compares with what plays out in the movie—starring Workaholics actress Jillian Bell as O’Neill—she says was asked to keep many of the details under wraps to avoid spoilers. But she was able to share how her real marathon experience ended: devouring $14 of frozen yogurt from 16 Handles and falling asleep before the two pizzas she ordered arrived.
“My marathon days are over,” O’Neill says. “But I will never stop running, it still brings so much to my life. And when the NYC Marathon comes around, I am always right there on the sidelines cheering on strangers, and crying like a fool.”
