The Guys Behind the Marathon Road Video

The 12-minute documentary, Marathon Road, that chronicles the preparation of the four Team USA Minnesota runners for the 2012 Olympic Trials was made by a local company, Ideatap Studios. To find out how the video came together we asked the guys who produced it. Below is the answer:

"I started Ideatap with my friend Joe Tossey officially five years ago, but we had been working together in video since VHS," says company co-founder Paul Sanft. "We got connected with Team USA Minnesota after I ran track/XC at Augsburg College. Several of my teammates (Dan Vogel included) have been in regular contact with Dennis Barker ever since.

"I've covered various meets for the Auggies over the years and Dennis always liked the videos I made for his teams. So he suggested the idea of following the Team USA Minnesota during their training. I was happy just to be there to witness their impressive workouts, there was no way I could turn down the project.

"The biggest challenge by far was coordinating our shooting schedules with the runners' ever changing workout schedules. We ended up just shooting whatever we could during the rare times our schedules matched. As a result, we never actually came up with a purpose or goal for the video until December.

"At that point, it became a scramble to get final interviews and begin the process of sifting through all our footage for things that would create an inspirational feel. In fact, we didn't finish filming until this past Saturday morning. Knowing we wanted to capitalize on the excitement of the race and release it just a few days out, I had to sift through and edit 12 hours of footage down to the 12 minutes in just three days.

"I'm hoping to continue pursuing video within the running community as it's always been a passion of mine, and I think we're developing a knack for it."