Forced to live with American relatives after his innocent father is jailed as an IRA terrorist, a shy Irish teenager faces rejection, bullying, and beatings in his new world until a sympathetic gym teacher discovers the boy's championship caliber speed and changes his life and the lives of those around him.

SYNOPSIS:

The Runners: Synopsis

Beginning: Tim Connolly, a shy and reclusive teenager, leaves his home rural Ireland and arrives in NY in January 1983 to live with his aunt and uncle because his father, Terence, has been wrongfully arrested as a terrorist at the Northern Ireland border, and his mother, Bridget, fearing for his safety in their war-torn region, thought he would be safer in America.

Middle: Things, however, do not go as planned. Tim’s uncle, Gary Laherty, resents his presence, especially Tim’s sleeping in his dead son’s bedroom. His enrollment in a parochial high school is even more disturbing. On his first day, a trio of strutting “jocks” find Tim an easy target to mock and bully. On his second day, he is unexpectedly singled out and beaten in gym class by the school’s athletic director, a sadistic Christian Brother. Tim becomes sullen and withdrawn, longing to return home, and given to depression and daydreams.

Within a few weeks, two characters, wounded and isolated themselves, gradually crack Tim’s defenses.

1. John Quigley, gym teacher and track coach, discovers Tim’s remarkable foot speed during a gym class exercise. He recruits him for the track team and trains him to a championship caliber. In the process of coaching Tim, though, the alcoholic Quigley becomes conflicted, jealous of Tim’s record-setting talent, unable to forget how his own youthful promise for Olympic fame was cut short by severe leg wound suffered in the Korean War. When he realizes that his inability to accept his past has fed his alcoholism and threatened his long marriage, Quigley not only embraces sobriety, he also dedicates himself to Tim as a runner and a person. In the process, he begins healing himself and salvaging his marriage.

2. Gina Carbone is the track team’s star female shot putter. She is a hostile, profane, and uncompromising loner. Her unusual size and coarse manner mark her as “different,” and her painful family situation shields her from human intimacy. After initially scoffing at Tim, she embraces him as a fellow outsider. They soon become close friends, and then odd-couple sweethearts.

End: Tim’s running success helps him grow in confidence and develop a healthy sense of self. Months after setting the NY State record for the 800 meters, Tim won the 1983 AAU National Championship – all this while defeating the Christian Brother who menaced him and the bullies who threatened to kill him. The victory celebration featuring Irish music and dance that evening reunites Tim with his parents, newly arrived from their own ordeals in Ireland.