By Johanna Gretschel for MileSplit

If you're like me -- an obsessive endorphin addict -- you view the world through the lens of athletics, and specifically, distance running.

Music, literature, film -- all forms of art give us pause to question, what does this mean? How is it applicable to my life?

And, if you're a runner, often -- How and why does this remind me of running?

Resilience is a common theme in this year's nominees for the Best Picture Oscar as per usual; the Academy -- and humans in general -- loves a good underdog overcoming adversity story. None are athletics-related, but inspiration comes in all forms and metaphors. Hey, my favorite pre-meet pump-up movie has always been Gladiator.

Here are a few of my musings on why each of the nominees is inspiring to me as a runner. Scroll all the way to the last page to vote for your pick to win!

Editor's Note: I didn't see Bridge of Spies or The Room, so I won't discuss those here. Sorry!

The Martian

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig
Run Time: 2 hours, 24 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for strong language, injury images and brief nudity.
Synopsis in 140 characters or less: On an air mission to Mars, an astronaut is presumed dead after a storm and left by his crew. He must draw on his ingenuity to survive.

"At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's gonna go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home." - Mark Watney

The isolation that Mark Watney faces as an astronaut left for dead on Mars is akin to the loneliness of the long-distance runner. Watney must figure out how to to survive with limited resources on an alien planet and for awhile, with no one the wiser that he is even alive.

That 15 mile long run? That's up to you.

No one is going to run the miles for you, no one is going to put in the time in the weight room for you, no one is going to suffer through the workouts for you.

In the end, all you have is you.



For the rest of the best picture films read JoJo's article on MileSplit