Last week Netflix received a new documentary about the Barkley Marathons held in March in Frozen Head Sate Park in Tennessee and Robert and I were inundated by friends who watched it and wanted to know if we had heard of it. For all those wondering, yes we have. We had previously watched a documentary about the marathon on YouTube that actually takes place in 2014 unlike the Netflix addition that follows runners doing the 2012 race. If you do not have Netflix or a friend who will let you borrow their account there are many short clips you can can watch on YouTube, but this is the original film that got us amazed by this Ultra Marathon.
After watching the documentary or even clips on YouTube people get excited about the event. There are some crazy components to the race, but I’m more interested in why everyone is so intrigued. Robert and I share our running experiences with our friends and family all the time. We talk about races we have heard about that we would like to try and pass on stories we have heard about runners in tight predicaments achieving phenomenal feats. Yet this race makes even non runners stop and listen to us talk. I’m beginning to wonder why. Continue reading