Have you heard about Barkley?

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. 

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SaltStick Caps Review

Cramping is something I’ve struggled with in a lot of my races. It’s also no mystery that I’m a heavy sweater. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, I’ll find a way to sweat when I’m doing even the slightest bit of physical activity. As I was training for my first marathon in 2013, I began to notice salt stains on my clothes after a lot of my longer training runs. It turns out that not only am I a sweater, but I’m also a salty sweater. Cut to the marathon day and everything was going well until I started cramping up at mile 20. I made it to the finish, but I was marching a fine line of full body spasms and shuffle trotting. After that I researched some ways to fight race cramps and that’s when I discovered SaltStick Caps. 

Holding Myself Accountable

My February accountability calendar.

Marathon training plans typically last between 16 and 18 weeks, which means four full months of training before race day. Holding myself accountable to each day’s training is something that I have struggled with for each of the three marathons I have completed. I promised myself that this training cycle would be different because I knew that it would be the only way to get the results I want this time around.