The Barkley Marathons (2014) - A few years ago I happened to read an article about The Barkley Marathons and I was a lot of things; gob smacked, intrigued, entranced and there were feelings of disbelief and I definitely read the article twice, probably while shaking my head. All this just about an article, so imagine my excitement to find a Barkley Marathons documentary while scrolling through my options one Saturday morning. Friends, I couldn't hit play fast enough.
If I had to describe this in a couple of words, I would say it's a fever dream. A fever dream of the highest order, but still a fever dream. This is an endurance race through the mountains in Tennessee consisting of 5 loops, each 20 miles (official length is 20 miles, but the runners will tell you it's actually more) that less than 20 people have finished in three decades. There is a ton quirks tied into this race, from the application process, which is "secret" right through to the race start time.... also secret. Much like the article I also enjoyed this one a second time. Half the family joined me half way through my viewing and one missed the thing entirely, so I happily sat down to watch it all again with them. I think it's easy to dismiss Lazarus Lake, race co-founder, as a full blown nut, but he actually had a lot of interesting thoughts on testing yourself and dabbling in failure.
So many talking points from this one! Gosh I can't wait for parties to happen again. Or maybe I will just become one of those local bar know-it-alls. Once the bars open back up again. Much like Tread, from back at the beginning of this project, I asked myself.... what did I just see? The answer, so much... from the flannel shirts to the conch shell to the prison tunnel all the way to the finish line... what a wild ride.
I watched this on Amazon Prime Video.
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