The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

ULTRA running is sometimes disdained by specialists because they do not consider it elite. And it’s true that the capacity to run dozens and dozens of miles without stopping, or running for hours on end without sleep, may not require the precisely honed talents of conventional athletes. Nor does it necessarily require any innate talent. However, it still takes an extraordinary kind of person to take on the ultra challenges that have grown in popularity in recent years. ‘The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young’ is a brilliant documentary telling the story of one endurance race, its fascinating history, and the people attracted to the challenge. The Barkley Marathon is, in terms so basic it cannot come close to describing it, an endurance race held in rural Kentucky, USA every year. Competitors are required to compete five loops of a 20-mile course. However, distances are not exact, the route changes every year, and it is based on a failed prison break dating back to 1977. Among the foiled escapees was the infamous James Earl Ray, killer of Martin

Luther King Jr. The prisoners found the terrain brutal, and so does anyone who enters the race. In the first 25 years of its history, only 20 people finished it. It would be much more popular if the organisers wanted it to be, but they determinedly discourage much interest: the field is limited to just 40 entrants each year. The fee is just $1.60, plus whatever odd request the organisers fancy (this could include, among other things, a particular novelty licence plate). And the oddness doesn’t stop there. Competitors aren’t allowed to use GPS to track their way around a course. Instead, they have to rely on their wits, and prove they have completed loops by ripping pages from books buried at various points along the way. This documentary records the 2012 edition, and it is by turns hilarious, enthralling and moving.