I would like talk about The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. If you haven’t seen it, STOP, and in the words of my friend “watch The Barkley Marathons on Netflix and stop your bitching.” If you insist on not watching it or are putting it on a to do list and continuing to read this, then I will give you a quick, not-too spoiling summary:
The documentary follows from start to finish The Barkley Marathon of 2012. It introduces viewers to the anomalous Lazarus Lake and the history of the race. It tracks participant’s progress throughout the gritty race. The film does a good job to not glorify or simplify any aspect of it. It shows participant’s real disappointment in not reaching their goals, brutal injuries, and complete exhaustion, as well as strength in numbers, the act of raising one up to accomplish what the majority couldn’t, and what persistence and self will can equate to. The Barkley Marathons will motivate and inspire you. You will feel driven to step out of your comfort zone and fail hard. The documentary is full of light spirits, dedication, community, and aspirations. From start to finish the film has an underlying voice from The Universe, and is a reflection of life. And this last bit is what I would like to discuss.
Right before the start of the race Lazarus says, “If your going to face a real challenge, it has to be a real challenge. You can’t accomplish anything without the possibility of failure. Pretty much everybody you see go out there, you really want them to succeed. You know that most of them won’t. And there is kind of, maybe a dark humor to all the things that go on. Some of the failures are spectacular and really funny. But you like to see people have the opportunity to really find out that something about themselves,” and for me it was as if The Universe spoke straight through Mr. Lakes lips. Maybe this is something I knew all along, but suddenly and certainly I saw it open up. Of course, how funny life must be for those that can see the big picture. Individuals feel things so directly and personally, get skewed on the details and deterred by failures. As human beings we forget how much we’re capable of and stop challenging ourselves. Life is the opportunity we’ve been given to learn about ourselves. What is life without a challenge, failures, and lessons? We won’t all accomplish everything, but if we don’t try we aren’t living, and we aren’t learning.  A person must maintain the big picture in order to see the accomplishments in their failures, but the small focus to dare to keep pushing themselves despite the dark humor of life.Â
This film was exactly what I needed as a swift kick in the ass. It reminded me that life is ours, we choose the heights that we will go to during our time here, and that the world is ours for the taking. If I want to accomplish great things then I need to accept that I won’t accomplish all of them, and that’s just the way life is. But if I don’t at least try, then I won’t accomplish any of them. It’s scary and it’s frustrating, but a person has never been worse off for trying.Â
*The image in this post was borrowed from barkleymovie.com and is not mine.
