Thanks to you fine (??) people here, I’ve recently watched the Badwater documentary on YouTube (Thread) and the Barkley documentary on Amazon Prime (Thread).
What else should I watch in this vein?
Though I have no compunction to do these events myself, I’m sucked in by the drama/story/emotion of the edge of human performance.
ETA Icarus was also amazing
I watched a documentary called “Finding Traction” on Netflix the other day. It chronicles Nikki Kimball’s attempt to beat both the men’s and women’s world record on the 273 mile long Vermont Long Trail. I enjoyed it and would recommend it - it did a good job of conveying the emotional ups and downs felt throughout training and races.
If you haven’t seen “Inspired to Ride” about the transcontinental bike race it is worth the watch.
Ride the Divide about riding the Continental Divide MTB race.
There were also two films about Leadville.
Check out Ride the Divide. MTB ‘race’ from Canada to Mexico, self-supported.
Icarus on Netflix is definitely worth a watch.
Unbreakable, not the Bruce Willis one. The one about UltraRunning.
Subscribe to Billy Yang channel on YouTube. He’s got a lot of great stuff.
Ahh, can’t believe I forgot that in my original post. So good and terrifying
All- thanks for the great suggestions so far. I have a lot of viewing to do!
“Touching the Void” Although it is about mountain climbing and not a competitive race, it illustrates human endurance and suffering better than anything else I have ever seen.
Riding Giants is also a good one - about surfing. Lots of good suggestions thus far.
“Where Dreams Go To Die,” the most recent Barkley Marathons documentary
.
Slaying the Badger (from 30/30). Not sure if it’s still on netflix. It’s absolutely superb.
Also, on the Armstrong debacle, Stop at Nothing was good.
Just a few off the top of my head:
Bicycle Dreams (about RAAM)
Running on the Sun (about Badwater)
Endurance (Haile Gebreselassie)
Breaking2 https://youtu.be/V2ZLG-Fij_4
Mont Blanc / CCC / UTMB by Billy Yang https://youtu.be/wUpRzyUrrlw
Miller v Hawks TNF 50 https://youtu.be/7DCR03UDggA
.
Another mountaineering/climbing recommendation: Meru, absolutely awesome.
The Radiolab podcast called “Human Limits” is really great. They talk about ironman and Raam… It’s free to listen and fascinating extreme stories
edit - this is the one…
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91710-limits-of-the-body/
Meru was exceptional.
Touch the Wall is popular recently with swimmers.
I watched The Longest Triathlon and The High recently. Some grassroots stuff that’s just endurance to its core.
Inspired to Ride and The Barkley Marathons are two of my favourites on Netflix. Billy Yang’s Youtube channel is great, well filmed shorts on the ultra community.
*What it Takes *is quite old now, and I don’t even know if you can still get it, but it chronicles the training year of Peter Reid, Luke Bell, Heather Fuhr and Lori Bowden. It was the year before Pete retired. www.witmovie.com
Overcoming
.
looks like you’d have to pay for it on youTube – but I am Bolt is worth it
.
.