The Masochist’s Marathon | Hacker News Reader

The Masochist’s Marathon

esquire.com

80 pointssergeant320 comments

It's worth mentioning a couple of Laz's other races:

- The Last Annual Vol State 500K. A race across the full width of Tennessee in the middle of the summer. You can compete either "crewed" or "screwed". This year's edition just ended a few days ago. http://volstate314.com/

Here's Laz writing about this year's race the night before - http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8311134

- The Big Backyard Ultra. A race of attrition. A 4'ish mile loop every hour on the hour until there is only one runner left (who must complete the course solo, otherwise no winners). In 2014, two runners got to 204 miles at which point they both agreed to quit as one of them had to catch a plane. No winner that year. https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=44026

There is a great documentary about the Barkley Marathon on Netflix (US) [1]. It does an excellent job of telling the stories of the origin of the race, the race itself, and the people who take it on. I highly recommend it.

[1] https://www.netflix.com/title/80076413?s=i&trkid=(null)

One of the barkley finishers (serendipitously featured in the documentary!) wrote a terrific and long race report [1]. Really good and unpolished insight into the training and race experience. I enjoyed reading it just as much as I enjoyed the documentary others have mentioned.

[1] http://lakewoodhiker.blogspot.ca/2012/04/2012-barkley-marath...

My favorite post-race report is from the infamous Andrew Thompson run of 2005, in which a promising young runner headed into the fifth loop with a good time and then completely lost his mind from sleep deprivation, spending the next hour vividly hallucinating and wandering aimlessly through the woods.

http://www.mattmahoney.net/barkley/2005/andrew.html

There is a great documentary on Netflix about this marathon, it has some funny moments and it's pretty engaging. I don't usually watch documentaries and I'd highly recommend it.

Aye, great documentary! Three-time winner Jared Campbell is an engineer here in Salt Lake City, UT. I wouldn't be surprised if he frequents HN.

There's also a short documentary (20'ish mins) on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/97270099

My buddy Jamil does this race... he completed the "Fun Run" once. Insanity. This year, he's doing something like 100,000 ft of climbing in training to try and prepare to finish it.

Given that he's a multiple-time Hardrock finisher, it really makes you realize how badass the guys are who finish that race.

Holy shit. Great writing. Really felt the anguish and tragedy of the extra six seconds at the end...

Any ultrarunners on HN? Anyone doing the north face endurance challenge in November in Marin?

Ultrarunner here but based in France.

Does admitting your an ultrarunner void the warranty on your Fitbit?

Doing the White River 50 next week.

Awesome! Good luck!!! Looks like a great race

I've done it a couple of times... probably won't make it this year, but it's one of my favorites. The year we did it in the rain was outta control, especially for a dude from the desert.

Stay in the hostel the night before... great scene, makes the early start way easier!

I've done a few marathons, going to aim to do this next year!

It seems that this marathon has approximate difficulty of a roguelike game.

The Everest comparisons are a little inaccurate. Climbing Everest isn't a 30,000' gain. You "start" at like 17,000'.

On the other hand, on Everest, you have to contend with thin air.

The elevation change is the least of your problems on Everest. It's about being in the death zone, cold, avalanches, storms and other challenges.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com