Running on the Sun (2000)
Directed by Mel Stuart.
Kilgore rates it: 7 (out of 10)

Running on the Sun examines the lunacy known as the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race from Badwater in Death Valley (elevation 282 feet below sea level) to Mount Whitney (elevation 8,360 feet), crossing two mountain passes on the way. Race organizers schedule the race in July, when daytime temperatures reach into the 120s and the temperature of the pavement exceeds 200 degrees. Aspiring Badwater runners commonly train on treadmills in saunas.

50-mile Umstead Endurance Run : Badwater Ultramarathon :: jerking off in restroom of pudding factory : ménage à trois with the Bush twins*

Watch this documentary and meet: a man who had all his toenails surgically removed, two men who lost legs to anti-personnel mines, a gaunt racewalker who glides along the road like some bizarre species of insect, a major in the U.S. Marine Corps and his gung-ho buddies, a crew member who explains that "crew" stands for "cranky runner, endless waiting" (sound familiar, Preyster?), a woman who trains full-time and can only afford to live in a tent, and an Englishman whose wife attaches a can of Murphy's Stout to the back of their support van like a carrot before a donkey.

Director Stuart shot Running on the Sun in straightforward, low-budget fashion, letting the athletes and the images tell the story. You see athletes who start out joking and confident, then slowly break down under the pressure of heat and altitude and pure, punishing distance. Their bodies rebel, refusing to accept water or food. Some of them quit, and probably not the ones you think. The sick fucks among you will want to replay over and over again the disgusting foot montage, featuring raw, blistered flesh and squirting pus. The finishing scenes are touching, although most of the runners can hardly speak by that point. Try to hold back tears when you see a crewman tell his barely conscious brother, "Gabriel, you know you are my hero." Just try.

*SAT-analogy-as-comedy concept shamelessly swiped from Norbizness.

+posted by Lawrence @ 4/10/2004 06:22:00 PM