Run For Your Life

My wife was recently searching documentaries to watch and came across one titled: The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. The movie documents the race, created by Gary Cantrell, (aka Lazarus Lake), who was an ultra-marathon runner in the 1970’s, in 2015, its 25th year. I tuned in a short while after she started watching it. The race is strangely fascinating, because hundreds of people apply to enter the race, but the founder only selects 40 to enter. To “win” the race, one must make 6 circuits on a vague course through mountainous terrain of Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee in less than 60 hours. The first one to complete the course, in as little time as possible, wins.

The trail meanders through all different types of terrain, including up and down steep mountain slopes, through briar patches, along asphalt roads, and even through a waterway underneath a prison. The overall length of the race is about 100 miles. Contestants only stop briefly between circuits to eat and rest, (they don’t really sleep). After the first circuit, some people drop out, but most continue. After the fourth circuit, most have dropped out and only a few continue.

At the end of the documentary 3 runners are shown finishing in less than 60 hours. They are physically and emotionally drained, weak from lack of food and sleep, and scarred from the briars that tear open their skin each time they pass through them.

As I watched this film in strange awe, I became more intrigued with the entrants; why would people want to do this to themselves? They all had reasons they gave for why they did it, but not one resonated with me. I think the underlying drive for the runners of the Barkley Marathons is the personal reward of simply finishing the race that pushes them far beyond their normal capabilities. The first runner to finish did set a new record for the course, but a majority of the entrants didn’t have any records in mind while running the race, they simply wanted to finish.

In the 25 years since the race has been run, only 18 people have finished it; and there we no finishers in the first 10 years! Doing some quick math (25+ years x 40 entrants/year) there have been more than 1000 runners in this race; yet less than 2% have even completed the race. In those first 10 years, 0% of entrants finished!

I mulled on this race for a couple of days. I was trying to draw a comparison with someone I could relate to. One day, as I was recalling this race, it came to me. In a loose way, it was comparable with the Christian’s walk of life. In John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian walks a perilous journey through all sorts of snares and dangers that others succumb to, but eventually he ends up in the Enchanted City.

Often Christians are thought to have an easy life, even Christians themselves can believe this. But the Christian walk is not easy. There are many obstacles in our life that we need to overcome to gain stronger faith in what we believe. There are many trials to be had, as well. Take the apostle Paul for instance. He stated that he ran the good race, and he certainly endured many obstacles and hardships: stoning, shipwrecks, imprisonment, poisonous snake bike, beatings, lashings, etc. Why would Paul enter this race? For that matter why would anyone enter a race that they knew would present significant hardships?

Those who have trusted in Christ to redeem them have done so because they have realized that they cannot find fulfillment in anything else on this earth. The entrants of the Barkley Marathons stare physical pain, sleeplessness, emotional stress directly in the face and look to conquer it through perseverance, but only those who persevere the most will finish.

Likewise, there are many Christians who have willingly entered the “race” knowing there be hardships to face, but the difference between them and the Barkley runners is the source of their drive. Christians don’t rely on their own perseverance as their only way to endure the hardships of their walk, they place their faith in Jesus who promised to help them through life’s obstacles. Truly, there are temptations to quit, but knowing that the race will end well for them and they will have a place in what Jesus calls Paradise (aka Heaven), keeps the focus of the committed “runners” on the finish line.