Unbreakable: Western States Ultra

Amazing documentary film on Western States Ultra featuring some of the top notch ultra runners in the world – Anton Krupicka, Killian Jornet, Hal Koerner (two time defending champion of WS 100) and Geoff Roes, unbeatable at 100 miler. The movie also features Gordon Ainsleigh, the first runner to do the WS100 in under 24 hours way back in 1974. There is quite a lot of footage of the actual trails, which is quite good and then there are whole of snapshots about each of the above runners’ background, their families, their work etc. what motivates them etc. Tremendous amount of crew support is there for the WS 100 and probably requires humongous amount of organisation and co-ordination. No wonder WS 100 is ranked among one of the topmost and most coveted ultra races in the world. The movie is quite brilliant, it follows a linear pattern, the camera work is quite good considering that most of the shots were on a rocky path requiring quite a bit of hand eye foot co-ordination. Required watch for all runners around the world. This is the stuff that legends are made of. The winner came in 14.07 hours, which is quite incredible is’nt to run 100 miles in that time. Crazy.

Found on 49 – The story of Jim Walmsley

Documentary on Jim Walmsley’s first ever 100 mile run at Western States 100 in 2016. He was aiming for the course record and going good until he got lost on Highway 49 and finished 20th overall in a time of 18.45.36 hours. Jim is a legend in that he has won several ultra marathons, the JFK 50 mile in 2014 to 2016, Lake Sonoma 50 in 2016 and 2018 and Tarawera Ultramarathon in 2017 (source: wikipaedia). This documentary starts from a few days before the Western States 100 and follows him on the course. He does go on to Western States 100 in 2018 with a course record, which he further improved in 2019. He did run the US olympic trials in a phenomenal time of 2.15.05 hours, but finished 22nd, showing the depth of American runners in the marathon field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Walmsley