If you think running a marathon sounds exhausting, wait ‘til you hear about the world of ultra-marathons, days-long races of upwards of 100 miles.
Arizona is home to one of the most intimidating ultra-marathons: The Cocodona. It’s a whopping 250-mile trek that begins in Black Canyon City and ends in Flagstaff. Runners traverse mountains, forests, waterways and vast stretches of desert over the course of the race, and they do it all on very little sleep.
They have about five days to complete the course — which means they basically have to run two marathons a day for five days. But many of them do it even faster.
A new documentary film called “The Chase” tells the story of five people who competed in last year’s Cocodona. The film screens Saturday at Arizona State University’s Herberger Center.
Director Dylan Harris and one of the runners in the film, Jeff Browning, joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
JEFF BROWNING: I saw Cocodona develop. I moved to Flagstaff the first year, the first race, so it immediately became a huge part of my life since I'm an ultrarunning coach and still racing ultras. I saw it quickly become an iconic race in the 200 scene. I knew pretty quickly that I was going to run that race, I guess.
SAM DINGMAN: Well, and just to clarify, when you're saying the 200, is that 200 miles and above?
BROWNING: Yeah, the 200-plus distance.
DINGMAN: Wow, well, so it strikes me that running a race like this puts you in a pretty vulnerable place physically, mentally, emotionally. Did you have any hesitations about participating in a documentary like this where there would be cameras on you during some of those moments?
BROWNING: No, I mean, I like the pressure as an athlete. When the cameras are on, you have to rise to the occasion and it gives you more skin in the game, even then if there weren't cameras.
DINGMAN: Dylan, let me ask you, how do you approach the difficult task of potential documentary sources generally when you know that there are going to be these really vulnerable moments, and what was that like on this project?
DYLAN HARRIS: The concept I've been playing around with a lot is that making film, I need to be so open minded to the characters and the opinions and perspectives that I'm capturing. I was literally living with each of these guys for three to four days at a time, eating like them, going on runs with them, little workouts and meeting their families.
So to me, the more I can be vulnerable and be myself and just let my guard down and allow them to be who they are, the more they can be themselves and not trying to put them all in this ultrarunner box.
DINGMAN: Jeff, I'm curious, was there anything about your process that was very specific that it felt vulnerable to share with Dylan, any specific moments where you realized like, “Wow, I'm really, I'm really showing my belly here.”
BROWNING: I'm pretty good at wearing my emotions on my shirt sleeve if you asked my wife, so she always says TMI, too much information. My parents brought me up to be honest, and I don't mind showing that. And Dylan really dug with good questions, especially when our emotions were raw like the day after the race. Your guard’s way let down, right? Because at that point I really only had probably in three days, eight hours of total sleep. And we were really raw. I mean, onion layers are peeled away after that race, and so if he digs a little, and we're willing to be a little honest, yeah, he definitely dug some tears out of my eyes.
DINGMAN: Sure. I mean, if you're comfortable saying. What was behind those tears? I mean, was it surprising to you that you felt that level of emotion? What were you feeling?
BROWNING: Leading for 160+ miles of that race and losing the lead with 2 miles to go because of a reactive airway and my airway swollen and couldn't restrict it and feel like I was breathing through a straw, really could only nose breathe the last like 50, 60 miles. That was really a challenge. I had to overcome it with a mindset, all the years of training a mindset, just to keep going and not panic, and you know thank gosh I've read Wim Hof’s method of breathing.
DINGMAN: Can you, can you tell us briefly what that, what that is? I'm not familiar with that.
BROWNING: So, it's deep nose breathing, 30 to 40 seconds, 30 to 40 inhales, exhales, and then hold your breath and then rest and then for a minute and then do it over and over again, like three to four sets. It's kind of a meditative breathing process of teaching yourself to deep nose breathe, so I just focused on that when I couldn't get any air through my airway, through my mouth.
DINGMAN: Dylan, let me ask you, I mean, this story that Jeff just shared, and thank you for sharing that, Jeff. That's an extraordinary narrative for a movie on its own, the idea of somebody leading a race this grueling, this challenging for 160 miles. And then the idea of leading any race for 160 miles, it boggles the mind as a sentence to say, and then losing that lead, dealing with this, this breathing issue he was just describing, that's an extraordinary story.
And that is just one of five stories that you're telling in this movie, as well as telling the story of the Cocodona more broadly. Can you talk a little bit about what you went into the film, thinking it was gonna be about and what it was going to focus on and how you adjusted in the moment to developments like that?
HARRIS: So for all five athletes, there were stories that were happening in their life, but then also the race itself because it's so long and there's so many ups and downs, there are also stories that you could find parallels to within the race. And so an obvious one for Jeff was that he was coming into Flagstaff, this his new hometown to his family and friends. So there was sort of an obvious one there.
I mean, running 250 miles is absurd. It's not just showing up and playing a 90 minute basketball game, you know, and so running for three straight days, at the upper echelon of human potential and riding on, you know, 40 minutes of total sleep. It's insane, and for it to end in Flagstaff, which is now his hometown, where he's trying to build new strong relationships and to have that lead and to know you're trying to bring that home, and walk into a victory, in front of your new community and then to lose that right at the end, you have to go and face all those people. But then for them to bring you up, and really like to celebrate you and what you did. I think that's where the emotion came from.
DINGMAN: Well, that makes me think about a memorable moment from the trailer for the film featuring Jeff.
BROWNING: I just nailed it. I think it just would have fed my ego. That's not always what we need. Sometimes it's what we want. That's not what we need.
