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  • 3 weeks ago
What compels a person to run 150 miles through the desert at the height of summer? Is it the need for achievement, the competitive instinct, or something deeper? A Long Way From Nowhere is a different sort of extreme sports film—one centered not around winning or extraordinary spectacle—but instead one focused upon the human spirit—on why individuals, knowingly or not, seek out some of the harshest climates on earth—in this case, southern Utah in June—and push themselves to, and sometimes beyond, the breaking point. Amongst the disparate cast of characters in this film is a veteran suffering from PTSD, a widowed single father, and a female police officer working in the field of human trafficking. Each undertakes the 150-mile Desert Rats stage race, each their darkest hour, and each, through the curious alchemy of extreme hardship and desert solitude, emerges with a new understanding of what it is to be human.
Transcript
00:02What makes the person want to run 150 miles?
00:09These people, they come out here, they torture themselves.
00:12They're pushing themselves to their physical limits, running marathons back to back to back here in this heat.
00:22What about approaching those limits helps them reach what's torn inside of them?
00:27And then as they're out here and they're finding where they're broken, can the desert fix them?
00:39I think everyone coming into this race at the start of it has the reason why they're here.
00:46And on Saturday when this thing wraps up, for many folks, it's not going to be the same thing.
00:52And that thing that they leave with, they don't even know what that thing is yet.
00:56They'll find it this week.
01:01This race is the desert.
01:04And there is a magic in the desert, truly.
01:09Some of the harshest and most beautiful conditions on the planet.
01:11It will be in your soul by the time this is over.
01:14And you'll be so much better for it.
01:28And you'll be so much better for it.
01:29For the good news, please.
01:29You're welcome.
01:29This is a very podcast from the good news.
01:30You're welcome.
01:30You're welcome.

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