You get tired just watching them. You wince when a baseball-size blister is lanced, blanch when the IV needle pierces the skin and seeks a vein for rehydration. You shake your head, repeatedly, at the sheer insanity of the undertaking.
Yes, we're talking about those crazy ultramarathoners again.
But the documentary "Running the Sahara," which debuts at 9 tonight on Showtime (with airings throughout the week), makes the grueling Western States 100 Mile race look like a breezy 5K.
It's an ultramarathoner's ultramarathon: 4,300 miles in 111 days (the equivalent of 170 marathons in a row) across the Sahara desert, from the eastern edge of Senegal to the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt.
As extreme tests of endurance go, nothing has this beat. But we're happy to report that the two-hour documentary will not test your viewing-enjoyment endurance. It's a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes look at the strong (nay, obsessive) personalities of the three runners doing this feat of the feet.
There is a higher purpose than just meeting a daunting challenge. Executive producer (and narrator) Matt Damon takes the opportunity to highlight the water-shortage crisis among the nomadic people of the Sahara and plug a program for constructing wells.
But let's be honest: We're really watching to see whether the runners – Charlie Engle, 42, of Greensboro, N.C.; Ray Zahab, 37, from Canada; and Kevin Lin, 30, from Taiwan – will overcome obstacles ranging from corrosive sandstorms to extreme dehydration to the dicey political situation in Libya and neighboring Chad and Sudan.
Beyond physical barriers, how the runners deal with the mental strain of running so far, so long is riveting. Engle, the alpha male of the group, goes from the role of Sir Edmund Hillary to Don Quixote to Captain Ahab in the course of the adventure. He cajoles the runners to keep moving despite the pain. He berates his sherpas – er, support team, including Stanford physician Jeff Peterson – and at one point, it appears as though he is double-crossing his comrades.
Wisely, moments of humor leaven the seriousness of the pursuit. The bemused looks on the faces of the locals in Agadez, Niger, as the runners trudge by are hilarious, as is the bewilderment of nomadic camel herders whom the guys encounter in the middle of the desert.
Those men obviously wondered the same thing we viewers will wonder: Why?
Call The Bee's Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145.
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