Last Women Standing: The Barkley Marathons 2019 Film Review

Presided over by cult leaderish organiser Laz Lake, the Barkley Marathons is a race that promises to ‘shred your ego and your clothing’. The distance is not really known, neither is the ascent. The route changes quite a lot. It’s rarely been completed, and never by a woman. Enter Nicky Spinks and it’s legendary ultra runner v legendary race.

Taking place in disorienting terrain in Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee USA, the event requires runners to buy into a set of opaque rules. “It’s not really a race, it’s you against the route,” she says. “I don’t want to run around a track, I want to do something that’s rough.” And it is rough. In theory the course features five laps, each involving around 10,000ft of brutally steep, obstacle-laden, muddy mountain ascent through thick woodland and vicious undergrowth. In reality only 15 runners have completed the full 100+ miles since it was first staged in 1986. As the UK’s toughest mountain runner, Nicky Spinks believes it’s only a matter of time before a woman wins the Barkley.

The footage has a Blair Witch feel, combining sounds recorded during the race with recreated visuals (cameras are banned en route). Runners loom out the darkness in clouds of frozen breath, no one is quite sure what’s happening. Laz lurks like a malevolent gnome, enforcing rules and accepting the adulation of his Barkley converts. In Barkley-speak, you’re either a Virgin or a Veteran. Being the former, Nicky teams up with Veteran runner Stephanie Case to navigate the physical and mental weirdness of the race, aiming to be the Last Women Standing. Veterans are advised to ‘keep the code of silence - keep playing the game...’ so of course, I can’t tell you what happens…

Nicky Spinks can sometimes seem a little reserved on camera, but cut with interviews recorded in her Yorkshire farm, the team at Summit Fever Media have captured her perfectly. Nicky's character as well as her strength and expertise as a runner really shines. The race is weird, Nicky is wonderful, and so is Last Women Standing: The Barkley Marathons 2019. UPDATE - The film had its online international premiere on 19 November 2019, you can watch it here: Last Women Standing.