ULTRA

It’s 2012. A seven-year old Jack McCain embarks on his first ever road race: the Bellport Clipper Classic, a 5 kilometer fun run. Twelve years later, as a 19 year old college student, he takes on an unfathomable challenge: a fifty mile ultramarathon. The race comprises three 17.6 mile loops through the trails of Staten Island in New York City. Throughout his 80 kilometer journey, Jack centers on one question: Why?

Through raw, on-trail interviews with other competitors in the race, Jack offers personal looks into the minds and hearts of runners. From start to finish, he expresses the emotional texture of his arduous mental and physical ride, documenting the life lessons that emerge along the way. The film captures the will to run an ultramarathon, capturing with extreme depth what most people would dismiss as plain insanity.

As he rounds his first loop, Jack engages one-on-one with the viewer, reflecting on the dynamic nature identity. He confronts the reality that most are caught up in limiting ideas about themselves. Entrapped in their comfort zones, they are unwilling or unable to strive towards their full potential. He follows with an exclusive interview with elite college runner and personal coach Everett Smulders captures the dangers of staying in one’s comfort zone.

As Jack breaks through the 26.2 mile mark, the farthest he has ever run up that point, he burns down the walls of his comfort zone. Despite lows of nausea, soreness, and pain, he finds strength in what his friend Will had told him months prior: at some point, Will said, your body will give out. You will have to continue by sheer force of your mind.

As night falls, Jack continues to traverse through the hilly trails in pure darkness. The way lit by dimly lit headlamps, he reaches highs of strength and grit that he believes cannot be attained by any means other than endurance running. In the final moments of the race, he reflects on his surroundings: the moon, the rumble of street cars, the rhythm of his feet. In the distance, he can see a small glimmer of light: it is the finish line. He runs for his life, singing his heart out, before finally reaching the end.