Long before Christopher McDougall’s bestselling book Born to Run was published, Blue Ridge Outdoors Editor in Chief Will Harlan was running with the indigenous Tarahumara of Mexico’s Copper Canyons. El Chivo—a feature-length documentary about Harlan’s adventures with the Tarahumara—is now available on Amazon Prime.
Harlan won the Copper Canyon 50-Mile Ultramarathon in 2009 against an international field of top athletes—as well as the legendary Arnulfo Quimare, a Tarahumara goat herder and two-time race champion who had previously bested seven-time Western States 100 champion Scott Jurek.
After winning the race, Harlan creates a nonprofit to help Arnulfo and other Tarahumara farmers fighting to keep a foothold in their ancestral canyonlands, where drought and drug wars are widespread. Harlan also tries to emulate the Tarahumara way of life on a small off-grid homestead in the mountains of North Carolina.
El Chivo—“the goat”—is the moniker given to Harlan after he won the 50-mile ultramarathon. The documentary follows Harlan at home and abroad as he transitions from elite athlete to ordinary dad. Award-winning Asheville documentary filmmaker Rod Murphy directed El Chivo, and he recently struck a deal with Ananda Media to distribute the 78 minute film through Amazon Prime.
Ananda Media, a French action and adventure sports distributor, will also distribute the documentary via On-Demand and other online platforms both streaming and broadcast.
Watch a trailer of the documentary here.
Visit rodmurphyjr.com and collectiveprojects.tv for more info.
