On Your Marks! Get Set! Watch!

You can step into the batter's box to face a 100-MPH Francisco Rodriguez fastball. You can try to cross the line of scrimmage with a 300 lb. defensive lineman bearing down on you.

But in the world of marathon movie watching, that's like trying to sit through The English Patient at 4 a.m., after watching 20 straight hours of DVDs -- one after another, with limited bathroom breaks, no sleeping. and judges ready to disqualify you for turning away from the screen for a mental health break.

"It takes an iron will. You have to want it more than anyone else," Suresh Joachim of Sri Lanka told me just minutes before stepping into a glass chamber at New York's Times Square to beat his own world record of nearly 70 torturous hours.

The Netflix Movie-Watching World Championship kicked off this morning, pitting Joachim against such rivals as three-time champ Claudia Wavra of Germany, and competitive eating legend Crazy Legs Conti -- a man who once woofed down 30 Maine Lobster in twelve minutes.

I've always admired Crazy Legs. I sat next to him at Shea Stadium two years ago after he ate more than 20 hot dogs to qualify for the Nathan's July 4th championship. I ate two hot dogs that day, and yet I was the guy with the upset stomach who kept running to the bathroom.

But this is no Major League Eating chow-down, and Crazy Legs might be out of his league. Joachim holds more than 30 Guinness records, including one for running 1,000 hours on a treadmill.

"I'm going to wing it," Conti told me. "I asked the judges to play a Marx Brothers movie. That always perks me up."

Photo © Buck Wolf

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