Barkley Marathons 2025

[SixToe]

For those who observe, the annual Barkley Marathons conch sounded at 10:37 EST on 3/18 to give the selected participants 59 minutes to prepare to start.

Gist: navigating a 20-mile route through a rugged state park forest in Tennessee with no GPS or ashistance except at the end of each 20-mile loop. Runners battle the weather -- storms, freezing temps, heat -- day and night. During each loop, runners must find a book left by the race organizer -- find being the key word -- and remove a page with the runner's designated number. Forget the page? You're done. Get the wrong page? You're done. Lose the page? Backtrack to find it or finish the loop and be done. The book is not obvious, like sitting on a tree stump pedestal with a light on it, but also isn't buried under a rock under leaves. Three loops is a fun run, five under the 60-hour cutoff time gets you an attaboy or attagirl.

More insight: Barkley Marathons 2025: How to follow and who's taking part in infamous race

 

[John]

I watched the documentary about the Barkley Marathons a few years ago. Fascinating. I've run multiple regular marathons but I can't fathom doing what those men and women do.

 

[SixToe]

Last year's finish with five completing it and Jazmine becoming the first woman to do so was remarkable. She pretty much was sprinting to the gate on adrenaline as the seconds ticked down to the cutoff.

 

[brn623cl]

I was all excited thinking this was about Charles and Saquon hitting every cheesesteak joint in the Greater Deleware Valley, but alas....

 

[ChrisLong]

We had a couple of guys come into the office wanting us to do a story on their friend who was in The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run in the Northern California mountains. They had a couple of photos. It's a grueling race. The guy finally said, "He was amazing and he almost finished."

The sports staffer who was listening to him smugly said, "My Mom finished." She was an avid and well-known local runner who warms up for these endurance runs by doing marathons.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I will watch and read anything about the Barkleys. The idea of running that distance - mostly off-trail - while trying to navigate to find a ziplock bag with a paperback book in it astounds me. It ramps up the level of difficulty from a "normal" ultra by several orders of magnitude.

I know the logistics of it would be darn near impossible, but I wish somebody could figure out a way to stream coverage of it. Instead I just refresh Keith Dunn's social media page regularly.

Keith (@keithdunn.bsky.social)

The image that I run from Only seems to follow me

bsky.app

 

[SixToe]

We had a couple of guys come into the office wanting us to do a story on their friend who was in The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run in the Northern California mountains. They had a couple of photos. It's a grueling race. The guy finally said, "He was amazing and he almost finished."

The sports staffer who was listening to him smugly said, "My Mom finished." She was an avid and well-known local runner who warms up for these endurance runs by doing marathons.

I wrote two years ago about a local guy who finished WS100, after a dropout 10 years earlier. He was still Pished about dropping and finished his return run. We've had I think more than a dozen local finishers, along with those who have fallen out after 60ish miles. Another local guy, an excellent trail-endurance runner who I expect to finish, is in it this year.

Our locals have to go to North Carolina and north Georgia/Arkansas to get any significant vert for doing the western stuff.

I'm looking at an 11-miler at Donner Pash in summer that has a 9-hour cutoff. That blows my mind since the elevation gain is only 3,300 feet. But it's at 7,000+ feet so it probably is a wee bit challenging.

 

[John]

One of the hardest things I've ever done was the Grouse Grind right outside of Vancouver. It's only two miles (or so), but it's straight up over uneven terrain. It's not a race but they track the times over the summer (when the course is open). Only six men and one woman have ever broken 40 minutes. It's brutal, it's humbling, and I do it every time I'm in Vancouver.

The Grouse Grind | Grouse Mountain - The Peak of Vancouver

 

[SixToe]

@John that sounds fun and horrible. Will have to keep that on my to-do list.

 

[dixiehack]

The sports staffer who was listening to him smugly said, "My Mom finished." She was an avid and well-known local runner who warms up for these endurance runs by doing marathons.

This went in a way different direction than I anticipated.

You are probably relying on Starlink at best for internet in that part of Morgan County, so as was mentioned it would be thorny to broadcast to the world from there. The other issue is how you would accommodate a production crew. Unless things have changed, I don't think Wartburg even has a chain hotel to its name.

 

[swingline]

I walked a little more than a half-mile today wearing a 20-pound vest. That was hard enough for me.

 

[John]

In about five weeks I'm doing a trail 25K that is going to kick my ash because I haven't made the time to train like I should have (or I've chosen to play tennis instead of running alone). I know the course well which will help, but I'm sure I'll walk at least a third of it. And that's ok, too.