For most people, running a full marathon, or 26.2 miles, is a heroic feat. Then there are those who push it even further, such as the six-day, 156-mile race across the Sahara Desert called the Marathon des Sables.
But the Barkley Marathons take running to a whole new level.
Officially, the Barkley Marathons consists of five loops through Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. It totals 100 miles, though most participants say it is closer to 130. Designed to break their spirits, runners ascend and descend about 120,000 feet of elevation, which as Esquire puts it, is the equivalent of climbing up and down Mount Everest twice.
And the most important part? All this must be done in just sixty hours.
Out of the more than 1,000 people who have tried it, only fourteen have ever finished.
A new profile in Esquire looks in the Barkely Marathons, the participants, the founder (a man named Gary Cantrell), and the race itself. Cantrell’s running name is Lazarus Lake, and he goes by Laz.
The first Barkley Marathon was held in 1986 with 13 participants. No one finished a race until 1995, when an Englishman named Mark Williams completed the five loops in 59 hours and 28 minutes.
The cost to enter the race is low: $1.60. However, all applicants send an email to a closely guarded address at the right time on the right day. The email must included an essay on why you should be allowed to run the race. And then there is a written exam, that asks questions that have very little to do with running, such as “How much butter should you use to cook a pound of liver (with onions)?”
Once accepted, each participant must bring something. New runners, or “virgins,” must bring a license plate from their state or country. Returning runners who did not finish the race, known as “veterans,” must bring an item of clothing. Each year it differs, this year it was a pair of socks. And the fourteen people who have finished the race, known as “alumni,” need to bring a pack of Camel cigarettes, if they dare to race it again.
The race begins sometime between midnight and noon on the closest Saturday to April Fools’ Day. The runners can only see the map the afternoon before the race begins, and the route is mostly unmarked and off-trail. GPS is not allowed.
Not only must the runners complete all five loops, but they must locate 13 books in each loop and tear out a page corresponding to their race number. After each loop, the pages are counted and each runner receives a new number.
Those unable to finish are serenaded by the Barkley’s official bugler playing “Taps.”
The race is physically and mentally challenging. The course itself includes slopes so steep “they look like they’re folding over and back down on you.” Decomposed leaves hide rocks and fallen branches, and all the bare trees look the same. Saw briars — vicious inch-long thorns — lace the course and frequently cut runners. In 2005, one runner on loop five became convinced there were houses on top of one of the mountains. He was also convinced that he was a garbageman sent to empty the trash.
This obscure race was indirectly inspired by James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin. He escaped from the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in 1977, which is near where the race is held. He was recaptured after 56 hours on the run, but he had only gone eight miles. Laz heard this and though that he could’ve made it at least one hundred miles. The race was then named after Laz’s friend Barry Barkley.
Laz, whose family is from Oklahoma, doesn’t run anymore, and he’s never completed more than two loops of the course himself. After one hundred thousand miles, Laz’s legs finally gave up on him. But he directs five races besides the Barkley. He got into running when his dad started running in 1966. He then joined the cross-country team his sophomore year of high school.
According to Esquire, Laz reads science and history books and writes short stories, all in lowercase, “about his dog’s adventures, like the time Big swallowed a whole skunk.” He was formally an accountant, but now coaches basketball at the local high school.
The Esquire piece also follows this year’s Barkley’s runners, including a man who completed the World Marathon Challenge (running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days), a woman who crushed the women’s and men’s Appalachian trail hiking records, a Navy rescue swimmer and a Zen Himalayan adventurer, among others.
This year, two men made it to all five loops, but only one can call himself an “alumni.”
Read the full piece for more details and decide for yourself whether you think you could run the Barkley Marathons:
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