I didn’t get lost, but sometimes I passed the same place without managing to remember the route, the relief of the land, or the trees. I’ve therefore sung quite a bit during those hours of waiting. When I waited for the runners in the forest, I sang. There are mysteries and there is a certain sort of beauty in this unknown – the magic of the inaccessible. Laz only allows access to a limited number of spots: at most five percent of the course. I respect that. Renowned photographer Alexis Berg (the photographer behind the book Grand Trail) took his camera to the 2017 event, capturing the unique combination of inhospitable ground and secret-club vibe that makes the Barkley Marathons a genuinely un-imitatable event. What sort of person runs the Barkley Marathons? The determined? The insane? Those who relish a challenge but aren’t wholly on board with the increasingly corporate nature of racing, perhaps. The books won’t be obvious – if you’ve followed the unmarked trail correctly, you may find what you’re looking for. On each loop, competitors must locate a book and rip out a page corresponding to their race number. Unsurprisingly, the start isn’t at a fixed time: a conch shell is blown in camp an hour before the race begins, alerting the runners to their imminent fate. Returning veterans either bring Lake a pack of Camel cigarettes or a specific gift, depending on whether they’ve previously finished. The date of the race is released to successful applicants in a “condolences letter” and first-timers must bring along a numberplate from their home state or country for Lazarus Lake’s collection – alongside their US$1.60 entry fee. Some say that your best bet is to ask someone who’s run the race before. Oh, and the name of the race director isn’t public knowledge either. Instead, an email must be submitted to the race director on a certain date at a certain time, together with an essay outlining why you should be accepted as a runner. There’s no official website and you won’t find the Barkley Marathons on a race calendar. Now a five-loop event with an alternative 60-mile “fun run”, the field is limited to fewer than 40 runners, each of whom has to apply via an admirably secretive process. Cantrell is famously quoted as having said: “All the other big races are set up for you to succeed. He figured runners could manage more than eight miles, and the first event was set up as a 50-mile, 24-hour course… which none of the 13 entrants finished. Inspired by this, Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake, created the first Barkley Marathon in 1985, naming the event after his running mate Barry Barkley. The now-closed jail forms part of the current course, including a tunnel under the prison close to where Ray escaped. But the brutal landscape surrounding the prison – Frozen Head State Park – meant he only covered eight miles during the 54 hours until he was recaptured. In June 1977, James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr, absconded from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee. Barkley Marathons has yet to submit to corporate sponsorship and remains a unique, quirky and relentlessly tough race – not only physically and mentally, but even finding the correct entry procedure is a challenge. ![]() You don’t just Google “Barkley Marathons” and enter online. Now, that description alone may have the ultra-runners among you salivating over your Salomons, but hang on. Essentially, we’re talking about one of the toughest trail races in the world and subject of the 2014 now-on-Netflix documentary The Barkley Marathons: the Race that Eats its Young. Since the first event in 1995, only 15 runners have actually completed the course in the time allowed. ![]() Sections of the trail – if you can find them – have been christened Bad Thing, Rat Jaw, Meth Lab Hill… and other equally fluffy and welcoming soubriquets. The Barkley Marathons take competitors on an uncertain journey across steep, muddy, vegetation-strewn rocky ground during which runners fall over rocks and roots while trying to follow often complicated instructions without GPS. ![]() Unmarked gnarly trails through some of Tennessee’s least hospitable terrain.
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