Still it was an impressive feat, given that he only began training for the event 45 days prior, after being hospitalised for three months. “It was then I knew that Barkley had won,” he says. That task was something first timer Enrico Frigeri, a 34-year old teacher and personal trainer from Brazil, struggled with amidst the gnarled terrain and extreme weather.Īfter completing the first loop alongside a race veteran, Frigeri entered loop two alone, but struggled to navigate the course and therefore locate the books in time.
“The first lap was run in really hot conditions, too hot for my liking, and then the second lap was the opposite, unbelievably cold with lots of rain,” said British runner Nicky Spinks after competing in the 2019 race.Īll the while, racers must locate books hidden along the route as proof of completion. But the Barkley Marathons course is unmarked (competitors are allowed a map and compass), has an accumulated ascent of more than 50,000 feet through thick woodland, and is subject to temperature extremes. One hundred miles in 60 hours may not seem too tough a task – after all the world record for the distance on foot is just under 11 hours. When the embers glow, participants have just 60 hours to complete five rounds of the same unmarked 20 mile (give-or-take) loop: twice clockwise, twice counterclockwise, with the leading runner dictating the final loop direction – if any make it that far. “I could do at least 100,” mocked Laz.Īs is tradition, Laz lights a cigarette to kick things off – an unorthodox start for an unorthodox race. During his 55 hours of freedom, Ray covered just 12 miles of ground. “This was one of the years that the Barkley felt like an entity in itself, picking people off one at a time that you thought would finish,” says race director Gary ‘Lazarus Lake’ Cantrell (most runners just call him ‘Laz’), who co-founded the race in the decade following the 1977 breakout of Martin Luther King’s assassin, James Earl Ray, from the nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. And 2022 was no exception.ĭespite no one finishing, one Barkley first-timer, Jasmin Paris, beat the clock to become the first woman in a decade to complete three loops – otherwise known as the ‘fun run’. Most years see no finishers at all in the race’s 60-hour time limit. Since its conception in 1986, only 15 runners have managed to conquer the merciless course – which features punishing sections with names such as Checkmate Hill, Little Hell, Rat Jaw and Testicle Spectacle. This year, around 40 other determined runners from around the world gathered behind the race’s famous starting line, a yellow gate, with the same hope.īut finishing the Barkley Marathons is an anomaly. Bygdell made her final preparations, packing clothes and food, and honed in on her goal of finishing the annual 100-mile ultra endurance challenge.
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