Every spring, the famous Barkley Marathons take place in East Tennessee's Frozen Head State Park. (1) Arguably the world's most difficult ultramarathon, runners must run five laps of about 20 miles through the park; the lap begins and ends at a yellow gate. (2) Runners must complete each loop in 12 hours. (3) But they're not running along well-defined trails; they have to navigate the backcountry while looking for books placed along the intended path. (4) When a runner finds a book, they must rip out the page that corresponds to their bib number. (5) When they return to the yellow gate, race creator, Lazarus Lake (AKA Laz), counts the pages. The runner will only get credit for the lap if all the pages are present. (6)
This grueling race is endlessly fascinating. It began in the late 1980s and has changed a bit over the years. (7) Only 17 people have finished it in its current form. (8) The start date and time is a secret; as of this writing, the 2024 race hasn't started yet but is due any day now.
In March 2022, I got to watch the race as part of the media. While there, I met the first finisher of the Barkley Marathons and wrote this profile of him for Trail Runner. It was such a cool experience so I'm sharing some of my photos for today's post.
Don't travel to the park to watch; public attendance is discouraged. And I can tell you that while it's really cool to see the runners return to the yellow gate, nothing is going on the majority of the time since it takes runners so long to finish a lap. If you'd like to keep up with the race, follow @keithdunn on X. He is at camp for the entire race and does a great job of giving fans frequent updates.
My photos are below:








When a runner quits the race, a bugler plays "Taps." The runner pictured above decided not to continue, and I took the below video of this ceremony. The runner is in the black pants and white jacket; he had already changed.
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results ; trailrunner.com/event/barkley-marathons/
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/meet-frozen-ed-the-barkley-marathons-first-finisher/ ; https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results ; https://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/meet-frozen-ed-the-barkley-marathons-first-finisher/
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/meet-frozen-ed-the-barkley-marathons-first-finisher/ ; "Tales From Out There: The Barkley Marathons, The World's Toughest Trail Race", Frozen Ed Furtaw, Preface and Acknowledgements and page 1.
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-results
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/meet-frozen-ed-the-barkley-marathons-first-finisher/
March 18, 2023
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