It’s the world’s most notorious ultramarathon – and shrouded in secrecy for good reason due to the delicate ecological nature of Frozen Head State Park in rural East Tennessee, meaning spectators are not encouraged.
But last year it made global headlines like never before. Chiefly because of what Jasmin Paris achieved in becoming the first woman to finish the 100+ mile event inside the allotted 60 hours (with 99 seconds to spare!). She was one of a record five to make it round, meaning that only 20 different people have finished. Just to put that into context, 24 humans have visited the moon!
After fevered anticipation this year’s race got underway at a latest-ever local time of 11:37 on Tuesday 18 March. The 40 invited runners obviously knew the start date but not the time – only that it would begin at some point between midnight and noon in Tennessee so it went down to the wire!
That was heralded by the blowing of the conch by co-race director Carl Laniak which signals an hour to go and a scramble to get ready, including grabbing a watch from race creator Lazarus Lake.
GPS is not allowed – it’s map and compass and a desperate search for pages of a book on each 20-mile loop which each have to be completed within 12 hours. Click here for more details on the nuances of the event but the ultimate aim is five loops within 60 hours to join the select list of finishers.
Regarded as one of the toughest running events in the world, would it be even more challenging 12 months on from last year’s record number of finishers? Time would tell.
Barkley Marathons live updates
There is no website or social media page, let alone live streaming, and no GPS devices are allowed so it’s a very different version of ‘live tracking’ for this one.
The one semi-official way to follow what is happening is via @keithdunn on his X feed (and also on Bluesky) which we’ve embedded below (just click the ‘X FEED’ button to view).
But it’s fair to say things started in dramatic style as the Barkley course bit back, meaning just 10 of the 40 runners were able to make it through to the second loop inside the allotted time and we were then down to single figures relatively early on the second lap.
Just four – Japan’s Tomokazu Ihara, three-time finisher John Kelly and French duo Sébastien Raichon and Maxime Gauduin – remained by the start of loop three.
All of them were well behind schedule in terms of any chance of further progress and they were soon down to three when Gauduin dropped out early on.
It was then confirmed that none of them got back to the famed yellow gate within 36 hours so couldn’t progress to loop four. But there was still the chance of ‘Fun Run’ status if they could make it inside 40 hours. Click on ‘Loop 3’ below for a full report as Kelly was credited with a ‘Fun Run’ but Raichon missed out in agonising style.
The Barkley Marathons
start list
There’s no public start list and it’s only as the race develops that pieces of the jigsaw start to emerge.
Usually by winning the Big’s Backyard ultra you get a spot – that was the case with Harvey Lewis last year, but not this time around for Scott Snell – click here for more detail on that.
Another route is first male and female at the Barkley Fall Classic which in 2024 were England’s Tim Landy and American ultrarunning and Toughest Mudder / Hyrox star Kris Rugloski, who also won that event the previous year but missed the Barkley because of an untimely injury. This time she said: “I’ll be back this spring for the big dance”.
As for the rest we had former finishers, last year’s Dragon’s Back winner, a two-time Spine Race winner looking to follow in Jasmin Paris’ footsteps and many others – more details available via this post.
Notable runners
Route
The Barkley Marathons is made up of five 20-mile loops with more than 54,000 feet of ascent (that’s nearly twice up Mount Everest).
Each loop starts and finishes at the fabled yellow gate where competitors and support teams make camp and the runners have 12 hours to complete each loop.
The first loop is clockwise and then it alternates until the fifth and final lap. At that point the first-placed runner chooses which direction to go, with any other runners alternating so they are more likely to have to run separately.
In reality – though we don’t know for sure as there’s no GPS allowed – the loops are more likely closer to 26-miles long, meaning that anybody who completes all five will have covered around 130 miles. Any runners who manage to complete ‘just’ three loops inside 40 hours are awarded ‘fun run’ finisher status.
The route changes every year and it is near impossible to review – runners are shown a map the day before. Roughly 80% of the race is off-trail and there are no aid stations – just two water points.
And the difficulty of each loop can’t be understated, with incredible climbing and navigational challenges and all through thick and sharp briars.
The weather too will play a pivotal role – click here for the latest forecast which sounds very, very mixed for Thursday.
Each competitor has to find books hidden around the course and tear out the page corresponding to their race number. Failure to present a page from every book at the end of each loop results in disqualification. The book titles have become part of Barkley folklore and previously included Death Walks in the Woods, The Valley of Death, Almost Home, The Body in the Woods, Fool, The End, A Week in the Woods, and The Idiot.
Barkley Marathon finishers
The full five-loop race has only been completed 26 times by 20 different runners. The current race record is 52:03:08 and was set by Brett Maune in 2012.
1995: Mark Williams
2001: David Horton; Blake Wood
2003: Ted “Cave Dog” Keizer
2004: Mike Tilden; Jim Nelson
2008: Brian Robinson
2009: Andrew Thompson
2010: Jonathan Basham
2011: Brett Maune
2012: Brett Maune; Jared Campbell; John Fegyveresi
2013: Nick Hollon; Travis Wildeboer
2014: Jared Campbell
2016: Jared Campbell
2017: John Kelly
2023: Aurelien Sanchez; John Kelly; Karel Sabbe
2024: Ihor Verys, John Kelly, Jared Campbell, Greig Hamilton and Jasmin Paris
Past winners
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