Barkley Marathons 2025: Bannwarth, Kelly, King and who else we believe is taking part this year

It’s arguably been harder than ever this year working out the identities of the 40 runners taking part in the Barkley Marathons.

The event got underway at 11:37 local time on Tuesday 18 March at Frozen Head State Park in East Tennessee.

That’s close to home territory for three-time finisher and all-round Barkley legend John Kelly and all the indications are he’s back for more.

As we reported earlier this week, he said: “It’s pretty well a given that I’m returning to Barkley most years with it kind of being my home course.”

And that was all but confirmed by Keith Dunn, the one official source of race information, when he posted the following shortly after announcing what was a record late start: “Finally. We could have done a loop by now – @RndmForestRunnr.”

Kelly provided a great explanation last year as to how most of the 40 runners come to be selected but who is set to join him?

Strava clue

Belgian media reported earlier this year that Backyard Ultras star Raphaël Daco would be the first French-speaking Belgian to participate in the Barkley.

And that looked to be all but confirmed at the weekend when he posted a 15.67km ‘Afternoon Trail Run’ on Strava at none other than Frozen Head State Park.

When asked by DH Les Sports what his tactics would be, he answered: “I’ve always said that being on the starting line would be an honour. It is. Merijn (Geerts) and Karel (Sabbe) told me that you have to follow a veteran to try to survive at least one lap. That’s what I’m going to try to do, to at least do one lap, maybe two.”

Daco said he had received the famous letter of condolence announcing his selection – and one normally surefire way to a spot at the Barkley is by being the last person standing at the previous year’s Big’s Backyard Ultra.

But that doesn’t appear to have been the case this time around, with Scott Snell revealing he’d missed out on a letter of condolence – but taking the news in a classy manner.

Former finisher Sanchez back again?

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” but she was in Hyrox action at the weekend so it remains to be seen if she’s then headed to Tennessee.

And as for Tim, his South West Road Runners club posted on Facebook on Tuesday: “After winning the Barkley Fall Classic last year, Tim went on to secure his place at the Barkley Marathons! He has spent his time since then training hard and we can’t wait to hear how he gets on. The Barkley Marathons could start any day now and we are all on tenterhooks to hear how Tim gets on. GO TIM!!”

There are strong rumours that Aurélien Sanchez, who was the first person to finish in 2023 on what was his debut, is back again.

The Frenchman returned 12 months ago but was ‘tapped out’ on the third loop.

Having a crack at the Barkley for the first-time is last year’s hugely impressive Dragon’s Back winner Max King. The American won that six-day epic in Wales, which also features fearsome terrain and gradients, despite not having had chance to recce the route which bodes well for this week.

Though he did say after that: If you walked into a bar and sat down with a mountain runner, an ultra runner and a stage race runner, and they all came up with the hardest race and put them all together, you’d get this.” Might that opinion be about to change?!

The news that the Barkley is next on the agenda came when he spoke to UK podcast Trail and Error in February. He revealed it 59:33 into this episode, though first said it was a secret before later adding he just had to keep the date under wraps!

He added: “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but it took me three years to get in. I think it does sort of fall into my wheelhouse a little bit – the hard hiking but also the navigation aspect too. I’m excited.”

‘Lapin DuDuracell’ going for glory

Of course last year was all about Paris’ heroics, with all due respect to the four men who also finished.

And hoping to follow in her footsteps this year is brilliant French ultrarunner Claire Bannwarth from France. Paris won the Winter Spine Race in 2019 and Bannwarth triumphed in both 2023 and 2024.

Read more about Bannwarth’s involvement here.

And talking of Spine Race heroes, current champion Lucy Gossage confirmed she’s not lining up when posting on Bluesky: “Ha ha. I can confirm I am not there! And if I was I would no doubt be ‘lost chatty girl’ within 1 hr!”

Meanwhile three-time Barkley participant Maggie Guterl appears to be back for a fourth attempt. She last raced here in 2021 when she and the GOAT Courtney Dauwalter ran together on the first loop, clocking 10:44 before being timed out on lap two.

She published her race schedule for 2025 on Instagram last month and for March had: BCL (IYKYK)…

More names emerge

The first actual names released by Keith Dunn actually came after loop one when he posted: “Chris Fisher and Thomas Calmettes both have dropped out on Loop 2 at Bald Knob. Though seemingly about a hundred yards apart, they did not see each other.”

And that pattern continued as he revealed the four to make it to the end of loop two inside the cut-off – Kelly plus Japan’s Tomokazu Ihara and French duo Sébastien Raichon and Maxime Gauduin.

Why the mystery?

There’s very good reason that so much about the Barkley – especially the start date – is kept under wraps.

For the delicate ecological status of Frozen Head State Park means that spectators are positively discouraged.

Those covering the race respect this and there’s also the fact that this is pretty much a unique sporting event in the modern age, where the only real official information comes from the X account of Keith Dunn.

All of which adds to the charm – and challenge – of providing updates!