It’s got various monikers – from the ‘hardest foot race on the planet’ to the ‘race that eats its young’ – but has the Barkley Marathons gone ‘soft’ in the last two editions?
From 1986 to 2022 just 15 different people had completed the five brutal 20-mile loops inside the allotted 60 hours.
But then in 2023 no fewer than three finished – Aurelien Sanchez, John Kelly and Karel Sabbe. Kelly had done so before, the last person to do so back in 2017, and Sabbe had gone incredibly close in the past. But Sanchez was a debutant.
And then in 2024 there were unprecedented scenes as no fewer than five made it all the way round – Kelly again, Jared Campbell for a fourth time plus another debutant in Ihor Verys along with Greig Hamilton and Jasmin Paris.
Paris of course was the first woman to ever finish, and rightly she made headlines around the world.
Weather watch
So the big question heading into 2025 is will race creator Laz Lake and co make the already fiendishly difficult course harder than ever?
One thing they don’t have control of is the weather, and we’ll look in detail at that once we know the exact start time, but it’s looking relatively settled for the next week or two at the time of writing.
Looking back at the record-breaking 2024 edition both Lake and Kelly pointed out that there were actually some very fine margins.
Laz, in his recap of the race on Facebook, said: “We were all reminded of just how narrow the margins are at Barkley.
“When the rain began an hour after the race ended we broke camp and loaded everything up in progressively harder rain.
“The drive home was made in a downpour. Had that arrived one day earlier we would have been lucky to see one finisher.”
‘He doesn’t want to make it impossible’
That was echoed by none other than Jasmin Paris when she spoke to Dylan Bowman afterwards on the excellent Freetrail Podcast.
She said: “Given how close all those five finishers were to the finish, if the weather had been bad then nobody would have finished.
“You only needed thick fog for a loop or two and that would have cost everybody that amount of time.
“We’ve had good weather for two years and I’m sure Barkley is going to throw us a terrible weather year – that’s why I don’t think he [Laz] is going to make it dramatically harder because if he does that and then the weather is not quite as good then nobody is going to come anywhere near finishing.
“He doesn’t want to make it impossible – if he keeps making it harder and harder to the point where no-one can finish then it stops being attractive to anyone.”
‘Is 5 too many?’
And as for Barkleys guru Kelly, he posted on social media: “[2024] was the second year in a row with fantastic conditions.
“Start time was in my ideal 5-8 AM window. Good sleep, light by the time you need it, guaranteed daylight finish, no loops of near total darkness.
“Course changes were significant, but difficult to quantify. Replaced 1 of my least favorite sections w/ my new least favorite (briars, blowdowns, cliffs, no clear path… an absolute mess). Added 2 books, even if no new distance that adds ~10 minutes.
“Is 5 too many? Will the course now get much harder? I don’t think so. Everything perfectly aligned, none of the finishes by a huge margin. Next year will probably have a worse start time, worse weather, & not as many strong veterans.”
And he added on X: “There have always been cycles – course changes, buildup of people working towards finish over many yrs, random chance. Important to not have knee jerk reactions. More visibility also = stronger fields, which might change stats of finishes but not of who could finish.”
We’ll find out soon enough and you can follow it all unfold here.
