This week it’s Barkley Marathons week. This is the one race where you don’t have to be an elite runner to enter or even win.
To give some background, the Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon race held every year in Tennessee by Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake. It’s one of the toughest, if not THE toughest race in the world. There are certain rules runners must follow. They are not allowed GPS at all. They are given an old fashioned Timex watch. The course is not on trails, so it’s more of an orienteering race, than a trail race.
Many of us follow the race along, via Twitter. There is one faithful race reporter who gives updates on Twitter, Keith. He is the Man and we love him!
Every year you hear a few people whining about the lack of coverage the race gets. Well, it’s secretive for a reason. It’s not meant to be a huge, commercial race. It’s meant to be tough, to have one and only one winner and it’s meant to tough every runner’s limits. There are no second or third place awards, no age limit awards.
Also, the only on the course for the runners is water. And if the weather is especially cold, those gallon jugs of water might be frozen.
Laz has a twisted and rather funny sense of humor. There is always one race sacrifice. He chooses someone before the race starts who he thinks will be the first to drop out. I don’t know about you, but that would give me enough energy to make sure I wasn’t the first, maybe the second!
There are check-in points where there are books hidden. Each runner has a number and they have to tear out their page number. As they finish each marathon they give the page numbers. Each marathon or course has a maximum of 30 hours to finish. The elevation gain is around 20,000 to 25,000 depending on where Laz chooses the course.
This year, the moaning has been especially loud. Maybe because more people are following it, but there were a few loud voices, one is an elite runner who didn’t hesitate putting the race down.
One Twitter used said it was too exclusive. Well, it’s definitely a niche race, but it’s not that exclusive. You don’t have to qualify to get into it. But you can’t start asking around, because then you’ll never get chosen. One way people get in is to run the shorter race Laz does in the fall. There are other ways, but if you really want to do Barkley, you’ll find a way.
The elite runner, Sage Canaday has never been shy about expressing his opinions on controversial topics. He posted a few shady tweets about Barkley today. From what I’ve learned, he does this every year, but he has amped it up this year.
“Hot take: Barkley Marathons is super exclusive and full of gatekeeping. Part of it obviously stemmed from the very limited number of racers that can take part each year. I can see how there is an appeal to something “very niche” and “very extreme” though. On the other hand you have a very competitive race like Comrades the largest and arguable the greatest (imo) with a 100-year history that has a lot more diversity and way less gatekeeping into the sport. Comrades is a celebration of humanity and celebration of the spirit of ultrarunning.”
This last tweet followed a couple shorter ones that said running Comrades is better than hiking Barkley. This unexpectedly backs up the theme of my show this week Is There Snobbery in Running? Apparently, unless a race is big, has lots of elite runners and offers tons of money to the winners, it’s not worthwhile. OK, Mr. Elite Canaday, we know where you stand.
Sometimes it’s best to say nothing. Why take people’s joy away from them or steer them in the direction of a race they have no interest in just because you don’t like a particular race? That is the height of tunnel vision.
And here’s the zinger. This year’s Barkley was one of the MOST exciting year’s ever for the insanely difficult race! There were three finishers. Yes, three! That’s unheard of. I’ve also decided to do an episode on the Barkley Marathons and Laz in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that!
Have a great weekend!
