The 2024 Barkley Marathons kicked off today and we can’t wait to find out if there is a winner this year. Below we have included some great resources to keep you up to date and a few facts about the event you might find interesting.
Great links to follow for this year’s race:
Follow the live action and humorous commentary on Twitter at https://twitter.com/keithdunn
Good site for updates and information – https://run247.com/race-previews/barkley-marathons-2024-how-to-follow-live-tracking-latest-resultshttps://run247.com/running-news/trail/barkley-marathons-2023-live-tracking-latest-results
Another site we like: https://runningmagazine.ca/trail-running/barkley-marathons-2024-has-begun/
The movies:
- The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young – http://barkleymovie.com/
- #17 – To Finish the Barkley Marathons – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-oEFaqUQEQ
Weird and Interesting Facts About the Barkley Marathons:
- Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held each year in Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County, Tennessee.
- With 54,200 feet of accumulated vertical climb (and descent), it is considered to be one of the most challenging ultramarathons ever.
- The race is limited to 40 participants, and entry is by invitation only. No website and good luck finding out how to register.
- Potential entrants must complete an essay on “Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley,” and pay a $1.60 application fee. If accepted, an entrant receives a “letter of condolence.”
- They never post a list of starters.
- The course consists of five 20–mile loops, with a total distance of approximately 100 miles (or longer) that must be completed in 60 hours with every other loop run in the opposite direction.
- There is also a cut off time for every lap.
- Runners who complete three circuits of the loop (60-miles) in under 40 hours are said to have completed a “Fun Run.”
- The 100-mile race has only been completed within the official cut-off 18 times by 17 runners since the first event in 1995.
- Many years there are no finishers. There were three winners in 2023.
- No women have finished (yet!), but in 2022 Jasmin Paris completed the 3 loop Fun Run in the designated time, becoming the second woman to achieve the feat.
- The event date is not made public and starts any time from midnight to noon on race day. One hour till race start is signaled by blowing a conch. The race officially begins when the race director lights a cigarette.
- Runners must use their orienteering skills to navigate the unmarked course with a map and basic watch (no GPS).
- Competitors must find between 9 and 14 books along the course and remove the page corresponding to the runner’s race number from each book as proof of completion.
- When a runner drops out of the race, a bugler plays “Taps” upon their return to the start/end point.
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