lschaan wrote:
chuy wrote:
I sometimes wonder if the people racing would benefit from training more in mountaineering (not sure what the word is), navigation, memorization, etc.
From the last few years its been plenty obvious that speed/endurance isnt an issue for people as they are plenty fast, the issue is navigating the course.
Maybe people do focus on these things and im just not aware, but have always wondered if the training for barkley should go beyond the normal training one would do for an ultra.
So I had this thought as well. But then,..I just read that this year Luke Nelson and Jared Campbell had almost identical times for all 3 laps. Is it common for runners to essentially just shadow more experienced runners/navigation experts? Obviously if you have a Jared Campbell or Brett Maune in the field who've proven they're very good at this course it would be in your interest to just stick by their side (if you can!) and let them make the hard decisions in terms of navigation and lines?
In the first 4 loops it’s very common for the runners to team up. This year in addition to Jared and Luke we saw Maggie, Courtney, Liz and Jamil team up. No doubt they would have tried to stay together if they had gone out for loop 3. It’s always easier to have the extra eyes and brains to help navigate and avoid mistakes.
But it’s also important to point out that anyone who wants to be successful won’t just let others do all the work. If you’re not helping then you’re of no use to the group but if you’re valuable you can get huge amounts of information from the veterans. It’s important to learn how to navigate the course yourself because if you ever do make it to loop 5 you’re on your own and even before then if you get separated you’ll need to be self sufficient. I would not be surprised if after loop 2 Jared and Luke knew they wouldn’t finish loop 3 before the 36 hour cutoff so Luke took on most of the navigation while Jared played more of a mentoring role so Luke can be even more successful in future years.