My spectating interest in this event increases a bit each year. Way too old and slow to even consider doing the event, but I do hope to visit Frozen Head at some point to attempt to complete a 20 miler on the "candy ass" trails that John Kelly ran 100 on last year when the event was cancelled. I'd have to climb Rat Jaw too.

Tough conditions this year. Courtney Dauwalter is an amazing athlete and a joy to watch. Looking forward to the next big ultra, whenever and whatever that is. Hoping WSER and UTMB could happen.

PSA this old article: "Good Luck Morons: Lazarus Lake and His Impossible Race" on a site called "The Bitter Southerner."


(Sorry to sidetrack the event discussion from this year. Thanks for the update. I usually trip across a thread like this and start reading participants' blogs for recaps, too.)

No worries, Mate. The participants' reports/blogs are about the only place to get info about the event. I have been obsessing over it for years.

Courtney got lost. If not for that, I bet she could have set a course record.

As always, she put a positive spin on it.

Who knows, maybe? I think she'd have as good a chance as anyone.

She said she got lost in the fog on her latest Instagram post.

I love keeping track of the barkley every year, the race fascinates me and if ever given the opportunity id race in a heartbeat.

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.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

She makes basketball shorts look badass

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Oh, they do. Nobody serious about the race would be that foolish to enter the race without being very skilled.
Have you ever tried to navigate by map at night without illuminated landmarks and/or in dense fog?
All you can is trust your instincts and have a photographic memory.

Or you could cheat by marking the course somehow on the first lap or hiding a gps watch....have been done.

From what I've read and seen about the Barkley, most entrants are obsessed with reading reports from previous finishers, studying maps of the park, knowing the locations where the books have been placed, etc. That may not happen until after the first miserable attempt there, but then it happens. Those who have an above-average ability to maintain focus when sleep deprived obviously have an advantage, but I don't know if that can be trained other than building up a capacity to handle large amounts of caffeine.

I became obsessed over the weekend just trying to figure out exactly where Gary Robbins made the navigation error in the final miles that kept him from finishing in 2017. I think I have it figured out.

I ran parts of Frozen Head in November of 2019. I was a bit rushed, because the trails didn't lend themselves to headlight running unless you know where you are going. With the leaves I had to backtrack more than a few times to stay on the official trails.

Most of the Barkley famous "obstacles" are not official trails and therefore are off limits including I believe Rat Jaw.

There is a nice brewery attached to a nearby campground called Lilly Pad Hopyard http://www.lillypadhopyardbrewery.com/ Good kayaking/canoeing in the area if you bring a boat. The brewery/campground is right in the middle of the water action.

I stayed at the Scenic River Inn Motel http://scenicriverinnmotel.us/ in Wartburg and it was reasonably priced and acceptable.

I am trying to casually run parts of all the "cool" races or hikes where I'll never attempt the real event.

I ran parts of Mount Whitney Portal in the morning before running Badwater Basin in the afternoon to do my lazyman's Badwater 135.

I've done the same with trying to hit AT/CDT/PCT parts whenever I'm in the area.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

As you've read, the conditions this year were not optimal for good loop times. The initial 3-5 hrs were in a foggy soup. Since it had rained a bunch leading up to the event (and continued on-and-off during it), the footing on the climbs and descents were more tenuous than during drier conditions. On good days, with decent navigation, sometimes the veterans even have trouble locating a book. When people are cold and wet, they can mentally get down. There are world-class trail runners who don't do well, there are world-class navigators who have trouble. Just quite a few ways to lose time and/or DNF.

As much as one studies and prepares, nearly everyone is smacked in the face when they get there it seems.

Here I am becoming "that guy". But to clarify....

The trails are closed after sundown, you are not allowed on them after dark.

*None* of the famous obstacles are on official trails, and therefore *all* of them are off-limits.

"Everyone has a plan, until ... [you know the rest]" - Mike Tyson

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Thanks for the info. It looks, from John Kelly's Strava at least, that I can run to the tower and at least gaze in wonderment at Rat Jaw.

You can also go down the Old Prison Mine trail which dead-ends at Rat Jaw’s halfway point. From there you can get a really good perspective of just how steep it is.

There’s a reason why the most preferred strategy of first-timers is to latch on to a veteran and (try to) not let go. :) For most people their first year is mainly an exercise in learning the reality of Barkley as opposed to what they thought is was before actually being “out there”.

such an awesome race but I would never try since I got lost at night on a well marked course and on my other ultras I feel like I'm going to get lost.

guess I have that MAN sense of direction

I think this race is epic, it's kinda funny though. It's like the book is "up that mountain" in the middle of a thorn patch or something. I'm more curious of actual real injuries occurred during this race. Mud slides, 3 inch deep thorns, cuts scraps, slips, etc.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Thanks for this link. The Bitter Southern has some excellent writing on many subjects.

I keep trying to talk my friend into going to visit that park. I want to see it with my own eyes.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

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?

My wife and I (and dog) stopped at Frozen Head on our way to Charleston, SC, a few years ago. It was the weekend after Barkley. Of course we stopped at the yellow gate and then went hiking up to the fire tower atop Rat Jaw. It was a much longer hike from the visitor's center than we realized (all 3 of us were thirsty). That year, there had only been 5 people that started loop 3, none started loop 4. So we get to the fire tower and there were still 3-4 boxes of gallon jugs of water with "Barkley" written on the outside since the fire tower is one of the "aid stations". So we grabbed one of the jugs and drank it on the way down. I have the jug still in my pain cave as my little piece of Barkley.

That said, it's a really nice and enjoyable hike.

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Ever Grateful, Ever True.
Boiler Up.
Hammer Down.
Hail Purdue

Laz is a hillbilly genius. The Barkley, his Big’s Backyard Ultra, etc are all such great race ideas. Plus, he doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about popular, or PC, opinion.