#barkley marathons

[deweydecimalchickens]

What she says: I'm fine

What she means: the 2026 Barkley Marathons have started and I'm feeling very emotional about those iconic photos of Jasmin Paris again.

[jerichopalms]

#58: The Finisher: Jasmin Paris and the Barkley Marathons (2025, dir. by Jules Campanelli & Finn Melanson)

[dunne-ias]

The Barkley Marathons just had its first female finisher ever.

If you do not know what the Barkley Marathons is, then it is time you learn, because it is not just an ultra running race, it is INSANE.

But I'm so happy. They said it was getting less and less likely any woman would ever finish it (it gets harder each year), but now Jasmin Paris has done it.

Here are some things that make the Barkley Marathons unique:

The length is unknown. It's at least 100 miles, but who knows? Not even the participants, because they're not allowed GPS-trackers. There are five loops in total.

They're allowed map and compass. That's it. No GPS watches.

On every loop, they have to find about a dozen books, tear out a page that matches their bib number and bring them all back, or they don't get to continue onto the next loop.

There are only 40 people participating every year.

How to apply? I don't know. Most people don't. It's a secret to everybody actually.

The race fee is super low, but you have to bring a license plate and give to the race director as part of your registration

They don't get to know exactly when the race starts. The race director will blow a conch during a 12h window and then it's an hour until the start. Instead of a starting gun, he'll light his cigarette, and then the race is off.

The max amount of time is 60h, which doesn't give you time to complete the five loops and also catch some sleep in between loops.

It's been going for almost 40 years, and up until the 2024 edition, ONLY 17 people had finished EVER. That's how hard it is. Most years, no one finishes at all.

This year, there were five finishers, and like I said, for the first time, a woman finished. It's really impressive.

[petcigarette]

barkley marathons starting yesterday, dare i say most diabolical run yet.

[lookninjas]

So apparently this year's Barkley Marathons are going... a little differently from last year's. And I'm already seeing people starting to chide Lazarus Long and the race organizers for making the race "too difficult."

Guys. Guys. It's not uncommon for the Barkley to go anywhere from four to six years between finishers. Last year was a fluke. It's meant to be as close to impossible as is possible to be. That means that there's years when no one will do it. It's the nature of the beast, and that's fine.

This isn't going to drive people away. This is what makes people want to run the Barkley. This is the point of the race.

[majorjuniorhockey]

what's the barkley marathon? :o (this is me enabling u to info dump 🗣🗣)

okay so the barkley marathons is this strange ultra-marathon that takes place in a national park in tennessee once a year at some unknown time between mid march and the beginning of april. the current version of the barkley marathons started in 1995 and its only ever been completed 26 times by 20 finishers.

the marathon is five 20 mile laps off-trail that have to be completed within 60 hours. every lap the runners have to change direction and each lap has a time limit so if runners don't complete it in time they can't continue to the next lap. there's no gps or anything marking the path. runners are shown a course map and directions before the race that they have to take notes on and copy down themselves. and on top of that the course changes every year.

(putting the rest of this under read more. i did not realize how long this got)

the way they make sure that runners correctly complete the laps is that there are books around the course and each runner has to tear out the page of the book that corresponds to their bib number. the pages are checked at the end of each lap and if they're missing any pages they are disqualified. each runner gets a new number before starting their next lap.

the date of the race is a secret to basically everyone but the runners and organizers but even the runners don't know when exactly the barkley starts. the one hour countdown is signalled by a conch being blown and the start is signalled by the creator of the barkley marathons laz, lighting a cigarette.

the barkley is known as one of the most difficult ultra-marathons both to complete but also to enter because the application process is basically designed to be difficult. you have to email a specific email address at the right time and fill out an entry form that has a bunch of nonsense questions plus they have to write an essay about why they should be allowed to compete and only 40 people get chosen.

first time runners have to bring a license plate from their home state or country as part of the entrance fee. while returning runners have to bring a specific clothing item that changes from year to year and previous finishers that are running again have to bring a pack of camel cigarettes.

the only real way to follow the barkley marathons live as an outside observer is to follow this guy named keith dunn on twitter. he's the only person who's allowed to share updates about what's going on but he's also purposely cryptic and vague about his updates. so we often don't even know who's competing until afterwards.

there's also a documentary about the barkley marathons called The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young about the 2012 race that's available on youtube here. there are also a bunch of youtube documentaries but here’s a really good one about the 2023 race that's available here.

i'm sure i missed some stuff but that's the gist of the barkley marathons !!

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