#bm100

[majorjuniorhockey]

views from the barkley marathons 2026

photos by ashley harris

[ratstarxx]

i feel like tumblr would go crazy for the barkley marathon and i’m so surprised there isn’t a following here

anyway i love this crazy super marathon

Barkley Marathons - Wikipedia

Barkley Marathons - Wikipedia

[animerunner]

For the first time in 20 years a female runner has made it to the 4th loop of the legendary Barkley Matathon.

Probably by the time this goes up via the queue will know if her or anyone makes it to loop 5.

For my non running friends. This race is so difficult that in its history has had 15 finishrs. One of who has done it three times.

And he got tapped out this year. So finishing before isn’t a sure fire route to success.

Who knows if she will make it to lap 5. My own ultra experiences tell me it’s going to be a tight squeeze.

But if she does it will be so cool

[majorjuniorhockey]

wait stop olympics posting we gotta talk about my favourite niche ultra marathon

[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 !!

[majorjuniorhockey]

“Make your peace with God.”

[majorjuniorhockey]

the barkley marathons started yesterday ???

[writebythecside]

NOBODY TOLD ME THE BARKLEY MARATHONS WERE HAPPENING

Already down from 40 to only 6 runners JFC