Runners have to figure out where to register, no mean feat. The selection process for the 40 annual entrants leans towards committed, Type-A science and engineering types, with at least one “sacrificial lamb,” somebody they all know “has no business being out there,” running 20 miles laps through bracken and brier, in day and night, 12,000 feet up, and 12,000 feet down.
You might not see the world’s big names in the sport there on any given spring. It’s a running documentary about the annual five-lap race through the wilds of Frozen Head State Park, near Wartburg, Tennessee. “The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats its Young” is a laugh-out-loud look at Cantrell’s 30 year old walk-hike-run through the mountains of Tennessee. “The truth is malleable,” he reminds us.īut what it lacks in ultra-marathoning community luster, the Barkleys makes up for in exclusivity and eccentricity - mainly Cantrell’s. Rather like the name of the Tennessean who runs it, who goes by Lazarus Lake - real name, Gary Cantrell. So take the organizers’ self-described “world’s toughest trail race” for what it is - hype.
There’s no “Canyon to Canyon” Grand Canyon hook, no Peruvian jungle to add exponential degrees of difficulty. It isn’t held in the Moroccan desert, above the Arctic Circle or in Death Valley. You won’t find The Barkley’s Marathons listed online in any of those Outside/Outside Times magazine compilations of the “world’s toughest ultramarathons.”
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