Barkley Marathons 100 Mile Run

Race Description: The Barkley is considered one of the toughest 100 mile races in the world. It has 52,900 feet of climb (and 52,900 feet of descent), more than any other 100 mile race, more than the 33,000 ft. of climb at Hardrock, and more than the 45,000 ft. at Nolan's 14.

Since the race began in 1986, only 4 runners out of 500 have finished within the 60 hour cutoff. Mark Williams of the UK finished first in 1995 in 59:28. In 2001, after several failed attempts, Blake Wood, 42, NM, and David Horton, 50, VA, finished together in 58:21, only to be disqualified for inadvertently leaving the course to follow a parallel route for about 200 yards. This route (on the south side of the stream instead of the north side) has slightly better footing and had been the normal route until 2000.

To give you some idea of the difficulty of this course, Blake had won the 2001 Rocky Raccoon 100 in 16:13, and the 1999 Hardrock 100 in 30:11. David Horton won Hardrock in 29:35 in 1993 and held the course record for the Appalachian Trail (2160 miles in 52 days) until recently.


Cave Dog (Ted Keizer) finished in 56:57 in 2003. He holds the Colorado 14er speed record, 54 14,000 ft. peaks in 10 days, 20:26. He also holds speed records in the White Mountains, Adirondacks, and Catskills. (See www.thedogteam.com ). He trained for 2 weeks on the course before the race.

The race consists of 5 20-mile loops with no aid except for water at two points. The cutoffs for the 100 mile race are 12 hours per loop. The 60 mile "fun run" has a cutoff of 40 hours, or 13:20 per loop. To prove you completed each loop, you must find 9 to 11 books (varies) at various points along the course and return a page from each book.

Race Report © Spyder Tynes

Teamed up with Herb Hedgecock and Rich Limacher again this year. Veteran Dick West also joined us on the entire loop. We had all trained on the course over the past year, and each knew a section well. We never once got lost, and didn't even need the map and compass. This was a vast improvement over last year, where we easily lost 2 hours looking for trail?

Moved much quicker this year. Last year we didn't bother running any, thinking that surely we could finish the 20 mile loop under the 13:20 cutoff with no running. Wrong! So this time, we worked hard on the uphills, and ran every step of flat and down that we could safely manage.

Last year I got ill and we had to drop. But even if I had not gotten ill, we were WELL behind cuttoff!  This year, no illness and no energy drops. Ate pimento cheese sandwiches (packed 3 but only at 1-1/2) and cashews, along with my Succed ULTRA sports drink. I carried 3 sandwiches because last year I only packed 2 and ate them well before we dropped. In the future, I'll still carry 3 per loop, though, as it's much better to have extra food 'out there' than to have to bum from your partners.

The race started at 8:47 am. We completed our one loop in 12:44. On the last major climb, the sun finally set behind the mtn (we were racing it up the mtn, but as the RD says, you can try to race the sun, but it never stops to rest...) and the full moon was shining so brightly that I didn't even need my flashlight. It was a pretty awesome experience. After reaching the top (Chimney Top), we had roughly 1-1/2 hours of good running to get back to camp. The moon was out, we're running down down down into a valley, and I hear an owl. We get closer to it and must past within 20 feet of it. We didn't see it, but I'm sure it saw us! Again, awesome :) I was experiencing a true runners' high because I knew, unless something drastic happened, we'd make the cutoff and FINALLY finish a loop.

We had just enough time, if we had wanted to, to repack and head back out for the second loop. But we had already decided that the goal this year was only one loop. Besides, we all had our various reasons for not wanting to go back 'out there'. Next year, we're definitely going for the 3 loop Fun Run. The second loop would be almost entirely at night. The third loop, while mostly in the day, would be in reverse, making it much more difficult to follow. The trail simply doesn't exist in many, many spots, and you have to try to follow the path of others before you. It's almost like putting your ear to the tracks to see if a train is near :)

More hill work, more hill work, and finally, more hill work. That was our major slowdown, imo. Herb could scamper up the cruel climbs like a mtn goat. Rich and I were more like buffalo =:O I don't know that our running could get much better, but I know there is significant room for improvement on the climbs. We need to get a loop in 12:00 or better to have time to repack and head back out.
Hung out at camp throughout the following afternoon (Sunday). Saw one person finish the 3 loop (60 mile) fun run. He had intended to finish the 100, having done so before and hoping to go for the record, but said he simply couldn't talk himself into it. He actually left out on his 4th loop, only to turn around shortly after and returning to camp. Later the following day, 2 guys finished the 5 loop (100 mile) Barkley. They were the only two people to not have taps played for them. The rest of us, after giving our various reasons for quitting, were shamed by the bugle, again. But I've never been so proud of a 20 mile run...or so sore.

ms (spyder)