A Secretive, Cigarette-Fueled Ultramarathon That Only 17 People Have Completed Might Be The Toughest Challenge On Earth

The 2024 Barkley Marathons just began and to 99.999% of the athletic world that means nothing at all.

But to those in the know, this ultra marathon is considered to be the toughest challenge on earth and only 17 people in 35 years have completed it.

What are the Barkley Marathons?

The Barkley marathons is an ultra marathon held in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee. It was conceived of by a man named Gary Cantrell who is known in the ultra marathon world as Lazarus Lake and the race doesn’t begin until Laz lights a cigarette.

There are 5 laps of a 20+ mile course through the state park. The course is off-trail and participants navigate using books that are hidden in the woods, a compass, and a map (no GPS allowed). Participants must complete the 100 mile race in under 60 hours and in the past 35 years only 17 people have finished the race on time which I’m mentioning again because the way in which people can enter the Barkley Marathons differs based on past experience.

For people who have entered the race before but haven’t completed it, they must bring $1.60 for their entrance fee along with a single pair of Under Armour Undeniable Crew Socks in Size L (any color). The item changes yearly. For those who are first time racers, they have to bring a car’s license plate and the $1.60. And for the 17 runners who have completed the Barkley Marathons they must bring a pack of cigarettes (and $1.60) for race director Lazarus Lake.

How come nobody’s ever heard of this?

I learned about the Barkley Marathons through an ultra marathon runner (Jeff G) who goes by FreeOutside on social media. He has a 15 videos on TikTok explaining the race. There is also an award-winning documentary on the race titled ‘The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young’ which is available to stream for free on YouTube:

Part of the reason this ultra marathon flies under the radar is the entry process is secret and so is the start date. The race is also limited to 35 runners each year so it fills up in a hurry. Some applicants must submit essays on the topic of “Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley” and if their application is accepted they then receive a letter of condolence because their bodies are about to go through hell.

The race only begins when someone blows a conch signaling the race will begin in one hour. Then it starts when race founder/director Lazarus Lake (Laz) lights a cigarette.

Brett Maune holds the current Barkley Marathons course record of 52 hours, 3 minutes, and 8 seconds. He completed the race twice, in 2011 and then again in 2012 when he set the record.

The race began in 1986 but it wasn’t until 1995 when Mark Williams finished in 59 hours, 28 minutes, and 48 seconds that someone actually finished the Barkley Marathons for the first time.

Runners regularly get lost in the woods because they only have a map and a compass to guide them. It’s not uncommon for there to be torrential downpours while the runners are on the course. And there are constant elevation changes (54,200 feet of total vertical climb) the runners have to deal with.

How can anyone be sure the runners stay on the course at the Barkley marathons and don’t cut corners?

Diving into Barkley Marathons lore there is a lot of mention of ‘books’. So, on the various loops the runners go out on they must find ‘Barkley Books’ in the woods and then they must rip out the page of the book that corresponds to their runner’s bib as proof that they found the book and stayed on course.

This year, one of the runner’s showed up without one of his pages and actually was able to backtrack and get the missing page he’d lost, forgotten, or dropped and was still able to complete the loop in the right time.

Keep in mind that this is a continuous race that must be completed in under 60 hours. So runners are on the course through the night and navigating the treacherous terrain using headlamps to try and find the books to prove they ran the loop AND to try and prevent rolling an ankle in the dark or falling off course and getting lost or eaten by the Appalachian mothman.

There is a secondary element to the Barkley Marathons called a ‘fun run.’ Runners who complete the first three loops (60+ miles) are said to have completed the Barkley Fun Run.

In the pantheon of ‘extreme athletes’ ultra marathon runners are near the top. Choosing to go out and run 100 continuous miles sounds like actual torture to most people. The Barkley Marathon is the craziest of the crazy. And of everyone who has ever gotten into ultra marathons, only 17 people have ever completed this race. This might be the toughest athletic challenge on planet earth.