The Barkley Feasts Again

The Barkley Marathons, 100 miles & 60 mile fun run
Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee
Mar. 30, 1996

Once again, the Barkley demonstrated its ravenous 
appetite for would-be trail runners.  24 starters, 2 
finishers in the fun run.  Mark Williams of Great Britain 
and Craig Wilson came in together in 35 hours.  Any 
ideas they may have once have had of spending a second 
cold, rainy night in the woods without sleep to finish the 
100 miler had long since disappeared.  They were done. 
The course had won.

I had been here last year so I knew what to expect.  
Three or five 20-mile loops through the woods on trails 
abandoned 50 years ago, unmarked, barely discernible, 
covered with fallen trees and overgrown with shrubs and 
thorns.  Each loop would have 10,000 feet of climb, 
more than the Pikes Peak Marathon, hills as steep as 
staircases, climbing on all fours and sliding down on 
your butt.  There would be no course markings or aid 
stations.  You would carry your own food and fill your 
water bottles from streams.  You would navigate with a 
topographical map and compass, and a flashlight at 
night, to each of the nine paperback books wrapped in 
plastic and placed at strategic locations on the course, 
tearing out a page of each book to bring back and prove 
you had run the course.  The books would have 
appropriate titles, like "Procession of the Damned".

The race was limited to 25 runners, and had filled up by 
Jan. 1.  Entrants had to write an essay, "Why I Should 
Be Allowed to Run the Barkley".  A 100 mile trail race 
will usually get you in.  To cut down on bandits, the 
starting date was kept secret, and announced only when 
the entry was confirmed.  The confirmation stated that 
the race would start sometime in the morning, with a 
horn sounding every 15 minutes starting one hour in 
advance.  Those not camping at the start would have to 
arrive early.  Actual starting time was 8:00 AM.

Last year I had done two loops, but missed the 26:40 
second loop cutoff by 3 hours.  This year I was 
determined to finish the 60 mile fun run under the 40 
hour limit.  I figured that Barkley taught me something 
about attitude.  But it seems I had forgotten my lessons.  
The correct attitude is fear.  The Barkley will destroy 
you.   The Barkley doesn't care how hard you trained.  
The Barkley doesn't care if you ran Leadville or 
Hardrock or Badwater or Trans-America.  The Barkley 
eats at your will like no other race can, slowly, patiently, 
inevitably, until nothing is left.

With the lighting of the starting cigarette, the runners 
started up the well maintained trail to Bird Mountain, 
climbing 1500 feet in the first mile and a half, too steep 
to run, though a few tried.  Over the top, the trail was 
not so nice.  Several times it just disappeared, so many 
of us headed straight down the steep hillside, 
bushwhacking through shrubs and over leaf covered 
rocks and gullies.  Sometimes we would find the faint 
trail that switchbacked down the hill and get back on, 
but it hardly seemed worth the effort.  It took 4 1/2 
hours to cover the first 8 miles this way.

Next came the hard part, where the hills have names like 
Leonard's Butt Slide, so named because it's too steep to 
walk down.  Then the climb up Little Hell, 1300 feet in 
1/2 mile.  Next is Rat Jaw, a similar sized hill covered 
with thorny sawbriers.  By this time I had about 50 small 
cuts on my legs.  Next is the Zip Line, a treacherous 
1500 foot descent through a boulder filled gully and 
more sawbriers, then finally back up Big Hell.

Stuart Gleman of Titusville and I finished the first loop 
together in 11:10, 30 minutes ahead of last year's pace.  
So far so good, but perhaps we pushed too hard.  As it 
started to get dark, we reloaded our fanny packs.  
Temperatures dropped from the 60's to the 40's.  The 
next 8 miles, which took us 4 1/2 hours during daylight, 
took us 6 1/2 hours with flashlights.  At 3:00 AM it 
started to rain.  Stuart called it a night and took a 
shortcut back to the start.  I hooked up with John 
DeWalt, who had finished Hardrock, and a group 
training for the multi-day Eco Challenge.  At 7:00 AM, 
after a 90 minute climb up Little Hell (a 3 hour per mile 
pace), it was unanimous.  The 3 mile shortcut back to 
camp was just too tempting.  The Barkley had eaten its 
young again.

RESULTS
24 starters.
18 finished the first loop (20 mi.)
15 started on the second loop.
2 finished the second loop.
2 finished the fun run (60 mi.)
0 finished 4 loops.
0 finished 100 miles.

For entry information, send a  SASE to Gary Cantrell, 
233 Union Ridge, War Trace TN 37183 by late 
December.

-- Matt Mahoney