Barkley 100 Mile Endurance Run

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The Hardest Endurance Run Returns for More

29.03.2006

The Barkley 100 miler is considered one of the toughest 100 mile foot races in the world. It has 52,900 feet (16,124m) of climb and 52,900 feet of descent. That’s more than climbing both Everest and Aconcagua from sea level or Ben Nevis over 12 times. To make the Barkley even more difficult, there are no course markings, no support crew access, thick brambles / briers everywhere, few trails and the infamous, Son of a Bitch Ditch, 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

Race director (or idiot as he is more commonly known), Gary Cantrell says: ‘There won’t be any haute cuisine aid stations with worshipful staff to tend your every need. The only massage will be the course massaging the life from your pitiful human body. There will be no chalk line to direct your sorry citified self through the woods. There will be no meter spaced glow sticks to keep you from being afraid of the dark. There will be no pacers to carry you to a pseudo finish’. If you quit, you are subject to having Taps (the last post) played to announce your humiliation to all.

The race consists of 5 20-mile loops with no aid except for 2 unmanned water jugs (these have also been known to freeze). 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. The book titles are aptly named ‘A Time to Die’, ‘Lost and Never Found’, ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Ascent into Hell’, ‘Chronicles of Wasted Time’ etc. On each lap you get a new race number and tear out the pages that match your number.See All Event Posts