Great article about Lazarus Lake himself:.This is a really great and detailed blog about the race, written by a fan:.I still think a woman can finish 5 loops, although I suspect Laz will make next year even harder.The only thing really fit for this section this week is for us to include many more resources and articles to read about Lazarus Lake and his infamous races. “I knew from the start that training hadn’t been ideal (time out for fatigue, then injury), but I gave it my best effort and I’m proud of that. “Conditions couldn’t have been better, and I was lucky to share miles on the trail with wonderful people,” she wrote. Jasmin Paris, who did not complete the course but made history as the second woman ever to begin the fourth loop, also thanked her followers for their support on Twitter. “Or, if we’re all just a bunch of idiots running around in the woods, that at least it’s entertaining.” “Thank you to everyone for the support, and I hope some of what we get to discover out there is a shared experience,” he wrote. On Twitter, Kelly thanked his followers for their support. The only other time three racers completed the race was in 2012, according to Cantrell. For the past five years, no one has finished the race, Cantrell told CNN.īut this year finally broke that streak: Three athletes, French Aurélien Sanchez, American John Kelly and Belgian Karel Sabbe, completed the hellish five laps within the 60-hour time limit on Friday. Athletes must rip out a page corresponding to their bib number and have all the book pages in hand at the end of each loop to prove they reached each checkpoint.īecause of the array of unique challenges the race presents, only 17 individuals have completed the race since it started in 1986. The ultramarathon is marked with unique unmanned checkpoints, each of which contains a paperback book. Getting lost – as well as falling and getting injured in the brush – is par for the course. Athletes run the course over three sleepless days and nights – and there are no aid stations, phones or GPS to help with navigation.

The race consists of five loops of around 20 miles each, for a total of between 100 to 130 miles through brushy mountains with an elevation gain of around 63,000 feet. The route was inspired by the 1977 prison escape of James Earl Ray, who assassinated the Rev. The famed ultramarathon, the brainchild of runner Gary Cantrell (better known by his nickname Lazarus Lake or “Laz”), takes place in Tennessee’s Frozen Head State Park. The infamous murderer's prison escape that inspired a near-impossible ultramarathon

Download the barkley marathons