UKC

It sounds like the conch may be blown as soon as this week. Bring on the dot-less dot watching! 

I imagine the race will be seeking revenge after the ignominy of THREE finishers last year. 

I could believe that. JK and DH inactive for a good few days now on Strava, as happened last year.

Exciting, looking forward to seeing who lines up. Last two years have started at sociable daylight hours, I wonder if we're in for a prompt start after midnight, forcing a greater proportion of the race to be run in darkness?

Could be, particularly after 3 finishers last year. I'd be expecting some heinous additions to really push the boundaries

I wouldn't be surprised if we hear that the course hasn't got loads harder. A night start and bad weather would be enough to drop the chance of success significantly. Then again, there's no issue if everyone gets screwed by an much more brutal course so maybe that's the safest approach for Laz to maintain the maximum total number of loops finished!

Apparently we're on! Starts 5:17am local time

Standard link: https://twitter.com/keithdunn

Wow that came round quick! Cheers Ed. 

Spreadsheet from https://twitter.com/taka_does_stuff: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS7bFn8RH5Na4vVxNijCsFCiHeY...

Omg how am I going to concentrate on anything this week.

Relying on updates here and on Facebook cos I don't/won't do Twitter.

I don't do twitter either, what are the best sites to follow it?

The spreadsheet I linked will be kept as up to date as anything else.

I'm happy to drop the occasional update from Keith Dunn into this thread. For example, 4 minutes into the race:

That's great, thank you 

Twitter

There's some good background on some of the runners here, and looks like it's being continually updated. 

https://run247.com/running-news/trail/barkley-marathons-2024-runners-taking...

This tweet made me chuckle, guessing that's Jasmin! 

Or Wills, Harry and Kate. Stick that in your royal conspiracy theory and smoke it.

Keith Dunn:

Hard to tell if this is just his usual odd humour, or if it's actually true they're looking to disqualify people, but it's got a fair bit of reaction in the twitter-sphere. I'm leaning towards it being a joke, since it shouldn't be too hard to identify runners in a race with only 40 starters, but we'll have to wait and see.

Edit: I've now seen a picture of it, looks to be maybe the box that contains their watch? If they did just throw this on the ground at the start, I would no longer be surprised if they were DQ'd, definitely against the rules. There aren't many embarrassing ways to exit Barkley, but this would certainly be one of them...

https://twitter.com/taka_does_stuff/status/1770481423100547344

Keith Dunn:

6 in, no confirmation on who exactly but a fair guess would be it includes Albert, Damian, Jasmin, Harvey and Joe - first named runners through the fire tower.

A couple more followed a few minutes later.

Someone has set up a mirror of Keith Dunn's twitter account on Mastodon: https://social.running.cafe/@KeithDunn

Ace, thanks for that. I won't touch "the site formerly known as Twitter now known as no one gives an x" anymore.

The spreadsheet has confirmed a few of these details of loop 1 finishers:

Group 1: John, Damian, Jasmin

Group 2: Harvey, Ihor, Albert

An interesting note is that one of these leaders left alone, first out of the interloopal. It seems they may have regrouped by the time they reached the fire tower.

Harvey was part of Group 2 mentioned above, but seems like he was missing a page somehow. He went back for it, and returned 3 hours later to complete loop 1 in 18th place, 11:33ish. He then headed onto loop 2 after a quick transition. Really tough that, hoping to find out more about how he managed to miss a page!

Kind of hard to go to bed, knowing that those heroes are thrashing around in the dark and the brambles on Loop 2. Legendary stuff from the world´s elite, as every year; we´d be poorer in our basically unspectacular lives without our vicarious enoyment of the Barkleys.

Many thanks for all the infos!

Top 5 have finished loop 2

"A mass loop two finish as John Kelly, Jasmin Paris, Damian Hall,  Sebastien Raichon, and Ihor Verys come in at 19:27:49, 51, 52, 53, 54. #BM100"

Wow. And that's a good time isn't it.

Last time loop 2 was under 20 hours was when Karel ended up talking to a bin and John Kelly spent 3 hours searching for his dropped pages.

Jared did 2 loops in 19:02 but still "only" finished in 59: something when he last "won".

As is tradition, the information has changed again! The spreadsheet has been updated to say it was Guillaume Calmettes that came back missing a page, not Harvey. 

Last years winner Aurelien is out!

https://run247.com/running-news/trail/barkley-marathons-2024-aurelien-sanch...

A tangential observation, JK mentioned recently on his blog that the race's agreement with the state park includes an explicit target of 80 loops total across all starters (to limit footfall in sensitive areas). Interestingly when you run the numbers that tallies almost perfectly with expected/planned 50% attrition per loop leaving a single five-loop finisher. (Well, one and a quarter finishers but...)

a tweet from @nick_ph7 

Secret of Barkley success EXPOSED!!!

I hope Jack Scott is reading this

Ihor Verys is first to return from Loop 3, in 31:31:47. That's kind of time is firmly in the middle of finisher pace, no miracles needed on 4 and 5 to be in with a chance of finishing.

Hoping to see that the others are not far behind.

It's been noted that the weather has been particularly favourable this year, no doubt that is playing a role in the fast times being shown on the loops so far. 

Edit: just as I typed it, Keith Dunn posts again: 

This is John's fastest first 3 loops (out of a total of 6 times achieved now)

Jasmin and Greig are in (separately), John and Ihor are back out (separately)

Looking good for "J"asmin too then!

This channel on Youtube is doing loop by loop debriefs - Loops 1 and 2 posted.  Only about 10 minutes each, with some good commentary:

https://www.youtube.com/@irunovermountains

I am simultaneously delighted and appalled at the amount of (near)live news and coverage

Forgive me for not following you - are you saying there's too much or too little?

This year is certainly a bit more than previously, but in the early loops there was a great deal of confusion still, so I'd say the magic is not lost.

Conversely, if you're saying there's not enough and want more clarity, then that's slightly misunderstanding the tradition of the race! 

I'm well aware of the traditions

A record 12 fun runs completed this year. 

Update from 40 mins ago:

John Kelly and Ihor Verys have finished loop 4 in 45:46:32. @keithdunn 

Thats on schedule for a 59hour ish finish.

No word on Damian yet, hopefully Jasmin will be back at camp in the next hour.

That’s 0917 UK time.

Ihor sets out on L5 first and chooses to go clockwise, meaning Jon has to go anti-clockwise.

It doesn't really matter, we simple don't need to know everything and certainly not instantly. If you think this is bad, rewind 40 years and you could send off a pre stamped addressed envelope and they'd post you back a full results list for most running events a couple of weeks after.

I thought this was their point?

I.e. The contradiction of wanting to hear what's going on and getting updates vs knowing that part of the magic of this race is the lack of GPS tracking and live stream, just a bloke called Keith tweeting about how Nondescript guy is doing.

Though I may have misinterpreted. 

6 loop 4 completers (including Jasmin) so far, that might be a record.

Last loop mainly in daytime once it gets light over there.

I would now be surprised if nobody finishes but the last loop has the most potential for the wheels to come off.

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused. I genuinely didn't understand their original post, but my attempt to clarify was clearly not appreciated lol. 

Anyway... good to see Jasmin has arrived. Not too dissimilar a time to Karel last year, so we're on for a tight finish!

One of the things I find most stunning is that several of those on loop 5 have done all their turnarounds in about 15 minutes each time, so only about an hour when they're not actually on the course.

Jasmin has stated loop 5!!

And she's only about 13 minutes behind Damian, going in the same direction... Looking good for the pair of Brits.

All very exciting - thanks to all who have provided updates.

I'll be cheering on Jasmin from my desk today! Very exciting. 

Exactly

An even quicker turnaround from Sebastien Raichon who arrived at 47:45:39 and got out with three minutes to spare (48hr cutoff)! Very impressive crewing. Would be a pretty heroic story if he manages to pull a 12 hour loop out the bag now! Best of luck to all 7 out on the course still. 

So am I right in thinking the deadline for completing loop 5 is 21.17 UK time? 

I get the same. 05:17 + 60 hours = 17:17. Add 4 hours for the time zone* difference to get 21:17 

*Confusingly Tennessee has two time zones. Frozen Head is currently in EDT.

Really loving this, thanks for posting!

Came across this race report from Nickademus Hollon, about his 2013 finish where he had a sub 11 hour final loop! Very good description of a descent into insanity

http://runitfast.com/2013/04/09/nick-hollons-the-barkley-marathons-finisher...

Rumour has it all 3 anti clockwise runners (John, Greig, Jared) are through the fire tower. This is estimated to be 30% through the loop in this direction.

Interestingly, the clockwise group consists of the far less experienced Ihor, Damo, Jasmin and Sebastien, so it's worked out in their favour for sure (clockwise is seen to be "easier"). Apparently Jared even waited for Jasmin to be ready to start and let her choose who went first to get the clockwise loop! (Here's the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IOY7nvnQTE&ab_channel=LivingUltrawithH...)

(For those who aren't aware, the runners must set off in different directions to each other on the final loop, to force isolation as much as possible. It is left to the choice of the first to leave camp, followed by alternating after that.)

Edit: also how's this for a great picture! 

https://twitter.com/JoJoTrainers/status/1771095078766858371

Was Jasmin the only female entrant this year? I haven't seen any other women mentioned, but I haven't seen the full list.

The best list we've got is Taka's spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS7bFn8RH5Na4vVxNijCsFCiHeY...)

Of the 34 runners identified, 3 are women.

As for the selection of entries, I found this blog from John very interesting https://randomforestrunner.com/2024/02/how-to-get-in-to-the-barkley-maratho... 

(1915) dammit I have to go out to choir practice, when I want to be glued to the screen for news of finishers. Hopefully I will be back before the deadline at 2117.

Same feeling, I'm about to go into the cinema! Awful timing, can't believe Laz didn't accommodate for this when picking a start time :/ 

Not much more than an hour left and it looks like all 7 fifth loopers are still running. I guess I'll just chew my nails off for the next hour.

Ihor finishes in 58:44:59

Ihor Verys is first to finish loop 5 in 58:44

Ihor Verys finished loop five in 58:44:59.

On his first attempt?! Wowza

I so hope Jasmin finishes!!

"John Kelly @RndmForestRunnr finished loop five of the #BM100 in 59:15:38.  This is his third finish."

Yes, me too. It's going to be pretty close!

Damian Hall came in from the wrong direction after not completing loop five of the #BM100.

This is serious nail biting stuff. Allez Jasmin!

Damian Hall does not finish loop 5

"Damian Hall @Ultra_Damo came in from the wrong direction after not completing loop five of the #BM100."

That...that is a shame. 

I have never been so gripped to so little information 

Just astonishing.

Delighted for John Kelly ... and I so wanted Damian to finish.

Back from choir practice, now going to sit here chewing my nails and drinking sloe gin waiting for news of Jasmin.

I've got the Youtube debrief on but it's silent, I'm assuming it will spring into life when there's news. I'm following it in mainly on here.

Shame about Damian Hall. He coached a friend of mine, sounds like a thoroughly good egg as well as an ultra-running god. I so hope that Jasmin makes it.

Jared Campbell has finished in 59:30

Greig Hamilton finished loop five of the #BM100 in 59:38:42.

Just two left.

So definitely a record number of finishers. Go Jasmin!

Sebastien Raichon did not complete loop five and faces the bugler.

One left.

10 minutes D:

9 mins to go. No nails left here.

How was choir practice? xD

Just absolutely awesome 

what an amazing achievement 

5

Totally gripping. I hope the collective will is providing Jasmin with a strong tailwind.

?

Minutes left 

3

1

I hope it's not another Gary situation 

Jasmin Paris

@JasminKParis

finished loop five of the #BM100 in 59:58:21.

Wow. Just wow!! Brilliant!!!

She’s done it

YES WELL DONE!!  Happy couch participants in our house  

She did it! Bloody hell that was a tense wait, my arse has cramp. Awesome, so pleased. Wouhou!!!

Woohoo! Amazing

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely amazing!! She's only gone and finished the race that Laz said couldn't be done by a woman!! Just an incredible achievement from an incredible athlete!

Yay! Well done Jasmin!

WHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

A staggering performance, distance, ascent, navigation, solitude etc.... you've got to be a bit special to make lap 5, never mind complete it. 

In any other sport she'd be a dead cert for sports personality of the year.  

I am happy on several levels: the first that she did it and the second being that the article we accidentally published earlier today didn't act as a curse.

As some of the more eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed, the newsflash went live for a short period of time - much to my embarrassment. I'd originally written as a 'just in case', because I knew I was going to be out in meetings all afternoon, hence short on time, and wanted to make sure we had something ready, because it was looking like it was going to be close. To make sure I hadn't got any details wrong I sent the link to Dan Bailey to give it a once-over, but he hasn't been following events quite as closely so thought she'd already done it, hence went ahead and published. Suffice to say my heart almost stopped when I saw it up on site.

I don't think I'd have forgiven myself if she hadn't made it!!!

The debrief is up, they started recording 12 min before the cutoff:

youtube.com/watch?v=8W1bgljzq6g&

Absolutely brilliant. She is a phenomenal athlete.

When a friend was first telling me about this event I thought it sounded ridiculous and could not see the point. When I looked at the list of recent finishers though I realised it must have something about it… a few YouTube videos later and I am a massive fan. Amazing event and something unique.

I just missed my train despite running like an absolute lunatic and being told to slow down by border patrol. This has softened the blow somewhat.

She has done it

just so amazing 

There's a lovely photo of the finishers on Keith Dunn's feed: https://social.running.cafe/@KeithDunn

We noticed Rob.  It's a honest mistake. 

I'm so happy Jasmin made it.  It's amazing.  So chuffed.  Excellent news!!!!

That was just incredible. I'm still buzzing. So chuffed for Jasmin (and all the finishers, mindblowing effort for Ihor to win on his first time), she's an inspiration. 

What an amazing few days. So so SO happy for them all. And obviously Jasmin, you were already a legend but this is something else!

Glad your article came in handy Rob

Stunning, Jasmin just making it with 1 minute 39 seconds to spare!  What an achievement.

I've just seen a video of Jasmin's finish on YouTube, amd it's unforgettable. A sprint finish after all that. It is a portrait of what it means to give it everything.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/Y4CNGFuGLdeTny9x/

I assume it's the same one? It's brilliant isn't it, can't begin to imagine the panic she must have been feeling. Especially since she was only timing it off Laz's cheap wristwatch, which would probably feel hard to trust down to the second! 

It's a shame it's coincided with the Royal and Russia news. This should be much higher profile, like when she won the Spine. 

Insane.. it looked like she actually collapsed after the end and JK realised she might need a bit of help. Presumably all was ok, and I guess these folks are used to that kind of thing anyway. What a legend. As someone said on the video update, she’ll be back next year to win the damn thing..

Yes that's the one.

I wonder how one recovers from such an experience. Must take some time, physically and mentally. We're all shattered just from watching...

On this - has anyone seen / got a link to any interviews with Jasmin Paris yet following the event? I'm not sure how many hours it's been... maybe she's still asleep (I would want to be!)

Not seen any yet ... and I do hope she gets some rest before she has to talk to anyone!

Oh wow, that was emotional. Impressed at Laz remaining both inscrutable and playing the grumpy old bastard at fending off intrusive photographers.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/22/jasmin-paris-completes-barkle...

Pretty high profile in the Guardian at least. Impressive stuff. 

BBC too...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-68643341

Wow, at the time I'm typing this, it's the most read story on the BBC news site. That's amazing in itself given all the other news just now. 

I did email various bbc news channels this morning. I'm sure others have too, in an attempt to do her efforts justice in the public eye. Better than sports reporters being all excited about George Cross colours. 

I'm fascinated by this. It's obviously an amazing achievement as lots of people who know what they are talking about are raving about it. But what makes the race so hard? On paper, 100 miles in 60 hours sounds achievable - I've done 100km in 25 hours and I am no great athlete. Is it the terrain or the height gain or the navigation that makes the difference here? To be clear, I'm not saying the achievement isn't fantastic - the very small number of total finishers seems to put it in the league of things like cycling around the world, so huge respect. Please someone help me understand what I'm missing! 

There was a documentary on Netflix a few years back, I can't remember what it's called and don't have Netflix any more, but this on YouTube was a good watch and gives a flavour of just why it's quite so hard! https://youtu.be/NDZdsqbcGTU?si=H1z-Ud05JI7O0c3a

Yes. The terrain is awful - almost completely off trail through woodland, brambles, and very rough ground throughout. The height gain is phenomenal, estimated at 16500m (maybe?). The navigation must be incredibly stressful, with no course map issued to the racers, the race changing every year to prevent people recording it over time, and the different loops going in different directions and some loops in the dark. Add in a bunch of other reasons like limited resupply opportunities, very short break times between loops, the unknown race start time, and it becom.... You what, I'll just let Gary explain: https://youtu.be/NDZdsqbcGTU?feature=shared

In my understanding it’s a combination of things. The nominal distance (which generally seems to be thought to be an underestimate anyway) needs to be considered in the context of a lot of height gain (~3000m more than the Spine despite the Spine being 262 miles and about the same as Dragons back which is 230 miles), the terrain, and things like the fact that I think you have to memorise the map and find the books hidden along the course. Aspects like having a 12 hour time window within which the race might start must also add to the difficulty as preparation on the day is made more challenging/stressful.

Navigation. No map, no marshals, no signs, no gps, just all in your head and from either direction. You can't even have gps watch and look where you went afterwards. They will all have covered much more 20 miles per lap, 20 is the absolute optimum if you pick the best line, don't divert for cliffs, find every book directly etc..  

The netflix documentary was called The Race That Eats Its Young, still available and a fantastic watch. A suitably quirky film for the event 🙂

Definitely watch one of the many films out there about it. I think the major reasons it's so hard are the fact that it's actually a lot longer than 100 miles, the terrain is just ludicrously awful, and the ascent is pretty full on.

The thing that amazes me is that people go back and do it again. It looks to me like the definition of a thing you'd want to do once, and then never again. But there's some funny folk out there. 

I'm a bit unclear about the map - there's a master map which shows the route and where the books are and they copy details from this master map before the start...

but copying those details, do they start from a blank map or a blank sheet of paper?

I don't know for sure but my guess would be...

They start with their own map, let's say similar to an OS map. But given the featureless terrain and complex micro navigation, it's not really very useful without the extra notes from the master map and course description.

I read somewhere that they get given a fairly large scale map produced by the state park authority, which isn't very detailed (doesn't show rivers, few contours etc) which they can then mark up from the master map. Also, its not waterproof and has tendency to fall apart. 

Ive seen video somewhere of this years race which shows a runner marking up a map with some pretty good contour detail.

I had a quick look, and I read it here:

https://montane.com/blogs/blog/an-overview-of-the-barkley-marathons

"The map used during the race is the top map available from the park rangers (the rangers are happy to tell this info to any visitors to the park). The map covers most of the national park area, but not all of it. It also covers a couple of areas which are outside the park. The map contours are poorly defined and, in particular, the rivers are hard to see. I found comparing my recces and the map to a detailed online electronic map useful. I also found out that the map is not even vaguely waterproof. In fact, it seems to have a similar absorbency to toilet paper and I dissolved a couple within a week’s recce. Even once I had applied Sellotape it still leaked in and washed away during a classic Frozen Head downpour."

No idea how hard and fast that is....seems half the appeal of this race is the mystery? 

Are map cases not allowed?

Here's a finish line interview 

youtube.com/watch?v=YLX5b2qYlaY&

wise words!

Amazing. Very short interview but somehow conveys much in a few well chosen and inspiring words, coupled with visually and audibly the clear physical toll it's taken! Raw and genuine, powerfully emotional.