The Barkley Marathons 2024. Conch shell at the ready...

[Taylormiffed]

No idea when it will start. Follow @ keithdunn on twitter as he's usually the only journo who attends.

Let's hope for another safe race. Maybe a woman can finish for the first time and hopefully there'll be a handful of Brits to cheer on. Although tbh, I'll cheer on anyone crazy enough to attempt it.

Can anyone more versed in this than me explain the human sacrifice? TIA.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0git is the runner Laz deems to be unprepared/naive to enter. They are given number 1 and expect to drop early.

Aha! Thanks, @spartanrunnergirl.

Well hellllooo 🙂

I suspect Laz has made things almost impossible this year

I’ve signed up to Blue Sky. Excited to follow along better this year! Hello again everyone!

Things not looking good for most people out there finishing the first loop:

Runner 1 9:44:55
Runner 2 9:44:57
Runner 3 10:20:41
Tomokazu Ihara 10:57:32
John Kelly 10:57:50
Runner 6 (nondescript, cool accent) 11:34:27
Runner 7 11:59:02
Runner 8 13:06::01
Runner 9 13:06:06
Runner 10 13:19:00

Johnsug has updated his substack with some stats on the likelihood of finishing depending on the time taken to complete loop 1

According to that only the first 2 runners have any chance of a fun run. No one taking more than 9.5 hours on loop 1 has ever had a finish. But who are they?! We don't know.

I think they are the worst loop 1 times since I've been following it (6? 7? Years) ....its at least an hour off the first ten last year I think.

2 have dropped out on loop 2. Just 7 left already! The weather is good apparently, the route must be particularly brutal.

It looks like Laz has added a really tough extra 45 minutes this year. I guess he couldn't have five finishers again!

Very tough out there!

I'm hating the implications in some places that the only reason a certain person finished last year is because the course was 'easy' guess what, it was a bloke posting 🤬

@EnthrallingstoryofstillnessandlightFFS I was wondering how long it would take for some dickhead to start that commentary. So predictable and dull.

Looks like we have Maxime, JK, Sebastien, and Tomo left in the running for a fun run.

..and Maxime had just quit.

Would that be the same person who set a Spine Race record (an overall record, not just the best ‘for a girl’) whilst multitasking? I heard a great turn of phrase today (stole this from This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay.) “The woman is so hard you could skate on her.” There are about 4 billion men out there who could not do what she does, but still one feels the need to give his opinion. 🙄

4 of last years finishers had multiple attempts and finishes before. It was Jasmines third attempt. It was a perfect mix of knowledge, sheer grit and not awful weather. I think it was only Ihors who was new to it and finished first, pretending to be an aeroplane like it was easy.

Looking possible no one will even get a Fun Run this year. Cripes!

Tense.

JK gets a fun run, everyone else timed out.

What a crazy edition. The weather wasn't bad either, Laz must have made some pretty wicked changes.

There was a bit of weather around. I was in the US when the BM started this year. Mid-West. On Monday afternoon the temperature was 24C. On Tuesday night the skies were slate grey, threatening hail and sleet, and winds 45mph, temperature 4C and dropping. It’s hard to know what to wear/pack when the weather is so changeable.

And weather alone is just one factor. The start time had an impact, the later time of year, the vegetation, and the fact that Laz knows that forest like the back of his hand and only needs to move a book by 250m to bring terrain into play. (Watch ‘The Edge of Possible’ on YouTube, only released this week, to see this.) A good route setter in this sort of event can really mess with your head. The interesting thing to me is that the same person sets the route every year. So you are not introducing an outside element there. And to an extent some of the runners have been round before and know what to expect, and yet still just one Fun Run finisher. He’s laid it on thick this year. Most of these repeat returners will go back and microanalyse what was different this year, and come back with that box ticked next year.

Also, I recall reading early on this year it had rained heavily before the event but was drying now in sunshine and wind, but the top layer of the ground was slick and slippery. This makes things very tough. I’ve experienced these conditions (Spain last year) and at one point was laid on my front trying to use a tree to get up a slick section there was no way round (a waterfall to the left, rocks to the right. And I was leading a horse, which limits the terrain you can access to some extent.) But the mud layer was just unbelievable. We had just a couple of sections of it, but I can imagine Frozen Head Park could offer up quite a few sections if they wanted it to.

Good points well made

I'm looking forward to JK's write up

Blooming heck!

Blimey that sounds difficult and impressive 🙂

Over.... so quick.....