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.

Yes, I think Laz is being really very kind - to both runners and those following their progress - this year!

Loops are usually: 1 clockwise, 2 anticlockwise, 3 anticlockwise, 4 clockwise. Then 5 alternating, with first to go back out there choosing which way, and any other loop starters having to alternate.

That's when Jasmin's seriously fast interloopals might help!!

Thanks for all the updates

I'm getting seriously distracted waiting for Jasmin updates.

If the lead group can keep it up without hesitation, deviation or repetition, then they're on course for loop 3 finish as about the 30/31 hour point. So mid afternoon? Ish?

The only other "good news" update would be passing the water tower. I didn't see any water tower updates from loop 2, so I'm not sure when they'll be passing it on a daytime anticlockwise loop

I'll keep posting updates from twitter, for those who don't have it (unless you all beg me to stop - I do seem to be posting rather a lot on this thread).

For those who do have twitter, another account worth looking at is @ nick_ph7 who is the person who creates the colourful infographic on loop time and eventual outcome as used in the recent run247.com write up (John Sugden does a table version)

BTW, when asked what the weather forecast was like, Keith replied “sadly good”

@OhYouBadBadKitten - anything to add?

I'm sad that Harvey Lewis dropped on lap 2. Was hoping he could do it this year.

But really hoping Jasmin and Damien can do it. She's in a better position than she was last year so staying hopeful.

I am really appreciating your Twitter updates @AuntieStella thank you!

I really need to find some photos. Particularly of Very Daring Shorts and Awesome Glasses 😁🤣

Thank you to whoever posted up the barkley.ferrett.io tracker

It's marvellous. I've pinned it as a tab on my work laptop 😆

Glad to see it's distracting people from work!!

Keith's latest tweets are all about people dropping out

• Harald Zundel dropped after getting lost on loop 2 and ending up knocking on someone's door looking for help
• Marco Jaeggi dropped on loop 2 and was tapped out
• Kelly Halpin, Harvey Lewis, Hendrik Boury and Nicolay Nachev came in together after dropping out on loop 2 and are tapped out

But better news for one runner

• Guillame Calmettes finished loop 2 in 26.25, turned it round quickly at the gate and began loop 3 with about 3 minutes to spare

I’m sorry I’m very tired, does anyone know what time the cut off is for loop 3? I am basically unable to compute timezones just now 😅

Taka's spreadsheet is updated.

• 13 runners started loop 3 (one of whom is still unnamed - awesome glasses man, but I've not seen pix!)
• of those, 10 started under 20.30, so are the group that Keith said still had a realistic chance of a 100 finish
• but one of those was Aurelien Sanchez, who dropped out
• three could still make the fun run - two started at 22.08 (including daring shorts man, who is Thomas Dunkerbeck of the Netherlands - shorts didn't look that daring in the pic I saw, but perhaps it's daring just to be in shorts at all on a course described as brambly!)
• there were two other women runners - Kelly Halpin finished loop 1 within fun run cut off (not seen anything about her loop 2 and as that's over cut off now it looks like either she didn't go back out or has timed out) and Lisa McFadden who did not complete loop 1 (both USA)
• 33 listed as starters
• 2 more lines, where only info is nationality, not even a numbered finish position, so I'm wondering if they are the disqualified litterbugs

12 hours for each loop for the 100 - so not until 21:17 (that's 1917 local time)

Fun run ends 4 hours later, so: Fri 00:17 (Thurs 23:17)

But in practice, those who have gone on to finish have completed loop 3 well under the 36hr cut off (typically between 30 and 33 hours).

Say they came in at a nice solid 32 hours ish - that's about 5pm here

Thank you! I’m in absolute awe of them keeping going it’s a phenomenal effort. When I think of myself struggling round a half marathon it doesn’t even begin to compare does it!!!

Sorry, I think my counting was wrong with that cut off - fun run cut off UK time should be 01.17

Also, Guillame Chaumettes is one of the two candidates for "missing pages man". If it was him, even though he only squeaked onto loop 3 (~3mins inside the 26.40 cut off, a time from which no-one has gone on to complete the fun run) then there is a possibility he might make it as some was on a book hunt rather than forward progress.

I’ve discovered a bot account that reposts Keith Dunn’s tweets on a non Twitter platform. It doesn’t have all the comments on each of the tweets, but does mean I can keep an eye on happenings without having to sell my sole to Musk.

social.running.cafe/@KeithDunn

Lovely frivolous tweet from one of the number-crunchers (@ nick_ph7)

"Of the non-finishers remaining, Jasmin is most likely to be Barkley #18 because her name starts with a "J"
8 of 21 finishes are from "J" names.
Jim, Jared x3, John, other John x2, Jonathan"

Weather’s better too!… Was last year the blizzard year?

Think blizzard maybe another year?

On Harvey’s fb page he said there’s extra books which was made a big difference for him

Howie Stern on Intsagram has confirmed it was Guillame - he has a pic on his story of his face when he realised the page was missing (spoiler: not ecstatic about it). God, the relief when he found it must have been immense!

He also has some pictures on his feed of some of the remaining competitors - Jasmin looking extremely determined, also like her legs have ben attacked by a an angry cat :O

I was looking at those photos too - seems the course is very prickly this year!

Awesome glasses man is now named as Marco Jaeggi (Switzerland)

There are now 33 named runners, plus one line that's unnumbered and listed only as Indiana (USA) - wondering if that's info from number plates?

If starting field was 34, that's the smallest since 2006
23 finished loop 1 (20 under 12.00, 3 in fun run time)
13 finished loop 2 (12 under 24.00, 1 in fun run time)

Found a chart with typical attrition rates (ie the proportion of those who start a loop who do not finish it)

loop 1 - 30%
loop 2 - 70%
loop 3 - 40%
loop 4 - 80%
loop 5 - 20%

So 2024 loop 1 looks pretty typical, more survivors than might have been expected from loop 2

I'm getting antsy - the leading group has been out there for longer than loop 2

Someone had tweeted "Who and where is nondescript guy? I'm really rooting for [him]"
And Keith has just answered "Nondescript guy is somewhere between the fire tower and someplace else [shrug emoji]"

I think that might mean IDK! But there have been no fire tower/water station updates this loop. I hope they've not all got lost!!

Keith tweet: Ihor Verys has finished loop 3 in 31.31

Keith tweet: John Kelly and Damian Hall finished loop 3 in 31.36

Ihor Verys began loop 4 at 31:46

About the same time as Mataj Arnus came in from loop2 (last to finish that loop and hugely over the cut off)