Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Ultrarunning History
Episode: 129: Birth of the Barkley Marathons
Description: By Davy CrockettΒ
Both a podcast episode and a full article
Get my new best-selling book about the history of crossing the Grand Canyon
This is an encore episode. The 2023 Barkley Marathons is underway. The Barkley Marathons, with its historic low finish rate (only 15 runners in 30 years), is perhaps the most difficult ultramarathon trail race in the world. It is held in and near Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee, with a distance of more than 100 miles.
The Barkley is an event with a mysterious lore. It has no official website. It is a mystery how to enter, It has n...