The Race That Eats Its Young Barkley Mountain 100 Miler and 60 Mile Fun Run Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, Apr 1-3, 1995 20 mi 40 mi 60 mi 80 mi 100 mi 1 Mark Williams (UK) 8:02 19:19 31:02 45:06 59:28 2 Tom Possert 8:03 18:06 28:52 3 Craig Wilson 8:02 19:19 32:27 4 Milan Milanovich (Switz) 9:07 23:38 36:29 5 Greg Shoener 10:05 24:43 39:22 6 Gene Trahern 10:05 23:42 39:23 7 Heiki Ingstrom 8:03 18:06 DNF 8 Wilson Brasington 11:14 25:29 DNF 9 Ken Solakian 10:05 25:48 DNF 10 Leonard Martin 11:25 26:10 DNF 11 Goat (Fred Pilon) 8:33 DNF 12 Wayne Styles 8:37 DNF 13 Reid Lanham 8:38 DNF 14 Animal (Dennis Herr) 8:53 DNF 15 Frozen Ed Furtaw 9:45 DNF 16 Trail Dale Sutton 10:02 DNF 17 Goose (Kim Goosen) 10:06 DNF 18 Richard Schuler 10:06 DNF 19 Bill Kendall 10:16 DNF 20 Harry Smith 10:19 DNF 21 Teeter Benedetti 10:19 DNF 22 Nancy Hamilton 10:20 DNF 23 Rich Hamilton 10:20 DNF 24 John Dewalt 10:24 DNF 25 Cliff Hoy 10:24 DNF 26 Nick William 10:25 DNF 27 Phil Pierce 10:29 DNF 28 Steve Eubanks 11:23 DNF 29 Old Gristle (Lou Peyton) 11:25 DNF 30 Stuart Gleman 11:25 DNF 31 Matt Mahoney 11:40 DNF 32 David Hughes 11:45 DNF 33 Wayne Brasington 11:53 DNF 34 Claude Sinclair 11:53 DNF 39 starters When Mark Williams of England crossed the finish line of the Barkley 100 mile trail run in 2 days, 11 hours, and 28 minutes, he did what no one else had done in the ten years that the race had been held: finish. Before the race, Mark had talked about attempting the 100, but then again, so did a lot of the runners who hadn't seen the course. Those who had been here before knew better. Most of the runners I talked to during the pre-race chicken dinner had experience on difficult mountain 100 milers like Western States, Angeles Crest, or Hardrock. Many had been to Barkley before, but few had ever finished. Some had missed cutoff times. Some had gotten lost and wandered through the woods for hours. But most had simply refused to go on. When I tried to explain to people that just the 60 mile fun run had 30,000 feet of climb, their eyes would glaze over. The numbers were meaningless; I might as well be talking about light-years. Try to imagine all the climbing and descent of the Hardrock 100 or the Pike's Peak Quadruple Marathon compressed into just 60 miles. Or think of it another way: that's 1000 feet of elevation change per mile. Mile 1, climb 100 floors, mile 2, back down, mile 3, up again, and so on. Of course, the race is not on stairs. It's on and off trails through the woods in the Appalachian foothills of Tennessee. When there were trails, they were faint, unmarked, and mostly overgrown from disuse with underbrush, thorns, and fallen trees every 50-100 feet. The downhills were almost unrunnable, not the usual dirt rails, but covered with leaves hiding the rocks that twisted your ankle in a random direction on every step. And even the best runners walked the uphills. There were no course markings; you used a compass and topographical map, and a flashlight at night. There was no aid on the 20-mile loop except for two unmanned water stations plus what you carried and drank from the numerous stream crossings. What do you expect for a $1.55 entry fee? (T-shirts reading "The Barkley Marathon Eats Its Young" were extra). The steeper hills were off-trail, considered impassable by most sane people. There's Leonard's Butt Slide, a 100% grade (45 degree) downhill dirt track through a stand of thorn-covered locust trees; Hell, a 1300 foot climb in 1/2 mile to the top of Frozen Head Mountain; and Rat Jaw, a similar climb along some power lines where the trees were cut down to allow the unencumbered growth of thick patches of thorny sawbriers. From 1986 through last year, the fun run was 55 miles with a 36 hour time limit. The first 4 years saw one finisher and 89 DNF's. In 1990, 5 finished, and for the first time, two runners were on a fast enough pace to be allowed to continue in the 100 (which had a 48 hour limit at the time), but both declined. Since then, the finish rate in the fun run has hovered around 10-15%, with a record 11 of 32 finishing in '93 in perfect weather. Last year, with freezing rain and hail approaching, David Horton was the only finisher, setting a course record of 23:49. Horton, incidentally, also holds the course record of 52 days, 9 hours for the 2144 mile Appalachian Trail. Meanwhile, the time limit for the 100 miler was extended to 60 hours, the longest of any 100 in the world, and yet nobody even made a serious attempt at it. This year, in answer to complaints that the course was too easy, race director Gary Cantrell replaced 2 miles of sissy trail (steep but well groomed and runnable) with the Nun-Da-Ut-Sun'Y, Cherokee for "the trail where they cried". Actually, there wasn't much trail at all, just a treacherous 1500 foot descent into a boulder-filled gully (the Zip Line), with an equally gut-wrenching climb up a mountain ridge covered with sawbriers. He extended the distance to 60 miles (3 loops), and time limit to 40 hours, with a 36 hour cutoff for those continuing in the 100. The new course was kept secret until the day before the race. I set up my tent at Frozen Head campground a week before the race to learn the course and test my survival gear. I had last year's race instructions, courtesy of Goose (Kim Goosen), one of three runners I had met on the Internet before the race. (The other two were Mark Williams and Jim Jones, who was finally accepted into Barkley after 5 years). Goose was the first woman in the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail run in Texas last February, her first race over 50 miles. My training plan was to hike one loop of the course in 3 segments over 3 days, then take 3 easy days. Each hike lasted 8 hours and covered 12-18 miles, including the easy trails or dirt roads to and from the course. On my first hike I ended up losing the trail alone for 2 hours after dark with a flashlight, climbing through the woods up a steep mountainside and navigating by contour lines and the North Star. It was scary, but a good learning experience for what was to come. On my second hike, which I started in rain and fog, I met Milan Milanovich of Switzerland and Don Winkley, who were also scouting the course. Milan had finished second overall in the '92 Trans Am (Los Angeles to New York in 64 45-mile stages) and was back for his third Barkley. Last year he DNF'ed on his second loop after searching for book 2 for 4 hours in the dark. (There were 9 books on the course. You tear a page from each book and turn them in after each lap. The paperbacks, already set out, had titles like Never Let Them See You Cry, or There May Be Thorns, located appropriately in a brier patch). Don and Milan showed me books 2, 3, and 4 before we parted, and we even timed our 1/2 mile up Hell (52 minutes). It's very unlikely I would have found the books on my own. Don said he was doing his first Barkley. I later learned from a biography of '95 Trans Am entrants published in Ultrarunning that he had set a U.S. 55-59 age group record of 450 miles for the 6 day run. The race started at 7:00 AM Saturday, with clear skies, highs in the 50's, and lows in the 30's at night. I carried an Ultimate Direction 2-bottle fanny pack with a map, compass, flashlight (and a spare at night), extra AA batteries, emergency raincoat (not needed), and adhesive tape for repairing blisters. I found that a small hand-held light with an adjustable beam worked best, with a headband for those parts of the course where you need your hands for climbing or descending. There was no moon. I carried and ate one pound of trail mix on each 12-18 hour loop, equal parts of raisins, nuts, and M&M's, which provided 1600 calories from 10% protein, 60% carbohydrates, and 30% fat. This was rather low on protein, so between loops I had a tuna and cheese sandwich, milk, and orange juice. I started each loop with 2 bottles of Gatorade, then refilled my bottles several times from streams, treating the water with iodine to prevent giardia (a step I was told was unnecessary). At night I took 100 mg of caffeine (chewable NoDoz) every 3 hours and did not sleep. I wore long nylon pants and a bike jersey to protect against thorns, and a jacket (2 at night) which I would tie around my waist when it got warm. I ran in a 2 year old but comfortable pair of Nike Pegasus without socks. During the race I tried to stay with others as much as possible to avoid getting lost, but found myself alone, behind the other runners most of the time. I finished one loop in 11:40, about sunset, but I slowed during the night as both my metabolism and view of the trail dropped. Although I found all 9 books without trouble on the first loop, on loop 2 sometime after midnight I ran a mile down a dirt road past book 3 before realizing my mistake. I then lost the 2 miles of faint downhill trail along the New River and ended up going straight through the woods to the next book. As I watched the sunrise on my second ascent of Hell, I realized I would not make the cutoff and almost started on the shortcut back to camp, but decided to continue anyway. Later that day I started blistering around the edges of my heels, which were not used to the steep sideways slopes. I climbed gingerly down the Zip Line, though I could still run down the last 3 miles of easy trail (dirt, 15% grade) without much pain. I finished two loops unofficially in 29:45, 3 hours after the cutoff, so I could not have continued even if I had wanted to. Mark Williams later described his 100 mile finish, how he had slept for 15 minutes the first night and one hour the second. Milan finished the fun run for the second time in 3 years, and was ready to run some more, but he had missed the cutoff for continuing in the 100. Goose ran one lap, following others rather than using a map, and decided that attempting a second lap at night would be too much. Stuart Gleman, who ran 91 miles in the Space Coast 24 hour, would also do only one lap. Don Winkley missed the cutoff in the first lap. Jim Jones had totally underestimated the difficulty of the course and hiked back to camp after 11 miles. Gary Cantrell described the course accurately: the Barkley will squash you like a bug. -- Matt Mahoney