Barkley Marathons, 100 Mile Run and 60 Mile Fun Run Frozen Head TN, Apr 3-5 1999 10,000 ft. climb per 20 mile loop, 1400-3300 ft. elevation. For comparison, I have included times from the Hardrock 100 for the last 2 years to give you some idea of the difficulty of the Barkley. Barkley Fun Run Hardrock 100 20 40 60 mi. 1998 1997 Blake Woods, NM 8:39:30 21:03:26 33:19:46 39:07 33:43 Randy Isler, NM 7:58:58 20:46:36 34:40:04 31:14 32:17 Mike Dobies, MI 8:06:57 21:14:16 34:40:05 41:31 Leslie Hunt, NC 9:35:31 25:57:48 47:48* John DeWalt, PA 9:35:30 25:02:27 47:48* 46:32 45:06 Craig Wilson, ME 8:57:45 25:17:21 37:49 Kerry Trammell, TN 9:35:32 25:57 Matt Mahoney, FL 10:58:26 28:07:34* 51:38** Steve Simmons, WV 10:33:20 29:40:02* 40:57 David Horton, VA 8:04:28 30:27 Fred Pilon, MA 8:06:56 DeWayne Satterfield, AL 8:17:11 Robert Youngren, EI 8:53:13 Andrew Thompson, VA 9:17:01 Dennis Herr, VA 9:17:16 Eliza Maclean, NC 9:17:23 40:57 Sue Thompson, MI 9:59:18 Reid Lanham, VA 10:00:09 Stuart Gleman, FL 10:15:42 David White, TN 10:24:28 Jeff Scott, CT 10:51:29 Wilson Brasington, SC 10:56:27 Dick West, MI 11:18:38 David Hughes, IN 11:21:35 Bill Johnson, IL 11:22:31 Marriane Brittain, VA 11:24:10 Norm Carlson, IN 12:44:45 Wayne Brasington, SC 12:50:38 Leonard Martin, TN 13:03:37 Lou Peyton, AR 21:00:11* Tom Smith, MD Jim Dill, IN Bill Andrews, CA *Missed cutoff (13:20 per 20 mile loop) **Missed 48:00 HR cutoff. As usual, the weather forecast was all wrong. They predicted rain all weekend and it was beautiful, partly cloudy skies, low 80's during the day and high 50's at night. I did not need to carry warm clothes, and never got my feet wet. Coming from Florida, I found the cool, dry weather to be delightful. I couldn't understand why everyone from up north was complaining. What a bunch of wimps! Maybe next year we will get an ice storm and they will be happy. The starting time was kept secret, but Gary is not an early riser. At the crack of nine, at the lighting of the starting cigarette, we were off. Bill Andrews and triple ironman finisher Jim Dill were the first to return, quitting at Coffin Springs (8 miles). Tom Smith made it half way up Hell, a 1500 ft. climb in 0.6 miles (50% grade), turned around, hiked out of the park and hitched a ride back. (This IS a bit steeper than the hills here in Florida, where I have to train on a bridge just to get a 3% grade). David Horton, course record holder for both Hardrock and the Appalachian Trail, quit one mile into the second 20 mile loop. DeWayne Satterfield and Robert Youngren, who were first and second in the Mountain Mist 50K (front cover of this month's Ultrarunning) both quit after one loop. Out of 33 runners, 19 started the second loop. This is where it stops being fun, climbing over dead trees on steep hills with bad footing in the middle of the night, clicking off one-hour miles while trying to follow the faintest possible unmarked trail, unmaintained for 50 years. I was fortunate to do this section with 4 other runners (Merianne Brittain, Steve Simmons, Wilson Brasington, and David White). Unfortunately we were taking lots of breaks... "Lets take a really LONG break at Coffin Springs". It was 4:00 AM. "Yeah, lets sleep for a while". "Noooooo", I said. Once you stop, you don't want to start again. Resting feels too good. And Coffin Springs has a nice easy downhill dirt road back to camp. I knew what would happen, but to no avail. Thirty minutes later, unable to rouse anyone from the slumber party, I had to go on by myself. Only Steve Simmons refused to quit and finished the second lap, after 3 hours sleep. He is one tough guy. At Western States last year he pinned his race number to his chest. Not his shirt, his chest. Two weeks later while we were training for Hardrock, he went for a swim in a partially frozen lake near Handies Peak. To train for Barkley, he practiced going 60 hours without sleep (trying for 100 hours). Six runners started the third loop and 5 finished. Kerry Trammell started throwing up on the sign that said "Trail temporarily closed" half a mile from camp, and turned around. Blake Wood won the fun run looking real good, and headed out on a fourth lap as it was getting dark for the second time. Five hours later he was back in camp, a victim of "second night effect". He said that the trails looked unfamiliar and he was getting lost. This was on the "closed" Chimney Top trail (due to lots of blowdowns, but nothing like the rest of the course), the easiest part of the course, blazed trail with no intersections. "Oh, you mean like what happened to me at Hardrock". (I got lost 8 miles from the finish, resulting in a 51 hour DNF. I swear I had never been on that part of the course even though I hiked it a week earlier). It explains how David Horton lost his glasses in last year's Barkley and why his official reason for quitting on the fourth lap was "streams running uphill" at the bottom of the wrong side of Hell. Randy Isler and Mike Dobies talked about going out on a fourth loop at first, but were soon victims of the dreaded "chair suck". John DeWalt, 62 years old, and Leslie Hunt took just under 2 days to run 60 miles. I hated to disappoint my fans, but I did not run barefoot. In fact, I even wore socks for most of the first loop, but I found that it made my feet slip around in my shoes, twisting my ankles and starting to form small blisters. Removing them solved the problem. I had a good race for a DNF; no major blisters, stomach problems, falls, injuries, etc., though I did lose a lot of blood because it was too warm to wear long pants to protect against the sawbriers, even at night. For the first time in 5 attempts I never got lost or even had to look at my map. I couldn't ask for better weather. But with all this luck (and more training -- two 50K's and two 50 milers in the last 3 months), I still need to find another hour and a half if I'm ever to start a third loop. -- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com