10 people who just don’t get the Barkley Marathons

There are a lot of unwritten rules to the Barkley Marathons, and unless you're aware of them, the event can be baffling

Madeleine Kelly April 2, 2019

The Barkley Marathons took place over 42 hours this past weekend. If you were invested in the race, you probably spent most waking hours refreshing Twitter and nervously twitching. If you were peripherally invested in the race, you probably noticed the storm of social media posts. And if you weren’t invested at all, you don’t know what we’re talking about.

The event is a combination of ultra-trail 100-miler, orienteering challenge and scavenger hunt where runners must complete a 20-mile-plus loop featuring ridiculous amounts of elevation change, while collecting specific pages from 14 books hidden along the course, and the cutoffs for each loop are insanely fast, and the clock never stops. (Weather and darkness usually slow runners down significantly on the second loop.) Plus, runners must finish the first three loops in under 36 hours to be allowed to attempt a fourth loop. If they finish three loops in under 40 hours, they’ve completed a “Fun Run,” but their race is over at that point. It’s quirky, it’s complicated and it’s very, very difficult to complete, with no finishers seen at the 2018 or 2019 events.

There are a lot of unwritten rules to the Barkley Marathons, and unless you’re aware of them, the event can be baffling. Here are some people who tried to get involved in the action but missed the mark.

If no one can finish the race it’s pointless

If no one can finish the race it's pointless. It's like a whole class who fails a test. The issue is not the test takers but more likely the teacher.

— Del Williams (@delwilliams) April 1, 2019

People who talked about the course

The route of the recent @BarkleyMarathon by the @washingtonpost #BM100 pic.twitter.com/vpHydRpQJu

— SleepMonsters.com – The Adventure Racing Website (@adventurenet) April 2, 2019

Where can I live stream this?

Need real time satellite feed. #BM100

— Maurine Lee (@maurinelee60) April 1, 2019

Most participants are lost for a portion of their race

The long list of people who say they could complete the race but have never tried

Those who don’t get it but at least are self-aware

And then there’s the people who admit they don’t get it, who actually get it on such a deep level

I find it amusing how there is a backlash against the Twitter obsession re: #BM100. It’s such a unique event, unlike any other. Of course there’s interest: we are fascinated by things we don’t understand.

And I hope we never fully understand it. That’s what makes it so great.

— Amelia Boone (@ameliaboone) April 1, 2019