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WATCH: Barkley Marathons teaser

I Run4 Ultra's trailer about one of the world's most challenging endurance events

Barkley Marathons

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’ve heard of the Barkley Marathons. The endurance event is a combination of running, orienteering, perseverance, and grit. Runners must complete five 20-mile loops while collecting particular pages from 14 books hidden throughout the course–all within 60 hours. The video by I Run 4 Ultra showcases the brilliant and eccentric founder and race director Gary Cantrell (“Lazarus Lake“). The race is based upon James Earl Ray (assassin of Martin Luther King Jr.) and his escape from Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain State Prison during his 99-year sentence. Ray fled across unforgiving terrain for three days while being chased by the FBI, and made it to eight miles (13K). Cantrell dismissively states, “I could do at least 100 miles.” Each March, 40 hand picked runners begin their race by the lighting of Laz’s cigarette in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee.

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