Chris Tries to Not Suck at The Barkley. Chris Fails.

 

Who's excited for failure?! This guy! (PC: Sarah Smith)

From the moment I was born, I was destined to become a Barkley finisher…

 

…Just kidding.

 

I can't say when exactly it was, but by 2018, after a few years of feeling like I was nailing 100 milers, I decided I wanted something more challenging. When you look to The Next Level in hard, competitive US ultras, there's basically 2 options:

1. Hardrock
2. Barkley

Now, I'd love to run Hardrock, and I've presently been waiting in the lottery for something like 8 years. But Barkley always held the highest level of intrigue. It's a tremendously extreme type of event designed to probe the limits of human endurance. And technically, anyone who's good enough to belong there has a path to get to The Yellow Gate -- do awesome stuff to impress Laz, apply, get on the "weightlist", and patiently wait your turn. So I set about that path. Barkley was now my Primary Running Objective.

 

In 2019 I cranked out HURT, Hellbender, and Old Dominion in 5 months with solid top placings, and then nailed Grindstone in the fall. I decided I had gained enough fitness to have a shot at finishing a Fun Run. So I finally applied for Barkley and received a spot at the bottom of the weightlist, happy to wait a number of years as I slowly rose up. But in 2021 I decided to explore an accelerated route. I had a sense I'd be good at Backyards and I figured that race format would allow me to explore limits of sleep deprivation and fatigue, and it didn't hurt that Laz created the event style. I eventually wound up at Big's, the world championship for the format, right in Laz's backyard, and made a decent show of things. But I didn't win, so no automatic entry for Barkley. Nevertheless, by January I received my condolences. I was headed to The Yellow Gate!

 

But there was a bit of a hitch. My training since Big's had been complete crap due to aggravating the labrum in my bad hip. I was largely limited to steep hiking and spending each night diligently stretching. Descending was de-prioritized to limit impact forces and allow my hip to heal. As a result, I felt that my climbing would be okay, but my descending at Barkley would be pedestrian at best. So no lead packs for me. I tried to not worry about what veteran I might work with, and instead focused on learning the course and gaining experience. I was now transitioning from my Primary Running Objective's multi-year Phase 1 -- Get into Barkley -- to (hopefully) the multi-year Phase 2 -- Not Suck at Barkley.

 

The 2022 Barkley Course Map!

I drove down to Frozen Head from STL a couple days early, jamming out to Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift. I made the astute observation that Tswift is a fan of The Barkley. If you listen to Treacherous, it becomes pretty obvious. This slope is treacherous. This path is reckless. And I, I, I like it. I'm guessing she heard about The Documentary when it was first coming out and wrote the song for her Red album, but the music execs made her change some of the lyrics to make it sound like a standard relationship song. But the timeline lines up, and the chorus lays it all out. So yeah, Treacherous was the official race song of The Barkley this year. Awesome!

 

I'm sure even Jared Campbell would agree that Taylor Swift wrote a song about The Barkley.

Jack, my crew chief at Big's, met up with me at the start and we set up camp in the cool kids spot right next to the gate. Our site ended up housing runners Greig Hamilton, Harvey Lewis, Karl Sabbe, and myself, with Mike Dobies, Keith Dunn, and Sarah Smith hanging out there as well. Monday was spent finishing setup and organizing gear. And, obviously, checking out the map and handing in my virgin license plate. I spent a couple hours copying the map, reviewing the course description, and chit-chatting with folks. Then it was time for some tossing and turning. The conch blew around daylight on Tuesday, and things got real. I was genuinely nervous to start a race, for the first time in years. I had no idea what the next day+ was going to be like, but I was ready for the adventure. All I knew for sure was that I was going to keep going until I got timed out. As I walked to the gate, everything became a bit of a blur. And then, the cigarette was lit.

 

Home sweet home.

Race gear -- 90% of which will go unused!

Pre-race action shot (PC: Jack Kurisky)

The first climb, a completely new section, started out battering my legs like a Tonya Harding hit job. Instead of a chill jaunt up the typical Bird Mountain Trail, we immediately met off-trail slopes as steep as anything I'd dealt with in training. Many people flew up hard and fast, but I focused on warming up my calves for the entire first climb. The first book was a breeze, then it was on to the first descent. I quickly linked up with Jodi Isenor's group, including Alyssa Godesky. I figured this would be a good place to hang out. The early miles of The Barkley is basically a form of speed dating where virgins desperately seek out a veteran date to show them the ropes. Jodi was on my pre-race list because of his experience and his sweet, sexy past Fun Run. I fully trusted Jodi to navigate the course in a time respectable enough for a fun run finish.

 

Me and Jack at The Yellow Gate.

After the 2nd Book we climbed up Jury Ridge, starting on the easy North Boundary Trail. The pace was calm and patient and I felt like the whole group was being smart about effort and I was looking forward to working with them for the first loop. At one point I joked that I was just going to follow Jodi for a whole lap and then drop him hard. Later in camp, Dobies had to explain to Jodi that I was being sarcastic, and not a "real asshole". My wife warned me about that kind of behavior, but when it's something you're born with, it's just really, really hard to not be sarcastic 24/7. Sigh…

Anyways … towards the top of the climb I stopped to pee and get a quick bite to eat, then again to tighten up my shoes. When all was said and done, the group was out of sight and I was left close to Katie Wright. I was comfortable just chilling with her for a bit and had zero intention of hightailing it ahead of the gal who stepped in to help crew me on my 4th day at Big's. We easily grabbed the 3rd book and then departed down to the next one.

 

Katie and I took a less than stellar line starting down and it was slow going. We ended up on a minor ridge too close to the drainage on our right and kept drifting down towards it and its healthy supply of boulders. There was a "road" higher up to our left and we kept trying to intercept it while skirting the drainage, but had little success. Eventually we were passed by a couple of freewheeling Euro chicks who basically blasted down the drainage and we kinda sorta followed suit.  At some point along the way, I was using my poles on the descent to control my direction and one pole slipped between two rocks and quickly learned a painful physics lesson. The carbon fiber pole snapped like a twig. Fan-freakin-tastic. We ended up coming down to the book location, but it took way too much effort and time. As we arrived, folks already had the book in hand, and I was not the last one to pull a page. As a result I impatiently failed to make a mental note of precisely how the book was hidden, which came back to bite me big-time on Loop 2 in the dark.

 

Cheater sticks aren't supposed to look like that.

I took off on the next climb, easily following the ridge and separating from the others. At one point I picked up a stick -- Old Hickory -- that worked well as a replacement pole. The Barkley is a fickle beast … it takes away your brand new carbon fiber cheater sticks, only to offer up bespoke walking sticks, complete with ergonomic knobs to cradle the edge of your hand. The next book was the first one I found all on my own, which came with a pretty awesome sense of accomplishment, even though it was just a simple rock on the top of a mountain. Then it was easy work getting up to the Garden Spot, and as I approached the Water Drop I saw Jodi's group heading out.

 

I had a patient water fill and stripped down to a t-shirt. Because it was getting warm and sunny, I mixed up a bottle of my Long Haul Ginger Peach Tea to sip on in the afternoon hours. It was so delicious! (blatant company plug, go buy my sports drink) I figured I was about 5 minutes behind Jodi and Company and so I started running down the Coal Road a bit hard in an attempt to catch up to them before the next off-trail section. I failed. And then I wasted a couple minutes trying to decide on what the right line should be to cut through a horseshoe bend in the road. My line was not good enough and I cliffed out and had to tear through the woods until it was safe to descend. Then it was time to jump off again into the next drainage. As I wasted another couple minutes contemplating where to jump in and what my line should be, another runner came zipping down the prior descent. It was a virgin named Ivan, and he had a boatload of intel from a veteran on what to do. So the two of us virgins hooked up to fool around in the woods for a while. Bow chicka wow wow! We wandered on down the Coal Road a bit as he attempted to count strides to the jumping off spot. I don't think we hit it precisely, and we didn't have the cleanest line down the drainage, but eventually we made it through and proceeded on to Bobcat Rock and Leonard's Buttslide.

 

LBS was a real treat! Those upper slopes were the first time I just capitulated and allowed my feet to be swept out from under me and ride down sections on my ass. About 1/3rd of the way down I bumped into Alyssa coming back up with the rest of Jodi's group. I figured I went from maybe 2-3 minutes back to nearly 30 minutes back now, entirely a result of not knowing the best lines through a 1 mile stretch of Stallion Mountain coal roads. Ivan and I hit a good line down to the bottom and came upon the book in no-time-flat. Then it was back up. Pretty easy cruise control until the absurdly steep upper slopes where I was clinging to roots and trees to hoist myself up. Then onwards through the cave and up to the next book. Ivan crested and started to look around on the verge of wandering, but the moment I got up there I knew exactly what was up and went straight to the book. I'm getting pretty good at this whole Daylight Barkley stuff!

 

Irrelevant to the storyline, but this was my pre-race breakfast. My son was so freakin jealous!

The next stretch to get down to the New River Valley started off a bit slow and confusing. It seemed easy enough -- just follow the ridge -- but Ivan was more concerned about certain visual indicators along the way. We hit a couple of choke points and a small cliff that we had to work around, but it wasn't too bad of a job. Then we came upon an old road, something I'd call a road and not Laz's idea of a" road". I wanted to cross it and continue into the woods on the ridgeline. But Ivan's intel described going down the road. I wasn't too comfortable with this idea, but there were shoe prints heading down the road, so I reluctantly went that way. After a couple bends, we jumped into the final hollow to reach the valley. We got down there and then there was a good bit of confusion trying to find one of these "roads" Laz says to follow upriver. After a while I just said screw it and forged off into the woody river bottom, knowing at some point we’d get to where we needed to go. Eventually Ivan found "the road" and we followed it upriver. Ivan nearly ran past the next book but I immediately noticed two rocks on the ground that were suspiciously regularly shaped. I kicked the moss and it was obvious I was at "the columns", so I yelled to Ivan to stop and look for the next book. The moment I did that, a group that was right on our rear gleefully shouted that they'd found the ziplock bag with the book hanging out, up on the bank to my left. Truthfully, I was pissed. I found the stuff Laz described in the course description and was about ready to see the book, but was bested by someone else who just happened to see some plastic bag reflecting light in the afternoon sun. So I got up there and impatiently waited to get my page. Then it was off to tackle Little Hell.

 

The group that caught up to us had a veteran, but they were jibber-jabbering about compass bearings so I just took off ahead of them. We climb a ridge, the ridge, the only damn ridge. Just go up! After a couple of stupid decisions on the ridge -- why not just head straight up into this coal reservoir between two minor ridges, what could go wrong?! -- and trudging my way through dense sawbriers, I grabbed the next book and went on to Rat Jaw.

 

On the descent, Ivan and I did not know about an upper rock ledge and barreled right off the trail into the briers. I felt like I'd flung myself into a net filled with spikes. It took a couple minutes to realize we'd missed a turn off, down, and around the ledge. Good Times! But the rest of the descent was fairly clean, with little bits of skating and butt sliding. Then through the tunnel and to the Prison Book.

 

Ivan and I started working our way up to the next book and I feel like we followed the directions and the ridgeline we were supposed to, but we ended up too far down the line of capstones. I was 99% sure we needed to be at one particular end of the capstones. He wasn't positive about that, but he started off to investigate. After a few minutes he trudged back. No Dice. I wasn't buying it, but I figured it was a great chance to familiarize myself with this area. So I hightailed it all the way to the other end of the capstones just to feel the area out. Then I backtracked and eventually clambered above the capstones to scope everything out. As I was doing so, I saw The Compass Crew passing through the capstones. Jackpot! I yelled to Ivan and we were back in business. Another 20 minutes wasted on the course, but lessons were being learned!

 

We took a quick compass bearing then started down the Zipline to the Beech Tree. The line was a disaster in spots, bumbling into boulder fields, but we quickly overtook the other group and then I spotted the Leaf Churn from other runners and cruised on that all the way down to the Beech Tree.

 

I quickly dropped everyone around me on the last climb. I was feeling good and figured even with the 60-80 minutes of accumulated delays from not having a veteran holding my hand, I was still going to roll into camp in under 11 hours, with a solid shot at a 40 hour Fun Run. After I collected the final book page I continued congratulating myself and inadvertently turned the wrong way on the Chimney Top Trail that leads back to camp. You're supposed to go left when you hit the trail. But when you hit the trail you're coming out of the woods so it's not like there's a junction sign or anything. So I intercepted the trail at a slight right-ward angle and smack dab in front of me was green Chimney Top double blazes and a distinct left. Boom! I rode that awhile and started to feel confused. I didn’t know we passed by all the chimney rocks on the way back to camp, hmmm. This descent doesn't feel as steep as it's supposed to. What's the deal with this flat section. Then I look at my watch. Shit. Nearly 30 minutes has gone by since the last book. This isn't right. I should've dropped down to the Rough Ridge climb by now. Then I saw the Fireplace just before Mart's Field off in the distance. FUCK! I just went 3 miles in the wrong direction. Oh well. I turned around and high-tailed it back to camp to sneak in just under 12:00.

 

It's dark, why am I just now arriving at the gate?! Oh yeah, cuz I'm an idiot.

The interloopal wasn't spectacular, but my crew chief Jack got me all ready to go with an assist from Sarah Smith. I ended up wolfing down nearly 1000 calories to drown out my embarrassment of making the Furtaw Fumble on Chimney Top. In the middle of it all I distinctly remember uttering "I think I just fucked up my Fun Run." Such is life. I proceeded to head back out for Loop 2 into the night, knowing a long dark night of very cold rain awaited me.

 

The first climb was a doozie. I wasn't tired, but man was I slow. I stopped twice, to throw on my rain jacket and then rain pants. On Loop 1 I got to the first book in maybe 33 minutes. This time around it was more like 85. Pathetic. I'm pretty sure I simply took in too many calories in camp and my body was all like "Bruh, chill on this stupid hiking pace, I gotta digest all this damned food you just ate." At the top I realized that Barkley had just stolen 2 hours from me between 2 books. A Fun Run was not gonna happen. For some reason I decided I didn't want to turn onto Jacque Mate until I'd identified the old Book 1 rock. I rounded a turn and started veering away from the ridge and knew I'd somehow passed it. Instead of just accepting that and going down to Book 2, I turned around to keep looking. A runner came up on me -- I'd passed him as he struggled to find Book 1. It was John Clarke, one of the folks from The Compass Crew that Ivan and I passed earlier. I explained my stupid activity and he was like "come on, lets go". I followed him for a minute and then it was very clear he didn't want to run Jacque Mate like we were supposed to. I politely inquired: what the hell are you doing? He said we had to cross over the ravine. I was all like, umm, why the hell would we do that?! Then he went on about some kind of stride counting after the ravine and taking some kind of compass line. He said it was a cleaner line than Jacque Mate … but he was a virgin, too, so how he came up with this cockamamie idea is beyond me because the course description is painfully clear. I was in the learning mood though, and I didn't want to backtrack, so I let him lead me down a ridiculous line -- let's keep checking that compass as we trudge through godforsaken rocks and deadfall to maintain the sacred azimuth! The whole time I bitched about how stupid it was and how much easier it would have been to simply follow the Jacque Mate ridge like we were supposed to. We eventually got spit out on the NBT about 150 yards above Book 2. I checked my watch -- about 2:28 on the loop vs 1:06 from loop 1. More time lost. Son of a bitch!

 

I hiked up to Book 3 and then made note of the compass bearing to try and ride the ridge down to Book 4 that Katie and I undershot the first time around. I stumbled through some rocks and such, but it was a good deal cleaner than in the daylight, and I finally found "the road" down. Once I got to the confluence I struggled to find the book. I spent like 10 minutes checking a dozen trees. I couldn't find the damn thing. It was pitch black, raining hard, and every drainage was flowing like crazy. Am I at the wrong confluence? This looks right, but where the hell is the book?! I decided it was time to go on an adventure. I'm not sure of what all I did, but I effectively explored both upstream and downstream, trying to make sense of the terrain and the drainages – in the dark, in the middle of a downpour. After a while downstream I became convinced I was firmly in the river bottom, so with knowledge that there was no confluence below that original one, I hopped onto the other side of the stream and backtracked up "the road". When I got to the original confluence I looked at every damn tree trying to find the stupid book again. And then, all of a sudden, there it was, right where it should've been. I firmly remember looking for a book behind 2 rocks leaning against a tree instead of a book between 2 rocks on a bank behind a tree. Catch that distinction? Oops! Either way, that was an exciting 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back. But, now I have a very firm notion of how to approach that book and exactly where it's located. I'll not be bungling that in the future.

 

I hightailed it up to get to Book 5, climbing fairly well. Around this point, I snapped Old Hickory and had to find a less awesome replacement. In the dense fog I accidentally crossed over the NBT where we were supposed to turn, and just kept going on the ridge. The ridge quickly flattened, which was odd, but I kept going for a few more minutes. I eventually pulled out my map and quickly realized what happened. But instead of turn back, I was intrigued by an odd flickering in the distance. I continued on to a big round fence, and just beyond it a sign that said something to the effect of: Feral Hog Pen, Stay Away. Awesome! Did I just find a new Book location for Laz? I noticed I should be close to the Cumberland Trail so I continued on my line to confirm. Sure enough, maybe 100 meters later I bumped into the Cumberland. Now being 100% sure of my whereabouts, I took a hard line back over to the NBT to reacquire the proper course. Climbing to the top of Bald Knob was a real treat. The winds were howling like crazy, with bitterly cold rain. The fog was so bad you couldn't see park boundary markers. I almost got blown over a couple times near the top. That was the only time all night I felt genuinely cold. At the Book I engaged in my new ritual of pulling off my sopping wet gloves, securing my page, wringing out as much muddy water from my gloves as possible, then throwing them back on, downing some calories, and shooting off to the next part of the course.

 

Randomly throwing in a pic of my Loop 2 pages (drying out in the garage).

The NBT that was taken over to the Garden Spot was a pain in the ass. The ground was so wet that the single track was like pudding. And it's nearly all on a slight camber. So a majority of your steps resulted in a slide to the downslope. 12 minute miles was about as good a pace as I could muster without risking slipping off the trail. I reached the Garden Spot in 8 hours, it'd only taken 4 on the first Loop. Oh well. I popped down to the Coal Road, made a turn, and was greeted with a bright headlamp shining in my face. A runner had his map out with a quizzical stare and blurted "we're going the wrong way". No, we're not. "We should've taken that left back there." No, that's the Cold Gap cutoff. He seemed out of it and miserable, and unconvinced. He wanted to quit. I asked him why he'd do that, it was like a 3 hour hike back to camp so why not keep going. I told him I was going to run ahead for 10 or 15 minutes to confirm it's the right way, just to coax him along. He followed along behind me, muttering about it being the wrong way. At one point I looked back and his headlamp was still there. Then I rounded a corner, and nothing but darkness. On I went. I took a lot of time assessing the dropdown to the next ravine. I wasn't gonna Fun Run anymore, so why not waste some time trying to be sure of where I should go. I eventually decided I'd found the right spot and then I thought it's just a 300' descent so go tear ass down to the next coal road, it'll be a piece of cake! So that's what I did. Only, in a matter of seconds I nearly ran off a 50' cliff. I looked around for 5 minutes to the right. No dice. Time to backtrack. Then off to the left. After another 5 minutes I finally found the edge, and a convenient Leaf Churn indicating the proper route. So much wasted time!

 

I figured the worst was over. LBS would be simple. It was a piece of cake in the daytime. Boy was I wrong. I started off just fine and I thought I was coming up close to the proper confluence. Then I got cliffed out near the bottom. Which was odd cuz that didn't happen the first time around. I couldn't see a way down. I thought I was too close to the confluence so I ventured to the left for aways. No luck. Scramble up aways for a better vantage, go this way, go that way, no way down. I finally found a light game trail, which I soon realized was actually "the road" that travels through the valley. After more failed attempts to get around the cliff, I started to entertain the idea of extracting via "the road", but was afraid the river would be raging too much downstream to cross over. An hour had already been wasted, so I figured why not keep plodding along, trying to solve the problem of Book 7. I then realized I was looking at the wrong confluence. In my descent I'd veered off slightly and wasn't looking at the correct New River confluence, but was actually downstream a short bit looking at the New River's confluence with a drainage on the other side of the valley. Bingo! Now I know what to do! I backtracked up "the road" until I could find a way past the cliffs and down to the river bottom. I got all the way down and approached the proper confluence. But still, no dice. Another 10 minutes of searching and still nothing. So I started to climb out to try for a better vantage. As I did so, I popped up on an upper flat, and right there, staring me straight on in the face, was the rock foundation with Book 7 sticking out. Another thrilling 90 minute adventure exploring drainages!

 

Random pic of my gear drying out.

Dawn approached as I came up LBS and on to Book 8. Then it was off down Fykes into the New River Valley. I was a bit faster this time than with Ivan and I did a pretty good job staying with the Leaf Churn. At the lower road, I wanted to stay true to the intent of the course and decided to stick with the ridge line instead of the road. But I couldn't find the Leaf Churn and didn't have the best line down. I think as I was coming down, Karel Sabbe was coming up on the other side of the ridge on his 3rd Loop. I got down to the valley and spent some time deliberately trying to follow "the road". Sometimes I saw Leaf Churn, then I'd lose it. It woulda been faster to just tear through the woods, but I was trying to learn the course as best I could. I finally ventured over to the Skillet Book and then proceeded up Little Hell. Halfway up I crossed paths with Greig on his 3rd Loop. We exchanged pleasantries. He seemed stoked that I wasn't quitting, but then again, he's a happy-go-lucky Kiwi so he's probably always stoked about everything. 

 

At the Fire Tower there were some photographers waiting for the Loop 3 runners. I asked that they let camp know I'd arrived and would finish the loop after the cutoff, then I dove down into Rat Jaw. It was a slip-slidey mess and I skated on my shoes and ass whenever possible. Halfway down I crossed John Kelly. More pleasantries exchanged. Then I hit a steep stretch and slid like 30 feet and lost grip of my Old Hickory #2. I contemplated trudging back up to retrieve it, but opted not to. And there it remains, to this very day, abandoned and alone on Rat Jaw.

 

I took my sweet ass time at the Prison, snacking, swapping out soaking wet gloves, finally removing my rain jacket, and stripping off my waterproof pants whose entire ass section had been torn away from all of the butt sliding. Then I went up to Indian Knob, trying to replicate the line Ivan and I took, but trying to see if there was a way to not drift so far down the capstones. I found Old Hickory #3 along the way. At the end of the climb, I still ended up roughly where we'd hit on Loop 1 and then wasted 10 minutes tramping over to the proper capstone. On the map it still seems like the right line, which has me utterly confused. Next time around the park I'd really like to run with a seasoned veteran to see what they do and to find the Leaf Churn.

 

These pants were not meant for butt sliding!

Then it was on down to the Beech Tree. I followed some Leaf Churn here and there, but there was still a decent bit of drifting into small boulder fields and hitting inefficient lines. Eventually I hit "the road" and flew down to Book 13. Then it was a final climb back up to Chimney Top, a proper turn, and an easy cruise back to camp to finish in, I dunno, 30:40 or some ridiculous time.

 

"Chris Finally" arrives at camp. (PC: Sam Hartman, I think)

It was a disappointing romp through the woods in the sense that I thought I had Fun Run fitness, but it slipped away. If I'd tried harder to reconnect with Jodi's group, I may very well have gotten in 3 Loops. But whatever. I thoroughly enjoyed cliffing out and getting confused by the raging drainages in the dark. Going alone gave me so many opportunities to make mistakes and learn lessons for the future. I walked away feeling I'd learned enough to have an honest go at starting a 4th loop if I'm ever invited back … assuming I team up with a solid veteran at the beginning and my training doesn't get bogged down by another stupid injury.

 

 

Here's a brief accounting of my lost time on the course -- mistakes I've learned from and will hopefully avoid in the future:

Loop 1

1. Bad line down to Book 4 -- 10min
2. Unfamiliarity with Coal Road Jump Offs before LBS -- 15min
3. Slow going down Fykes -- 10min
4. Is this Lickskillet Road? -- 10min
5. Indian Knob Adventure -- 20min
6. Furtaw Fumble -- 60 min

Loop 1 Noteworthy Errors: 2:05

Adjusted Loop 1 Time: 9:50

 

Loop 2

1. Interloopal Binge slowing me down -- Let's say 30min
2. Not Jacque Mate -- 30min
3. Book 4 Explore -- 90min
4. Feral Hog Pen -- 15min
5. NBT slip-n-slide laziness -- 15min
6. Ravine Doublecheck -- 10min
7. Ravine Cliff Out -- 15min
8. Book 7 Cliff Out and Drainage Confusion -- 90min
9. Seriously, is this Lickskillet Road? -- 10min
10. Prison Picnic -- 10min
11. Another failed Indian Knob -- 10min

Loop 2 Noteworthy Errors: 5:25

Adjusted Loop 2 Time: ~13:00

 

So yeah, if I had a tour guide the whole time going at a good pace that aligned with my current abilities, I'd confidently say a Fun Run was on the table. But I was a virgin doing his own thing. I have to believe that with a good bout of healthy training, if Laz invited me back for 2023, I'd have a damn good shot at a 40 Hour Fun Run, and a half decent shot at starting Loop 4. I'll happily take that confidence and ride it through my training for the next year!

 

All in all, Barkley was one of my favorite experiences in the sport thus far. There's just nothing else like it. The climbs were so gnarly and so much fun. I truly believe that the race format accentuates my strengths. It wasn't very apparent this time around, though. That hip injury after Big's really cramped my style. And not having a vet from the start led to a good bit of wasted time. But I'd like to think sticking it out through the overnight rainfest showed a bit of fortitude on my part, considering most everyone else dropped on Loop 2. I never felt gassed on the climbs, I prepared well for the elements, and I never once felt the slightest bit sleepy.

I’ve got to thank my wife for holding down the fort as I disappeared for 4 days to go aimlessly wander in the woods. And thanks to my in-laws for helping out with kids’ school duties. Jack was amazing again as crew, I just wish I’d given him more loops to help out! Sarah and Dobies and Keith were great company at camp, too.

Here’s hoping I get to take another crack at The Barkley next year!