When James Earl Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, the clock was ticking until his eventual capture. Martin Luther King Jr.’s killer covered 12 miles in 54 hours before he was caught in the mountains. Every year in eastern Tennessee, around 40 handpicked runners compete in an ultramarathon to try to shatter James Earl Ray’s pace: They attempt 100 miles in 60 hours.
Like with Ray’s failed escape, time plays an important role. Runners can eat or sleep but the timer keeps ticking. Each race consists of five twenty-mile laps, with a total incline and descent equal to scaling and rappelling Mt. Everest twice.
There are hundreds of other factors that whittle down the competitors to only the most dominant athletes. The harsh trail course ravages the bodies and minds of each runner. It is common for their legs to be full of slash marks from the thorny vines that litter the mountainside or for them to hallucinate from lack of sleep or strength.
Yet, runners keep coming back. Perhaps they want to prove that their brutal tap outs were flukes, maybe they want to dive deeper into this sadistic and brutal gauntlet. It’s no wonder that those runners who are given the honor to run are not given a congratulatory letter, but instead a letter of condolence.
The Barkley’s difficulty has always been the reason that runners have been so intoxicated by it. Barkley has only been completed 26 times in 39 years which has strengthened the allure of reaching the golden gate at the finish line. Most of these runners, however, will end up tapping out. For years, the race bred no finishers. In fact, until British runner Mark Williams first completed the race in 1995, the concept of someone completing all 5 laps was a pipe dream. Even though Williams completed the race with about 40 minutes to spare, it took another six years for a second runner to finish the course. Even though the field of competitors has become stronger, there are still many years in which no winner is crowned.
The Barkley stands alone as a race on the edge of human possibilities, seemingly designed to humble all of the world’s greatest ultramarathon runners. Yet, the Barkley exists for another reason — it stands as the endpost of the ultramarathon world. As much as all the runners have accomplished in their impressive running careers, the Barkley remains a dragon that they have not been able to slay. When runners come to Frozen Head State Park to kill the beast, they also learn about their own limits. If they tap out, they know that they have left everything on the line in the cold Tennessee mountains.
