And new socks are very important to avoid blisters as well.” “It’s almost like the exhaustion goes away and you start fresh again on a new loop. “It’s like you start a new race,” says Sanchez. His race fuel consisted mainly of cheeseburgers - “it was such an amazing lot of calories going in - I enjoyed eating that,” says Sanchez - as well as candy, chocolate, cookie dough, cheese and fruit.Ī brief pause between each loop was also a chance to change his socks and shoes before returning to the course. “I was feeling dizzy, I was not seeing right on the trail, I was not walking straight anymore.”ĭesperate to find more energy, Sanchez swallowed caffeine tablets, took on more food and water, and even tried screaming into the woods in an effort to reinvigorate himself. “The second night I had a bit of a struggle,” he says. In the three days and two nights he was on the course, Sanchez slept for only 15 minutes - between the third and the fourth loops after 33 hours of running. Staving off sleep deprivation is another challenge of the Barkley. “But Laz didn’t want to, he said that it’s part of the race, so I had to deal with that.” “Guillaume, my friend who was in camp at this time offered to replace a book because he had time to put it back,” says Sanchez. Sanchez decided to dismantle a stack of stones at the checkpoint to prove he had passed through, but he was nonetheless relieved to see Cantrell holding the missing book at the end of the race. The final loop was made even harder this year after a day hiker removed one of the 13 books from the course.
I still struggled in the fifth loop to get around and made a lot of mistakes.” “There are some sections that are really difficult to remember and to know perfectly. “You really have to learn the course during the race,” he tells CNN Sport. Ray traveled only eight miles in just over two days after escaping Brushy before he was recaptured, leading Cantrell, a local long-distance runner, to muse that he could cover 100 miles in the same amount of time.Īnd so the Barkley was born, during which Cantrell sends a group of 40 runners into Frozen Head State Park to battle the woods, hills, and briars without the help of phones, GPS trackers, course markings or aid stations.Ī single map of the route is available at the start line for runners to study and copy down for themselves, and on the way around they must rip a page corresponding to their bib number from a selection of paperback books left on the course.įor first-timers like Sanchez, navigation is the most fiendish part of the Barkley.
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