Wow all these well produced instavids; of his Army career, it reminds me of the old chestnuts like “how long have you been in? Don’t look at your watch”
He looks to be a legit ultra runner though!
A bit of lunch-time googling turned this up.
The Barkley Marathons
Race History
The Barkley was started in 1986 as a 50 mile race, but there were no finishers until 1988. The following year, Rat Jaw was added, bringing the distance to 55 miles and 27.000 ft climb for 3 loops, with a 36 hour cutoff. A 110 mile, 6 loop course was added with a 50 hour cutoff. Nobody ever finished the 110 miler.
In 1995, the course was changed to a 20 mile loop by the addition of Zip Line and Big Hell. The fun run was lengthened to 60 miles (3 loops) with 30,000 ft of climb and a 40 hour cutoff. The 110 miler was replaced by a 5 loop, 100 mile course with 50,000 ft of climb and 60 hour cutoff. That was the year that Mark Williams finished in 59:28.
In 1996, the rules were changed so that loops 3 and 4 were run in the reverse direction, and on loop 5 you had your choice. The first person to make that choice was Blake Wood in 2000, and he chose the forward direction. However his progress was blocked at 90 miles by the New River, which had become a raging torrent after 2 days of steady, hard rain.
In 2001, the “hump” was added, bypassing 1/2 mile of easy trail with an additional 240 ft. climb along a ridge north of Mart Fields. Thus, the fun run was increased to 30,720 ft. climb, and the 100 miler increased to 51,200 ft climb. Cutoffs remained the same. Nevertheless, Blake Wood and David Horton finished the 100, this time completing loop 5 in the reverse direction.
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Tom Evans - anyone who can run sub 15 at Western States is quality. Liked the film - thanks FP
Have you seen ‘where dreams go to die’ on YouTube. If not, grab a cuppa and enjoy’
No, I’ll have look later taa.
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He was the guy that just pipped me by circa 4 hours at the Tarawera 100k the other week…
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It hurts when it’s close. I still haven’t gotten over Cam Wurf sneaking the win on me by 6+hrs at IM Wales. 
I’m not sure why they think the WS100 is ‘almost iconic’…I thought it was a pre-eminent race? I had heard of it years ago.
Got a 25k fell race this weekend with about 1200m ascent, recce’d most of it yesterday and it had some tough sections. It’s more about getting time on feet though and an AL towards 3 peaks entry in the next year or so.
It’s supposed to be non GPX so I needed to see the route yesterday as there’s plenty of places to miss a CP, there’s 9 in total.
Quite looking forward to it, sub 3 would be nice but hard work.
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MdS postponed
https://www.marathondessables.com/en
COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE MDS ORGANISERS
Very dear competitor,
In view of the worrying situation and of the Circular Letter issued by the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Morocco on 4 March 2020 regarding the growing spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), there is a high probability that the 35th MARATHON DES SABLES – scheduled from 3 to 13 April 2020 – will be forbidden.
As a precautionary measure, we prefer to anticipate and take our responsibilities. Therefore, we inform you today that this 35th edition is postponed and will take place from 18 to 28 September 2020 .
We understand that the postponement of this edition may be very complicated for each of you, but for the well-being of everyone and the pleasure we want to keep offering to the MDS family, this decision – made one month before the initial start date – seems to us inevitable, much to our regret.
We are all deeply affected by this situation, but we make an appointment with you in a few months for an anniversary edition that will take place in better conditions.
We thank you for your understanding and look forward to seeinga you soon under the stars!
Patrick BAUER
Race Director
Bit quiet over here lately… just recovering from a 100k+ training week, better than expected but taken a bit out of me. A few big weekends coming here:
- 20th March 50mile overnight self supported (Coventry Way) with a few friends.
- 28th March 20mile point to point event in Cambrian Mountains
- 5th April 40mile Coventry Way official event
- 18th April 50km Maverick Events Black Mountains
- 9th May 3/5/12hr Event with Cotswold Running, maybe,
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Nice!
Watched that last night, it’s as far removed from anything I could ever do as it’s possible to be but I’m fascinated by the madness of it.
As a miserable git, I should also hate the unrelenting cheerfulness of the guy but you can’t help but root for him and the 6 seconds at the end were just brutal. (Having said that my understanding was that he’d have been DQ’d anyway for going the wrong way.)
I see that the feature film they made about the race (The Race that Eats its Young) is also on YouTube (as long as you don’t mind the Turkish subtitles) so will catch up with that too.
Is that a test march route you’re doing on 28/03?
Not that I know of… but there is some ex military link in the organisation.
Just a great bunch & pub afterwards… and a not too well trodden area 
Looks like a busy few months ahead Ed!!
Have a read of John Kelly’s Barkey race report too - he’s the guy who did finish in that video
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Definitely maybe 
Dang - Thames Path postponed until September. Double dang - Cartmel Lakeland Trails race postponed til September.
Bigger problems going on in the world I know!
Busy September coming up.
Loads of events postponing until then. Surely that’s going to hit numbers pretty hard.