The 2025 Barkley Marathons Recap

All runners start at the famous “Green Gate” and can only stop the clock on each lap, by touching it on their return.

The Barkley Marathons: an enigma wrapped in thorns, a race that defies most peoples logic and reason, and an event where simply surviving is an achievement inself. The 2025 edition was no different, testing the world’s toughest endurance runners through unforgiving terrain, mind-bending navigation, and a brutal ticking clock. Here’s how it all unfolded.

For those unfamiliar, the Barkley Marathons is not your typical ultramarathon. Hosted in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, it consists of five 20+ mile loops, totaling over 100 miles with more than 60,000 feet of elevation gain where runners must complete the race within 60 hours, with minimal aid and no marked trails. With a start time announced only an hour in advance and entry granted through an obscure application process, it is as much, if not more, a psychological battle as it is a physical one.

Potential entrants must send an email with their entry form, which includes bizarre and irrelevant questions to an unpublished address at the correct time along with a $1.60 application fee. The entry form will have questions such as "What is the most important vegetable group?", "What will be the 119th element on the periodic table?" and "Write the Gettysburg Address in Sawveh". This is followed by a written essay on "Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley." Only after this are runners accepted and given the date (but not start time) of the race.

Gary Cantrell, better known as ‘Laz’ Lazarus Lake

2024 saw an uprecidented 5 race finishers meaning the race organiser Gary Cantrell, better known as Lazarus Lake or just ‘Laz’, decided to up the anti by pushing the event into the middle of March when it would be colder, wetter, windier, foggier and just all round nastier, making it not only harder to navigate, but also psycholgically more intense.

On top of the inclement weather Laz made this years course take in even more off-trail bushwhacking as well as muddier slopes, dense woodland brush and steep relentless climbs that tested, drained and ultimately beat all 40 entrants to this years event.

So, at 11:37am local time on Tuesday 18 March, to signify the start of the event, Laz lit his cigarette one hour after blowing a conch to mark the countdown to the start of the race and all 40 entrants set off to begin lap one, with the 12 hour cut off clock starting its journey alongside them. 30 competitors would fall at the first hurdle and not make it back within the alloted time with only 4 of the remaining 10 completing the second loop, John Kelly (USA), Tomokazu Ihara (Japan), Maxime Gauduin (France), and Sébastien Raichon (France).

3 time finisher, John Kelly

These 4 would drop down to one with only the only athlete to ever finish the Barkley Marathons 3 times, John Kelly who this year could only finish 3 of the 5 laps within the 40-hour cutoff, finishing in 39 hours, 50 minutes, and 27 seconds being awarded the Barkley “Fun Run” trophy, showing just how much harder this years course was.

This year didn’t see the return of the first ever woman to finish the Barkley, Jasmin Paris, ​who’s reasons for not entering this years event have not been publicly disclosed. However, in March 2025, she participated in the Haworth Hobble, supporting her husband and engaging with the running community. Additionally, she was featured in a documentary titled "The Finisher," which chronicles her historic 2024 Barkley Marathons finish. These commitments may be some of the reasons why she decided not to compete.

The 2025 Barkley Marathons once again proved why it stands as one of the most formidable endurance challenges in the world. With no finishers this year, the race continues to uphold its near-mythical reputation, pushing athletes to their absolute limits and beyond. Will 2026 see another finisher, or will the course chew up and spit out all the challengers once again? One thing is certain: the legend of the Barkley Marathons only grows stronger and still remains an ultimate test of human resilience, strategy, and sheer willpower

What are your thoughts on this year’s race? Would you ever attempt the Barkley Marathons? Share your comments below!