Organizer Helen Francis writes:
To the incredible runners
with the courage to give our Sudbury Barkley a go…
you were all awesome… to our out of towners with
no knowledge of the trails .. Wow! To our human sacrifice
and tall lady with bump you truly out did yourselves…
to those who kept going past the lap cut off to find all
books or as many as you could - what resilience. To those
who completed the first lap ..huge congrats…To those
who almost got the books and cut off and wanted to keep
going see you next year..
You were all incredible and inspiring!
To co organizers Andre, Helen and Dave brilliant job guys,
to volunteers Vince, Sara and Cindy… thank you couldn’t
do without you ALL!
Keep running on courage, commitment and consistency!!!
__________________________________________________________________
Participant Ashley Hayes
writes:
What can I say about the
Sudbury Barkley...
I was incredibly honoured to be one of few selected to
participate in this gnarly adventure! NO CELL PHONE, NO
GPS, NO WATCH (other than the one provided that only showed
the time)... a MAP & COMPASS ONLY!
Registration was at 4am.
We were given a blank map to mark the route and to try
and precisely map out where the books were hidden (We
had only 1 hour to do this)
If anyone doesn't know (or cares to know), "The Barkley
Marathons is a notoriously difficult, secret ultrarunning
event held annually in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee.
It's known as "The Race That Eats Its Young"
and is infamous for its extreme difficulty, a purposefully
challenging application process, and unusual traditions".
***Check it out on YouTube***https://youtu.be/LZ-DE-hmiGE?si=YG3FxXMWcqwb8zdr
We had to bushwack our way many times, scaling up and
down cliffs, I fell into a beaver pond, alas, soaked and
covered in mud.
Would I do it again?! Probably. It was super tough. I
was able to complete the route, but I unfortunately only
brought back my pages from 13/15 books so DNF it was!
(Could no longer bushwack my way to finding book 1 &
14) I was selected as the "human sacrifice"
at registration. So as Barkley traditions has it, I was
given bib 1. This is assigned by the organizer as the
runner least likely to complete the course (I have a reputation
for getting lost). I was happy to prove them wrong!
I am so proud of everyone's efforts today! It was certainly
not for the faint of heart! And I am so grateful to be
able to take part in these epic adventures with my fit
fam!
A HUGE thank you to the "Geezers"
for the planning, organization, and encouragement! Helen,
Dave, & Andre. And thank you to the volunteers, Cindy,
Sara, Michael, & Vince!
________________________________________________________________________________________
From
the Organizers
SO!!!
NO Finishers this year! Three actually finished lap 1
out of 4 in time but immediately resigned. The rest of
the group slowly returned only to tap out. Everyone returned
safely and....This year the Barkley won! |
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