The Barkley Marathons has never been kind, but this year? It was downright cruel.
John Kelly—one of only 20 people to have ever completed all five loops of the infamous Tennessee race—scraped through three loops in just under 40 hours to officially notch a “Fun Run” finish.
And yet, in his own words, it hurt more than either of his two most recent full five-loop completions. (Kelly has completed the Barkley three times in eight total attempts.)
“That 3 loop “Fun Run” hurt more than my last two 5 loop finishes,” Kelly wrote in a post-race reflection on social media. “Yes, the course was harder – about 10% more vert, bringing it to ~15K feet per loop. The weather was tougher too – 77F/25C is toasty for Barkley (2 nights earlier had 4 inches of rain w/ a tornado watch, 1 night later had snow flurries). But I also made a lot of mistakes.”
Mistakes are a funny thing at the Barkley.
In any other race, a small navigational error might cost you a few minutes. At the Barkley, it could cost you a loop—a day’s worth of running—and your entire race.
For those less familiar, the Barkley Marathons is one of the most brutal ultra races on the planet.
Held in Frozen Head State Park, it’s five loops of roughly 20+ miles through dense forest, bushwhacking terrain, and ridiculous elevation. The course changes every year, and GPS is strictly forbidden.
Runners must find hidden books on the trail and tear out pages that correspond to their bib number to prove they completed the loop.
This year, the race was deliberately made harder after a record five people finished in 2024—including Jasmin Paris, the first woman to ever do so. Race founder Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell responded in classic Barkley fashion: by tweaking the course to be even more grueling.
Reportedly, this year’s version included a brand-new section designed to slow runners down by 30 to 45 minutes per loop. And it worked.
Of the 40 runners who started, none made it through all five loops. Only 10 completed one loop, the worst collective performance by a Barkley field ever. Four runners finished two loops. Just one entrant, Kelly, completed three.
Even for Kelly, a two-time finisher and the 2017 outright winner, this year was different. The edge was back. “It’s actually kind of intriguing,” he wrote, “it being back to something I’m not sure I’m capable of doing.”
That idea—that the Barkley should sit just out of reach—is exactly what keeps people like Kelly coming back. It’s not about medals or podiums. It’s about chasing the edge of what’s possible, in conditions you can’t control.
After the race, Kelly boiled his evaluation down to two questions:
- Did I do my best?
- Was it worth it?
“This time, they were both yes,” he said. “Possibly the greatest thing ultrarunning has given me is simply the ability to honestly answer both of those questions.”
That’s a sentiment many ultrarunners can relate to.
The Barkley is often described less as a race and more as a life experience. And for Kelly, who ran nearly 40 hours straight with Radiohead’s “Creep” stuck in his head (“a lot of the lyrics make sense for Barkley,” he joked), it was clearly a meaningful one.
He’ll be posting his full loop-by-loop report soon—and if you’ve read his writing before, you know it’ll be meticulous. But even without the granular breakdowns, this year’s Barkley already speaks for itself: tougher, wilder, and once again, a race that eats its young.
