130: The 2023 Barkley Marathons

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By Davy Crockett

The Barkley Marathons course (thought to be roughly 130 miles and about 63,000 feet of elevation gain) at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee was conquered for the first time in six years. Laz (Gary Cantrell) blew the conch shortly before 9 a.m., on March 14, 2023, signaling to the competitors that they had one hour to prepare for the start. At 9:54 a.m. Laz, sporting a new “geezer” hat in Japanese, lit the ceremonial cigarette, and about 40 daring athletes were off and running on the grueling course that “eats its young.” Previously, only fifteen people had finished the 100-mile version of this brutal trail race which was introduced in 1986.

The 2023 field, including eight women, ran or walked up the trail toward the Cumberland Mountains. They had all trained hard, but also had to figure out and endure the purposely mysterious and fun registration process. In addition to writing an essay, this year, they had to answer a series of questions including, “What will be the 119th element on the periodic table.”

75-year-old “Frozen” Ed Furtaw was the oldest starter. He was the first person ever to finish the Barkley Marathons back in 1988 when the course was about 55 miles. He finished that year in 32:14. This Barkley legend also came up with the idea for the book checkpoints, so runners could prove they made it around the course. This year, Furtaw was the first Barkley casualty, returning to camp early during loop one.

Several runners finished loop one in a blazing 8:18. The cutoff for loop one was 13:20. To get an official finish, runners needed to finish five loops within 60 hours. There were no course markings, just general directions to the book checkpoints, and they could take a map. No GPS contraptions are permitted, but they could take a compass and a primitive watch.

Seven runners did not finish loop one in time to start loop two, but 31 started loop two. Loop one was in the clockwise direction, two and three would be counter-clockwise, four in the preferred clockwise direction. For loop five (if any runners reached that far), the first runner could choose their direction, and the next runner would have to go in the opposite direction. The weather was pretty incredible this year, although the water jugs provided at the tower on Frozen Head still froze during the night.

As usual, Keith Dunn was the main resource in the camp for Barkley updates, staying up late at night to tweet updates to his 65,000 followers. For a time, he was trending #3 on Twitter. He used three phones with different network carriers to make sure he could stay connected. During Loop one, instead of naming runners, he gave them nicknames describing them such as, “Guy with Mohawk,” “Guy with Glasses,” and “Another Bearded Guy.” Three-time Barkley finisher, Jared Campbell, was called “nondescript guy” for the duration of his run.

Barkley veteran Nickademus de la Rosa, of Bellingham, Washington, a previous finisher, returned to camp before finishing loop two. He said, “I am done at 1.75 loops and couldn’t be happier with the decision. I got what I wanted (which was to see if the course was still possible for me.) After some irrecoverable navigational errors, too slow of a pace and a dying headlamp I lost precious time needed in order to finish.”

As runners finished loops, they presented their collection of thirteen book pages to Laz, proving that they reached each book on the course. Their pages needed to match the bib number they were assigned for the loop. About a day before the race, a master map of the locations of the books was provided by Laz. Traditionally book titles are amusingly appropriate for the task, such as “Death Walks the Woods,” and “Don’t Count Me Out.”

John Kelly, Albert Herrero Casas, Damian Hall, and Christope Nonorgue finished loop two first, within three minutes of each other, clocking two loops in just over 20 hours. Loop two, mostly in the dark, took them 11:49.

The biggest drama at camp early on was disorganized runners not having all their pages in order. Dunn reported, “This actually is an issue of which Laz is mindful. Runners who bring in their pages in a big wad make it difficult for Laz to sort them so they can get back out. It’s been really cold, and pages stick together, creating a bit of stress as Laz counts them out.” Even with this delay, this year after loop two, there were much quicker turnarounds observed as crews were focused on the time.

One runner, after finishing his loop and dropping out, cooked an egg burrito while showering. He took a camp stove and skillet into the shower, cooked the eggs, and ate the tortilla in the shower.

Jasmin Paris, age 39, of the UK, who finished the “Fun Run” of three loops last year, was the first woman to begin loop three at 21:27. She is an experienced ultrarunner with many wins. In 2019, she won the 268-mile Spine Race in Great Britain.

Sixteen thrashed runners did not finish loop two within the cut-off time which was 12:34 p.m. (26:40). Any runner who either dropped out or missed a cutoff, would have the honor of having taps played for them on a bugle.

Fifteen runners started loop three. Loop three cutoff time was at 9:54 p.m. (36 hours). They needed to start loop four by that time. Those who wanted credit for finishing the “fun run” of three loops had to finish by 1:54 a.m. EDT. (40 hours). Barkley veteran, Tomokazu Ihara nicknamed “Japanese Laz,” with multiple Barkley attempts and with about 40 100-mile finishes to his name, completed loop three with 4.5 minutes to spare and started loop four impressively with only 13 seconds before the 36-hour cutoff. The fifteen runners remaining included five Barkley “virgins” (first-timers), two previous winners, and three previous fun-run finishers.

Three-time finisher Jared Campbell being “tapped out” after his “Fun Run” finish of three loops.

Four runners who did not start loop four were credited with finishing the Fun Run of three loops. Pavel Paloncy finished loop three in 36:36. “Pavel’s Fun Run is pretty impressive because he finished the loop – which was supposed to be a day loop – without a light and in the dark. The light he had failed, and he was not carrying a spare, so got around part of the loop in the dark.”

Jasmin Paris comes in after her fourth loop

A record seven runners started loop four, including Jasmin Paris, of the UK, who was only the second woman ever to start loop four. The first was Sue Johnston in 2001. Jasmin started with less than one minute to spare after a 13-minute crewing at camp.

For much of the race up to that point, Damian Hall and John Kelly ran together. Sleep deprivation was growing. They planned to sleep on a book until the next runner arrived, who would wake them up. Unfortunately, the next runner arrived only 30 seconds later, so they continued.

On loop four, John Kelly stretched a lead on the others during the climb up Frozen Head and later finished loop four in first place. He had intended to nap for a while in camp but hearing that Aurélien Sanchez was hot on his heels, he left quickly, wanting to claim the clockwise direction.

For the first time in history, four runners started loop five. Laz joked that the success so far this year will cause people not to apply next year, as they will perceive the course to be too easy. The four were:

John Kelly (clockwise), originally from Tennessee, living in North Carolina, is age 38. In 2017, he was the 15th finisher of The Barkley. He also finished the Barkley three-loop Fun Run in 2015, 2016, and 2019. In 2020 he won the 268-mile Spine Race in Great Britain. He finished 10th at the 2022 Hardrock Hundred in Colorado. He has a PhD in electrical engineering and machine learning from Carnegie Mellon, and works as a Chief Technology Officer for an insurance company.
Aurélien Sanchez (counter-clockwise) from France, is age 32. He holds the self-supported fastest known time for the famed John Muir Trail, 213 miles through the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. In 2019, he did gain some experience on part of the Barkley course, running the 50K Barkley Fall Classic, finishing 22nd.
Karel Sabbe (clockwise) from Belgium, a dentist, is age 33. It was his third attempt at Barkley. He finished the Barkley three-loop Fun Run in 2019, and 2022, and won Belgium’s 2020 Big Dog’s Backyard Race with 312 miles. In 2018, he crushed the Appalachian Trail speed record by four days. Last year on loop four, Sabbe became disoriented and ended up wandering around the town of Petros.
Damian Hall (counter-clockwise) from Great Britain is age 47. This was his first time running the Barkley. In January of this year, he won the 268-mile Spine Race in Great Britain. He has finished that difficult race three times. In 2018, he finished UTMB in 5th place, for his fourth UTMB finish.

Kelly had a five-minute lead on Sanchez, about an hour on Sabbe, and nearly two hours on Hall who started loop five with a minute to spare. Jasmin Paris came into camp a few hours later, becoming the first woman in history to complete four Barkley loops, although she was over the cutoff for loop four. She had found nine of thirteen books within the cutoff time, a wonderful achievement. She later said, “Conditions couldn’t have been better, and I was lucky to share miles on the trail with wonderful people. I knew from the start that training hadn’t been ideal, but I gave it my best effort and I’m proud of that. I still think a woman can finish five loops, although I suspect Laz will make next year even harder.”

Shortly later, Damian Hall, returned to camp with no pages. He said, “I’m annoyed I somehow couldn’t find a book I’d only recently located. It was amongst some capstones on Chimney Top, where there are loads of good book hiding places. I began believing it had been stolen, by a crow or something. I was very sleep-deprived. Yuk.” After an hour of searching for the first book, he eventually gave up and returned. A couple months earlier, The Barkley finish would have to wait for another year. So, there were three left. They all looked fresh when arriving at the tower on Frozen Head.

Kelly shared some details of his loop five experience. With the initial warm conditions on that loop, he tried lying down with the back of his head and shoulders in an ice-cold creek. He succeeded in getting a five-minute catnap which helped for another couple hours. But then fading again, he needed rest. “The first water drop was near Quitter’s Road, where I could see muddy tire tracks. I thought, ‘That mud will still be cold from last night and should be a perfect bed.’ I walked out there, poured more water over me, and laid down on my stomach right in one of the tracks.” He then started to hallucinate. “One of my childhood friends who I haven’t seen in 20 years walked by with his wife and daughters. He just laughed and said, ‘That’s a John Kelly nap if I’ve ever seen one.'” Confused, he got up, pushed on to Garden Spot, used the book there as a pillow, and dozed off, expecting Aurélien, coming from the other direction would wake him up. After 15 minutes of sleep, he pushed on.

Aurélien Sanchez completed the tough counter-clockwise loop first and won the 2023 Barkley Marathons in 58:23:12. When Sanchez finished, he wasn’t sure if he won or even had an official finish because he did not have a page from one of the books that a hiker had prematurely taken back to the camp. Sanchez reached the place where he knew the book should be. He searched for five minutes and then positioned stones in a certain way to say, “Laz” where the book should have been located. In the end, he was given credit for that book because Laz was holding the book at the finish. After the hiker brought the book into camp Guillaume Calmettes offered to go put it back, but Laz decided that it should remain at camp, that such vandalisms were part of the race. Sanchez handled the situtation correctly. At the yellow gate, he Laz presented to him the book and Sanchez tore out the last page.

John Kelly also completed loop five, finishing just 19 minutes later, in 58:42:23, becoming only the third runner in history to finish the Barkley more than once. As Laz was checking Kelly’s pages, he said in a serious voice, “This year it is six loops.” Karel Sabbe completed loop five in 59:53:33. He also had been suffering from hallucinations. Three Barkley finishers for 2023! These three were the first finishers since 2017 when Kelly finished in 59:23:12. It should be noted, that this was Sanchez’s first attempt at the Barkley. His Loop five time was 13:01. This was the second year that there were three finishers (2012).

Karel Sabbe’s finish with six minutes to spare was the slowest in history, a great honor. It was his first finish in his three attempts. Shortly after finishing, still collapsed at the yellow gate, with a grin, he pressed Laz’s “That was easy” button.

Family and friends celebrate in Belgium when they receive the news from Twitter of Sabbe’s finish

The next day Sabbe explained what went on during that final loop. “It was one big hallucination. Because of the sleep deprivation and the physical exertion, my brain switched itself off. I no longer knew who or what I was doing it for, that it was a running race… Fortunately, I knew what the course looked like through the months of preparation. Being so close to the time limit gave me an adrenaline rush and I came to my senses. I consciously experienced the finish. I’m not going to do it again. The approach was to do everything for it one more time. The preparation is so intense: it mortgages your social life, you see your wife and child less… It’s nice that I can close the chapter by walking out. While I usually go for the Fastest Known Times, I can live with my Slowest Known Time on the Barkley course for sure”

John Kelly later said, “Aurélien Sanchez put on a clinic, running an extremely smart race and nailing navigation on his first attempt. Seeing Karel Sabbe come in just under the wire was incredible, and such a well-deserved finish. Jasmin Paris had the best Barkley by a woman ever, and I know there is even more she is capable of. This year I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset on that final climb. I sat at the top to take in the view and count my last set of pages near the same spot I sat with my dad in this photo over 30 years ago.”

Alexandre Ricaud, a Barkley veteran, was Aurélien Sanchez’s, crew chief. He provided some details to Le Telegramme about Aurélien’s race. From the start, he ran with another Frenchman, Barkley veteran, Guillaume Calmettes, who dropped out on the third loop with and Achilles injury.

Sanchez’s transitions between each loop were very fast, ten minutes after loop one, and five minutes after loop two. He took short power naps after loops three and four. Ricaud said, “In transitions he was always lucid. It even scared me a little at first, the transitions were so fast. I was afraid that he would get carried away or that he would pay for it later. But ultimately, no.” Sanchez said, “The second night I had a bit of a struggle, I was feeling dizzy, I was not seeing right on the trail, I was not walking straight anymore.” He got over it by eating more, taking caffeine, and screaming into the woods to wake up.

Ricaud said, “It was a pretty incredible ending. We were at the yellow barrier. Night was starting to fall, then we see, in the distance, a frontal coming down the mountain, and we see that it was him.” Days after his finish Sanchez was still having Barkley nightmares. “I’m dreaming that I’m in my fifth loop but not focused anymore. I’m lost in the forest, it’s dark and I’m waking up in a panic because I know I’m not focused, and I need to be focused to finish.”

Ricaud summed up Barkley this way for his fellow Europeans. “Everything is done so that you are in a zone of perpetual discomfort. At Barkley, you enter physical and mental dimensions that have nothing to do with the race laps. Aurélien has accomplished something exceptional. The winners are those who finish.”

“Fun Run” finishers this year (three loops within 40 hours) included Damian Hall, Albert Herrero Casas, Tomokazu Ihara, Jasmin Paris, Jared Campbell, Christophe Nonorgue, Pavel Paloncy, and Joe McConaughy.

The 2023 Barkley Finishers: Aurélien Sanchez, Karel Sabbe, and John Kelly

Learn about the early history of the Barkley Marathons

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