PCTHiker wrote:
Show me Killian or Sage or at least half of the goofballs listed above buried in the pricker bushes on Barkley and I'll show show you runners with true grit.
Weak.
True grit are the athletes who compete against the best in the world and win over and over again. Barkley Marathons does not represent the best athletes in the world. It’s a select few who are handpicked, good at orienteering, and know the lay of the land.
It would be just as easy to say that the best runners compete in marathon and below, that ultras are nothing more than stunt events that include copious amounts of walking. No ultra runners are up to the task of elite marathoning, so the line goes, which is oddly similar to your very reasoning about Barkley. Barkley is a brutal event with a defined course that is on the limits of what humans can complete. WS, UTMB, Leadville, Bad Water, they are completed by many hundreds of people every year, which is to say they've become bucket list events. Barkley might not be your cup of tea, but it is a race, on a defined course, and is simply MUCH more challenging than the others talked about in this thread. Last, the Barkley course IS marked through text instructions by the race organizer and is NOT an orienteering course. Being able to read terrain is entirely different from orienteering. There is a specific course that runners must complete to finish the loops. They are NOT permitted to choose any route that happens to get them to all of the books. Read up on the event. Any of the pretty boys of ultra who have stones will eventually try their hand at Barkley, and most of them will fail.
Mizuno fanboy wrote:
True grit are the athletes who compete against the best in the world and win over and over again. Barkley Marathons does not represent the best athletes in the world. It’s a select few who are handpicked, good at orienteering, and know the lay of the land.
You’re talking a tiny, handpicked, over-hyped, and contrived race in Tennessee that caters to a niche skillset. I’m talking about events and records that have been contested over and over again by the best athletes in the world. Any race that has barriers to entry is not bringing out the best athletes and showing us what true grit and human potential is.
Honestly, the Barkley race holds almost zero appeal in terms of terrain and scenery.
I can't think of a worse place to run. Looks like Blair witch terrain.
Part of trail running is to get out into great scenery, otherwise what the fok is the point?