Is Barkley marathon really hard?

No. It's not. Go do it and report back. Keep cracking those stellar jokes on Rat Jaw.

Yes, it’s really hard. But no, it is not running.

Do we actually know that its 27 miles? Sections are added every year and nobody wears a gps, so I didn't think actual distance was known. Also the elevation is supposedly insane.

The running itself is easy if you're a 3-hour marathoner.

The hard part is navigating the course in bad weather while being sleep-deprived and possibly underfueled as well.

BTW, you can even make a golf course as hard as the Barkley. Some ideas:

- Require people to show up at least 24 hours before the race. Sound alarms and play loud music all day and night so they can't sleep.

- Put course markers in obscure places with vague descriptions. "Get that pen that's in a tree which has a branch that looks like a fish hook."

- Hold the race in a blizzard, on a day that's both really windy and rainy, or on a day with 110+ degree temps.

- Don't allow any aid. Each person needs to carry their own food, water, and headlamp that's enough to last 12+ hours.

Make it a 60-hour race, and the winner will almost certainly have covered less than 100 miles. Oh wait, I just described the Barkley with some minor modifications.

65k ft of vert on difficult terrain as well.

Yeah, it's hard. I have 2 friends who have attempted it - one is a pretty well-known ultrarunner with lots of success, good at persevering and suffering, and he's not come even close. I've heard them describe it and I'll take their word for it. It takes a certain set of skillzzzz (fitness, orienteering, sleep deprivation, positive attitude). It ain't running at all.

I'm fascinated by it (the Netflix doc is a fun watch) but I have less than zero interest in attempting it. Laz is an evil genius - I've done the Backyard format and run Strolling Jim and he has some fun wrinkles in his events, but Barkley is beyond me.

Agreed on a lot of this. I'm a trail/ultra runner that wouldn't hesitate to run a marked course on similar terrain. This is something entirely different and while I'm fascinated by it I have no interest in ever attempting it. It's not just about the fitness and ability to move fast up and down mountains. There's probably a few hundred people in the US alone that could finish this race if that was the primary factor.

The other skills required - planning the logistics of nutrition/interloopals/crew/gear/etc, navigating(no electronics allowed), and managing everything while severely sleep deprived cut that number down to dozens? worldwide - and maybe a few of them get a chance at the race each year due to the convoluted entry process and park limits.

There's better ultra "races" for the elite runners, but this is certainly an elite "event" in its own right, albeit a quirky one.

It is like asking a weight-lifter if benching 100lbs is hard. No? What about doing it for 60 hours and you can't set the bar down or sleep the whole time?

It isn't about "running." It is about sleeping, eating, route-finding, and climbing wet, sandy, unrunnable dirt.

There is only about a quarter mile of runnable terrain. You are allowed to run, but this isn’t a running race.