Just how brutal the Barkley Marathons is is shown by the first figures trickling in via X (formerly Twitter and always the best way to follow the race, ed.): after “only” seventeen hours, the first half of the field of participants has already dropped out. Currently, the race, which started yesterday, is led by female Jasmin Paris, running in her third of five laps.
The runners who dropped out came a long way from there and stopped before or just after lap one. Currently, four runners are running in their third lap: in addition to Jasmin Paris, Damian Hall, John Kelly (one of the three finishers last year, ed.) and Ihor Verys. They began their third lap after just under 20 hours. After completing that third lap, which is over thirty kilometers, they at least completed the ‘Fun Run’. To complete the full Barkley Marathons, two more laps must be run after that.
