American Football (And Other Yank 'sports')

[RoverAndOut 3,478]

Is this a Yank sport? Well, it's a sporting event that takes place in Tennessee, so this seems as good a place as any to mention this...

 

I don't know if this is the right forum for such discussions, but is anybody familiar with, or been following, the Barkley Marathons? How do I sum this up? It's a race set up in the 80s consisting of 5 repeated loops totalling 100 miles completed in 60 hours in unforgiving terrain, featuring elevation of more than twice the height of Everest.  It was inspired by a daring attempted prison escape by James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King. It is known as "the race that eats its young" and there are often no finishers. If you complete 3 loops in 40 hours, you are credited with a "fun run". If you complete 3 loops in more than 40 hours or 5 loops in more than 60 hours, you are classified as DNF. There is no course map per se, only a description, loops are completed either clockwise or anti-clockwise, with each decided by the organiser and the final loop is always completed alternately clockwise and anticlockwise, with the first starter getting the choice of direction (the reason for setting them off in opposite directions is to try to prevent teaming up to complete the last lap and make it a little competitive). Competitors have been known to get wildly lost, sleep in puddles and hallucinate a whole variety of things in their sleep deprived states. In the 36 years it has been operating, there had only been 17 finishers, some of those completed by the same people. One cannot "enter" in a conventional sense, you need to write a letter saying why you should be given entry and there is no entry fee (previous finishers get automatic entry) and the field is limited to 35-40 per year, half of whom usually drop out within the first 2 loops. There was a Netflix documentary about it around a decade ago, which some of you may have seen. Coverage generally is only provided through sporadic updates on Twitter.

 

Anyway, the 2024 Barkley Marathons started on Thursday morning at 5.17am local time and concluded at 5.17pm this evening (9.17pm UK time). Conditions have been favourable, and an incredible 7 people started the final loop, among them a 2-time finisher and a 3-time finisher, 2 debutants, 2 previous competitors and a British woman called Jasmin Paris, who became the first woman ever to attempt a 5th loop, having last year completed 4 loops but outside the time limit to continue. First finisher was a Ukrainian debutant in 58 hours, 44 minutes and 59 seconds. Second was now a 3-time finisher in 59:15:38. A repeat attempter ended up lost and didn't finish. The 3-time finisher became a 4-time finisher, a new record, in 59:30:32. Another previous attempter completed for the first time in 59:38:42, before the other debutant "tapped out", leaving Jasmin and a sizable chunk of people on Twitter waiting with baited breath to see whether she would become the first woman to complete the Barkley. As 9.17pm approached, it got very tense. Then, just as the clock ticked past 9.17pm, the update came: Jasmin Paris finished loop five in 59:58:21 - or to put it another way, she completed a 100-mile, 60-hour race with 99 seconds to spare. I promise you, it was thrilling. And I wanted to tell you about it. And see if any of you have also been following the chaos.

 

*Please note, I am in no way an ultra runner myself. I'm a committed parkrunner, but have never run further than a 10K, but the Barkley is an astonishing feat of human endeavour.

 

**If there's a more appropriate thread for this, do let me know.

[time 7,968]

10 hours ago, RoverAndOut said:

Is this a Yank sport? Well, it's a sporting event that takes place in Tennessee, so this seems as good a place as any to mention this...

 

I don't know if this is the right forum for such discussions, but is anybody familiar with, or been following, the Barkley Marathons? How do I sum this up? It's a race set up in the 80s consisting of 5 repeated loops totalling 100 miles completed in 60 hours in unforgiving terrain, featuring elevation of more than twice the height of Everest.  It was inspired by a daring attempted prison escape by James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King. It is known as "the race that eats its young" and there are often no finishers. If you complete 3 loops in 40 hours, you are credited with a "fun run". If you complete 3 loops in more than 40 hours or 5 loops in more than 60 hours, you are classified as DNF. There is no course map per se, only a description, loops are completed either clockwise or anti-clockwise, with each decided by the organiser and the final loop is always completed alternately clockwise and anticlockwise, with the first starter getting the choice of direction (the reason for setting them off in opposite directions is to try to prevent teaming up to complete the last lap and make it a little competitive). Competitors have been known to get wildly lost, sleep in puddles and hallucinate a whole variety of things in their sleep deprived states. In the 36 years it has been operating, there had only been 17 finishers, some of those completed by the same people. One cannot "enter" in a conventional sense, you need to write a letter saying why you should be given entry and there is no entry fee (previous finishers get automatic entry) and the field is limited to 35-40 per year, half of whom usually drop out within the first 2 loops. There was a Netflix documentary about it around a decade ago, which some of you may have seen. Coverage generally is only provided through sporadic updates on Twitter.

 

Anyway, the 2024 Barkley Marathons started on Thursday morning at 5.17am local time and concluded at 5.17pm this evening (9.17pm UK time). Conditions have been favourable, and an incredible 7 people started the final loop, among them a 2-time finisher and a 3-time finisher, 2 debutants, 2 previous competitors and a British woman called Jasmin Paris, who became the first woman ever to attempt a 5th loop, having last year completed 4 loops but outside the time limit to continue. First finisher was a Ukrainian debutant in 58 hours, 44 minutes and 59 seconds. Second was now a 3-time finisher in 59:15:38. A repeat attempter ended up lost and didn't finish. The 3-time finisher became a 4-time finisher, a new record, in 59:30:32. Another previous attempter completed for the first time in 59:38:42, before the other debutant "tapped out", leaving Jasmin and a sizable chunk of people on Twitter waiting with baited breath to see whether she would become the first woman to complete the Barkley. As 9.17pm approached, it got very tense. Then, just as the clock ticked past 9.17pm, the update came: Jasmin Paris finished loop five in 59:58:21 - or to put it another way, she completed a 100-mile, 60-hour race with 99 seconds to spare. I promise you, it was thrilling. And I wanted to tell you about it. And see if any of you have also been following the chaos.

 

*Please note, I am in no way an ultra runner myself. I'm a committed parkrunner, but have never run further than a 10K, but the Barkley is an astonishing feat of human endeavour.

 

**If there's a more appropriate thread for this, do let me know.

Jasmin Paris' achievement has even made the papers.

[Grim Up North 3,565]

15 hours ago, RoverAndOut said:

Is this a Yank sport? Well, it's a sporting event that takes place in Tennessee, so this seems as good a place as any to mention this...

 

I don't know if this is the right forum for such discussions, but is anybody familiar with, or been following, the Barkley Marathons? How do I sum this up? It's a race set up in the 80s consisting of 5 repeated loops totalling 100 miles completed in 60 hours in unforgiving terrain, featuring elevation of more than twice the height of Everest.  It was inspired by a daring attempted prison escape by James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King. It is known as "the race that eats its young" and there are often no finishers. If you complete 3 loops in 40 hours, you are credited with a "fun run". If you complete 3 loops in more than 40 hours or 5 loops in more than 60 hours, you are classified as DNF. There is no course map per se, only a description, loops are completed either clockwise or anti-clockwise, with each decided by the organiser and the final loop is always completed alternately clockwise and anticlockwise, with the first starter getting the choice of direction (the reason for setting them off in opposite directions is to try to prevent teaming up to complete the last lap and make it a little competitive). Competitors have been known to get wildly lost, sleep in puddles and hallucinate a whole variety of things in their sleep deprived states. In the 36 years it has been operating, there had only been 17 finishers, some of those completed by the same people. One cannot "enter" in a conventional sense, you need to write a letter saying why you should be given entry and there is no entry fee (previous finishers get automatic entry) and the field is limited to 35-40 per year, half of whom usually drop out within the first 2 loops. There was a Netflix documentary about it around a decade ago, which some of you may have seen. Coverage generally is only provided through sporadic updates on Twitter.

 

Anyway, the 2024 Barkley Marathons started on Thursday morning at 5.17am local time and concluded at 5.17pm this evening (9.17pm UK time). Conditions have been favourable, and an incredible 7 people started the final loop, among them a 2-time finisher and a 3-time finisher, 2 debutants, 2 previous competitors and a British woman called Jasmin Paris, who became the first woman ever to attempt a 5th loop, having last year completed 4 loops but outside the time limit to continue. First finisher was a Ukrainian debutant in 58 hours, 44 minutes and 59 seconds. Second was now a 3-time finisher in 59:15:38. A repeat attempter ended up lost and didn't finish. The 3-time finisher became a 4-time finisher, a new record, in 59:30:32. Another previous attempter completed for the first time in 59:38:42, before the other debutant "tapped out", leaving Jasmin and a sizable chunk of people on Twitter waiting with baited breath to see whether she would become the first woman to complete the Barkley. As 9.17pm approached, it got very tense. Then, just as the clock ticked past 9.17pm, the update came: Jasmin Paris finished loop five in 59:58:21 - or to put it another way, she completed a 100-mile, 60-hour race with 99 seconds to spare. I promise you, it was thrilling. And I wanted to tell you about it. And see if any of you have also been following the chaos.

 

*Please note, I am in no way an ultra runner myself. I'm a committed parkrunner, but have never run further than a 10K, but the Barkley is an astonishing feat of human endeavour.

 

**If there's a more appropriate thread for this, do let me know.

Just to make you feel not alone this is an amazing feat that I have been enjoying reading about today - she ran the Lakes in a Day a couple of years ago when I did it which is a mere 51.5 miles and 13,000 feet climbing from north to south of Lake District - she finished about 3.5 hours ahead of me that day (roughly 10:20 to 13:50 hours) - but I think she did it as a training jog whereas it nearly killed me! She is quite something.