Getting In · Coveted ultra
The Barkley Marathons
There is no website. There is no published entry date. There is no course map. Working out how to apply is the first test, and if you have to ask, that's your answer. In 2026 forty people started and nobody finished.
- Distance
- ~100+ miFive loops, unmeasured
- Climbing
- ~60,000 ftRoughly Everest twice
- Cutoff
- 60 hours
- Field
- 40
- Finishers
- ~20 in 40 years
- 2026
- No finishersEarliest start ever, Feb 14
The Barkley exists because James Earl Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in 1977 and covered only about eight miles in 54 hours. Lazarus Lake looked at the terrain and decided you could get a hundred miles out of it. The race is five loops of roughly twenty miles through Frozen Head State Park, off-trail, navigating by map and compass, finding books hidden on the course and tearing out the page matching your bib number.
Around sixty thousand feet of climbing, on unmarked briar-covered slopes with names like Rat Jaw and Testicle Spectacle, in sixty hours. In forty years, roughly twenty people have finished. In 2026, forty runners started after the earliest start in race history (6 a.m. on February 14), and France's Sébastien Raichon completing a Fun Run was the only completion of any distance.
How to get in
- ApplicationFigure out the application
There is no public entry form. The process involves finding out when and where to submit, writing an essay on why you should be allowed to run, paying an application fee that has historically been $1.60, and, for first-timers known as virgins, bringing a license plate from your home state or country. Veterans and 'human sacrifices' have their own requirements. Laz chooses the field personally.
- Volunteer / serviceBe a known quantity
The realistic path is not a hack. It is being someone the ultra community knows: finishing hard things, volunteering, showing up at the Barkley Fall Classic, and understanding what 'out there' means. See the Barkley Fall Classic guide, which is the public-facing way to experience this terrain.
Questions runners actually ask
How do you apply to the Barkley Marathons?
There is no public entry form or published date. Working out the process is deliberately part of the selection. It has historically involved an essay, a $1.60 fee, and a license plate from your home state or country for first-timers.
Has anyone finished recently?
In 2026 there were no finishers, for the 26th time since 1986. Sébastien Raichon completed a Fun Run, the shorter three-loop distance, and that was the only completion.
What is a Fun Run?
Three loops, roughly 60 miles and 36,000 feet of climbing, inside 40 hours. It is a serious achievement in its own right and most years only a handful of people manage it.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Need the races in between? The hard part of a bucket list year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.