Barkley Marathons: Hour 20 Update / March 18, 2021

Twenty hours into the race, 10 runners remain. It sucks. Temp dropping and the rain that is not supposed to be here doesn’t seem to want to stop. https://twitter.com/keithdunn James Earl Ray's thoughts after 54.5 hours on the future Barkley course: “That’s wilderness out there. I must have been in places that no human being has ever been. There’s heavy brush up there and things like that.”   James Earl Ray actually tried to escape 4 times from Brushy Mountain Prison on the Barkley course, twice using dummies similar to "Escape from Alcatraz."  The Barkley's "ratjaw" portion runs by mine ruins on Frozen Head Mountain. For more than 100 years, prisoners were forced to work in these coal mines.   Barkley runs through the Brushy Mountain Prison surrounded by mountains called “the third wall.”  “Many people have tried to escape by going over the mountain and that did not fare well for most of them.” Read/Listen to the Birth of the Barkley: http://bit.ly/2OnrLl4 @courtneydauwalter @jamilcoury and @maggatronruns are on loop two and I hear it is still raining. Follow @howiesternphoto for photo coverage @youhearthatmranderson on @youtube @salomonrunning  In March of 2020, I slipped on the illegally dumped cooking grease in front of John’s Burger and couldn’t walk for 6 weeks. This was my first injury since I started Endurance Training in 1979. Then in late April of 2020, I ended up in the hospital for the first time in my life. The diagnosis was Congestive Heart Failure.   This Vlog / Podcast documents my Sixth Decade of Endurance Training. The past Decade was about HOW FAR I could go.  This Decade will be about HOW FAST can I go post Congestive Heart Failure. https://linktr.ee/AND3RSON