Three athletes become the first to finish grueling 130-mile Tennessee ultramarathon in FIVE YEARS
Three athletes become the first to finish grueling 130-mile Tennessee ultramarathon in FIVE YEARS… and only 17 have completed the course since race began in 1986
Few people have completed the grueling Barkley Marathons over the years, but three more names were added to the list on Friday in Tennessee.
The 100 to 130-mile ultramarathon features five loops of around 20 miles through the mountains at Frozen Head State Park, with participants responsible for navigating themselves.
And Aurelien Sanchez, John Kelly and Karel Sabbe managed to finish the mammoth feat this year, becoming the first people to complete the race in five years according to CNN.
Furthermore, only 17 people have finished the race since it began in 1986, putting the trio in illustrious territory.
The race was invented by runner Gary Cantrell, and inspired by the prison escape of James Earl Ray, who assassinated Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jim Nelson is seen participating in the Barkley Marathons in 2007
Ray made it eight miles away from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in eastern Tennessee in a little over two days, CNN said, inspiring Cantrell to test the limits of how far people could go in 60 hours.
The competition features some unique rules, as there are no aid stations, GPS or phones to help with navigation in the mountains.
Additionally, there are unmanned checkpoints, with runners required to rip out a page of a book corresponding to their bib number and present them at the end of each loop.
Sanchez is the first French runner to complete the event, and was greeted to a hero’s welcome back in Toulouse, as he sprayed a bottle of champagne to celebrate his achievement.
Gary Cantrell (center) addresses the competitors moments before the race in 2007
Kelly, meanwhile, thanked his followers for their support on Twitter.
‘Thank you to everyone for the support, and I hope some of what we get to discover out there is a shared experience,’ he said.
‘Or, if we’re all just a bunch of idiots running around in the woods, that at least it’s entertaining.’
The only other time three people have completed the race was 2012, according to Cantrell.
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