NO

2. What are the trails like?

Some of them are your basic candy-ass sissy trails. Others may not have been maintained for 60 years or more. A few of the trails have been blazed by the flesh and blood of previous Barkley runners. It is possible that you will have to deal with blow-downs, briers, unbridged streams, ice. loose rocks, mud, poor footing, and any other imaginable obstacle.

3. What is a Barkley?

It is a scruffy, unkempt, hard-assed chicken farmer, who grew up so far out in the boondocks that he still thinks "the net" is what you use to catch "the fish."

4. What is they have to send Search and Rescue to get me?

Any runner who requires a Search and/or Rescue effort will be billed for the full cost of the operation.

5. How about Drop Bags?

If you will put all the desired supplies in a bag, and place it in the trunk of your car, we promise it will be waiting for you every 20 miles.

6. Do you think the time limits are fair?

NO

7. How do the time limits work?

After the start, the runner has 13:20 to begin the second lap, and another 13:20 (total of 26:40) to start the third. Anyone wishing to continue beyond the fun run must be started on Loop 4 before 36:00 (12 hours per 20 mile loop), and loop 5 before 48:00. Runners must check in at the completion of a lap (before the limits, if the lap is to count), and must check out before starting the next lap.

8. If you don't weigh our brains, them how will you know whether we are fit to continue?

Runners agree to demonstrate that they are adequately prepared for each loop, i.e. "where is your rain gear", "where is your light", etc. Also, runners who are not able to respond coherently, or control their bodily functions are subject to being pulled. Either Park Personnel, or Race Personnel, are authorized to terminate a runner if they feel he is not fit to continue, but the Responsibility for determining when a runner should stop is solely that of the runner.

9. If you have to take a dump, what do you wipe it with?

Real men use green pine cones.

10. Does the Race have a Race Doctor?

Yes, and you know who it is. (Starts with the letter K)

11. So, can we really expect medical care?

NO

12. What is the worst recorded result in the race?

56 hours for 4 miles. Although 30+ runners have failed to reach the 2 mile mark at all.

13. What is that tiny little thing in my shorts after the race?

We don't want to say, but you can get an implant to fix it back like it was.

14. What is the deal with the "books"?

On the course, checkpoints consist of paperback books set out at designated locations. Each runner must collect one page from each book, and turn them in at the end of each loop. Failure to have a full set of pages will disqualify that loop.

15. Would you really not count a loop just because I lost ONE page??

Yes, and we have done it before even though we knew the runner had done the full loop.

16. Do you think that was fair?

NO

17. Do you make any effort to be fair?

NO

18. Why do so few people finish?

Because the others quit.

19. Why do most of them quit?

As soon as they think of a plausible excuse. The further they go, the more excuses sound plausible.

20. Why do some of the runners who have been there say it isn't so bad?

Because they weren't out there very long. (see question 12)

21. Has the course been changed since the ONE finisher?

NO

22. Does speed really kill? 

There is no certainty to that. But, of the 5 sub 7 hour 100K runners who have been here, none have ever completed a fun run. Something such scorchers as Suzi Shearer Thibeault, Kawika Spalding, and Nancy Hamilton have done.

23. What about bad weather?

It is true that heavy rains, freezing cold, dense fog, snow, sleet, or ice can all make the 100 miler impossible. But thus go the fortunes of war.

24. Do you think that is fair?

NO

25. It is pretty cool when you tap out the other runners, but I really wish you would not do it to me?

But, all the other runners think it is so cool when we tap you out.

26. Do you actually not want anyone to finish?

Oh no, I will be rooting for each and every one of you. And when a particularly gallant effort collapses into despair and disaster, I will feel your pain. It makes me sad to see grown men, legendary running figures, lie face down in the dirt and weep like small children.

27. Wasn't this the top 25 most frequently asked questions? 

Always expect a little more from the Barkley than you planned for.