Next year, let’s see a “no elite” and “no-returner” line-up to make the Barkley interesting again!” – Jeeff Nigeb
“Jeeff Nigeb Agreed!! Having 5 finishers kinda kills the magic, don’t it?? – Sam Marcengill
The 2024 Barkley Marathons has ended and for the first time in the event’s history, there were five finishers at the yellow gate. Most notably however, I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge that for the first time in the event’s now 38-year history, a woman is one of those finishers. I’ll start by offering my congratulations to the five who finished this year, and all other who dared to toe the line.
Barkley is known as “The Race That Eats Its Young,” a moniker given to the event since it was incredibly difficult to even fathom anyone finishing the thing. In fact, for the first 36 years of the event only 15 people had ever completed it (1986-2013). The first finish came by way of Mark Williams in 1995, during the events 10th edition.
Thirty-six years for the race to acquire 15 finishers. Just eleven years for the event to see 11 more finishers’ make it to the yellow gate a finisher. Jared Cambell is now a 4x finisher. John Kelly has finished 3x. With a 60-hour cut-off, the course record is held by 2x finisher Brett Maune who finished his 2nd time in 2012 with a time of 52:03:08… or about 8 hours to spare. The first time the event saw three finishers in a year was 2012. The event then saw three finishers in one year again in 2023, with 2024 being the first time that 5… that’s FIVE… finishers completed the event.
When considering the two quotes above, I would disagree with Jeeff in saying that for many the Barkley is still plenty interesting. While I don’t think any of us knows the real number, I think we need to consider just how many people were following Keith Dunn’s X (formerly known as Twitter) postings in near real time. My guess is that number was in the hundreds of thousands around the world, enough to make anyone believe that the Barkley is still plenty interesting, and to many.
Yet, I don’t think we need to discount Sam’s comment, in that having five finishers does indeed “kinda kills the magic.” A race once known for being so diabolical that it was near impossible to finish, now sees repeat finishers and even five finishers in one year. Perhaps then, the time has come to no longer call The Barkley “The World’s Toughest Footrace.” I won’t argue that it’s not one of the toughest, but I would argue that it is THE toughest. This year has proved, that it’s not only no longer the toughest but it is most certainly doable, many times over, and by the same people. The magic may indeed be gone.
There is always something new.. something else out there lurking in the shadows to take the spot of what once was. I know that by even writing this article, we’ll be flamed and completely dismissed for any number of reasons… I get it, I understand, and that’s okay… I just think it is time to recognize that there is a new Toughest Footrace out there, and after 10 editions it has yet to see anyone even come close to finishing it. That is in the Niwot’s Challenge.
Before I tell you more about Niwot’s… I was personally invited to run The Barkley Marathons by Gary Cantrell himself in 2008. I declined the offer the year, I just didn’t know enough about the Barkley to even consider it, never mind giving it an honest go. I was going to be the “sacrificial virgin” that year. After joining the old Barkley emailing list and doing more homework, I applied for the 2010 running of the adventure and was invited to attend. I was able to complete one official loop of the Barkley that year, with my pages from all of the books, and under the one loop cut-off. While not an official Barkley finisher, I am a Barkley veteran who engaged with its inner community for the better part of five years more than a decade ago.
The year I had the honor of participating in the Barkley was the first year that things really started to change around the event. It was the first year that any media was present, the first year that non-race staff/volunteers were present at the tower, the first year that movie cameras were rolling on the course to produce any one of the handful of documentaries that now exists about the hallowed event. Some of my photos from 2010 were even used in the Netflix Documentary “The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young” (See my name in the cedits) There were no media rules, media passes, guardrails to keep people back at camp, no massive circus/event tent present. It was still very much a grassroots adventure, kept mostly under the radar, that so few people even knew or cared about. That has changed considerably since.
I offer these two paragraphs simply to say that, I’ve been there, I’ve been “out there,” I’m still a fan and have followed Barkley like so many of you for the better part of the last 16 years. I have the utmost respect for Gary and what he and his community have created around the event (especially these last 5 or so years). This is where my perspective is coming from…
In 2013, I decided to create my own Barkley-esque adventure here in the mountains of Colorado. While I modeled some of the event after the Barkley, I also modeled it after the once well attended More and More Difficulty 50k that transpired in the mountains of New Hampshire. There are several things that are similar between Barkley and Niwot’s, and a lot that is also different. Point being, I truly believe that Niwot’s Challenge is now the Toughest Footrace in the world, and the magic that Barkley once possessed is now present herein.
So yeah, shoot the messenger. “Click-bait article” whatever else you wanna say or call it, good for you. Just, hear me out..
Niwot’s Challenge was started in 2013. The first year it was held in the mountains of Boulder, CO. The second year it was held just to the north in the mountains outside of Lyons, CO. In 2015, it was moved to its current area in the mountains southwest of the City of Denver. It has been held every year except 2017; Formerly on the weekend closest to 4/20, now held on the weekend closest to Cinco de Mayo.
The Niwot’s Course technically consists of four loops, each ~25 miles in length. In order to be an official finisher of the event, one must complete all four loops within the 60-hour cut-off. On race morning we host a ceremony prior to the start. At the ceremony there is a hat filled with slips of paper. Those slips say either “CW” or “CCW” and determines the direction the participant will take on the first loop.
The first loop is known as “Burn.” This year’s burn loop is 25 miles long with 9,910’ of elevation gain and 9,910’ of elevation loss. The low point is at 6,218’ above sea level, and the high point is at 8,776’ above sea level. Participants must complete their first burn loop within the first 14 hours and 45 minutes to proceed to loop two. There are 14 books hidden on the Burn loop, that runners will need to rip a page out of (that coincides with their bib number) to prove they were there. That slip of paper during the ceremony determines if the participant is doing burn CW or CCW.
Finishing the Burn loop is currently known as the “Niwot’s Fun Run.” Successful completion of this loop allows the participant to head out on loop two, known as “The Chief’s Loop.”
This year’s Chief’s Loop is 24.3 miles long with 10,064’ of elevation gain and 10,065’ of elevation loss. It is run in the CCW direction and must be completed within the first 30 hours of the event. Most of this loop is run at night. Navigation is considerably harder, not just because it is done mostly in the dark, but due to the local vegetation and terrain. The low point of Chief’s loop is 5,974’ above sea level, and the highest point is at 8,032’ above sea level.
At Niwot’s, every participant is known by their spirit animal, and not their first and/or last names. On this year’s roster we have Black Bear, Muskox, Goose, Donkey, Albatross, and more. Once a participant successfully completes the Burn and a Chief’s loop under the first 30-hour cut-off of the event, they are given a Chief’s name and are henceforth known by their Chief’s name and no longer by spirit animal.
Both loops combined amount to 49.38 Miles with 39,950’ of elevation change (combination of gain and loss). Competitors have 30 hours to get the first two loops done. In the events 10-year history, there have been 151 starters with 24 individuals having become a Chief. There has been a total of 35 Chief’s loop finishes.
Then there’s Deity. What we will call the first person who completes the full 100-miles at Niwot’s. This will be anyone who finally becomes the first official finisher of the Niwot’s Challenge. They’ll have done Burn and Chief’s once, then they’ll do them a second time. First, they’ll head back out on a Chief’s loop in the CW direction (opposite of their 1st loop). Upon completion of the Chief’s loop, they will then head back out onto Burn, and will take that final fourth loop on in the opposite direction they completed it early on. If Burn was done CW on day 1, it must be done in the CCW direction the final time.
In 2020, Brandt Ketterer, who has finished Chief’s now 6x, was the first and only person who has ever attempted Deity. He completed his second Chief’s loop before quitting with plenty of time left on the clock to get a final Burn loop done. His feet, completely toast from numerous torrential thunderstorms during that year’s race, just couldn’t handle another step. Again, 151 have started Niwots, and only ONE (1) has ever attempted to go further than becoming a Chief; and they failed. To date, Niwot’s still has zero finishers.
This year’s Niwot’s Challenge is being held on Saturday, May 4, 2024. For the first time in the event’s history, it has a full field of 40 participants on the roster. There is also 3 others awaiting entry on the wait list. For the second year in a row, there is $1,000 up for grabs to the first person who finishes the full 100-miles at Niwot’s.
A few weeks ago I had a brief interaction with John Kelly on Facebook. In the interaction I hoped to pique John’s interest in Niwot’s Challenge, as his next formidable opponent. In our brief interaction John pointed out just how many races have been created claiming to be “The Toughest,” and he’s not wrong. What he pointed out though, was that hardly any of them are doable. He, in essence, prefers to take on challenges that are indeed doable and within his reach.
Take the Euchre Bar Massacre in California as an example. Designed after the Barkley, but only 50 miles long with 25k of elevation gain. It is incredibly difficult, something even Max King failed at conquering. Western States Endurance Run Race Director Craig Thornley has tried his hand at the adventure. So difficult, I don’t think anyone would argue with you if you said it was entirely impossible.
We did endure a time in our sport, some may argue that we still are, where every new race director comes in and claims that their new race is the hardest, the toughest, the highest, the most gorgeous, the premier, and so on. Anyone can indeed slap a catchy hashtag or generalized saying onto any event and treat it as gospel. I am not disagreeing with John or even arguing with him on the point.
In this case however, Niwot’s in indeed doable. No offense to Brandt, but had he kept his feet dry and completed the mission, Niwot’s would indeed have a finisher by now. Yet, here we are. Niwot’s is hard, but no so hard that it’s impossible. Any one of the five who finished the Barkley this year could get it done, and we’d love to see it. Yet… like with most things in our world, we choose to settle with what we already know, or as some may call it… mediocrity.
During the 2018 running of the Barkley Marathons, Gary Cantrell (RD) stated ““For all the talk of exploring human potential, and seeking our limits, ultra-runners tend to play it safe. They line up challenges they know they can finish and run them carefully within their limits. At the Barkley, success is about overreaching our abilities and living to tell about it.”
At this point in time, I think it is okay for us to debate if the magic is gone, and if Barkley too has become a place where ultrarunners are lining up for challenges they know they can finish. If Jared has 4 finishes and John 3, doubting their ability to get it done is dwindling, isn’t it? At this point, if Jared or John starts in any given year and fail to finish, most of us would call it “an off year” for them, and not so much because the race is tough. If we consider John’s point, that anyone can call a race the toughest but if it’s not doable it’s not worth giving it the time of day… it flies in the face of Gary’s quote from 2018, as John and others are indeed lining up for a challenge they know they can finish. Perhaps Sam is right, and the magic is gone.
I think a new question begs to be asked, “If the camera wasn’t on you, if the world wasn’t paying attention, would you still do it?” I think anyone could argue, that the real magic surrounding Barkley at this point are the names of the faces who line up on race day, the names of the faces who will “be seen” in the crowd. I don’t think Barkley is as much about the challenge anymore, as its more about it being the place to be seen. It’s where you go to “elevate your status” within the ultra circle. To say you were there. To say you saw it go down in 2024 (or whatever year your story is from). Perhaps the Barkley is just the place with the stage, and where the lights and cameras don’t follow, no one pays no-mind.
Yet in the mountains of Colorado, “The Barkley of the West” contains the magic that has escaped the race in Tennessee. Since 2013, 151 hopefuls have tried, and not even one of them has finished. It’s not because it’s impossible, it most assuredly is. It’s because Niwot’s is now, the toughest footrace in the world.