📚Book Announcement📚 Back at the Barkley firepit this year – and thrilled to announce THE ENDURANCE ARTIST is now available for pre-order! This rare look into Lazarus Lake will be published by 80/20 and distributed by Simon & Schuster. #BM100🔗bit.ly/3FuwNe5 It began with a question—one that ran through Laz’s life, his races, and my encounters with him: “What makes you quit?” And what started as a simple biography morphed into something else altogether. There’s hard, insanely hard, then there’s Laz’s creations. He’s been called everything from a hillbilly genius to an evil mastermind to “the Willy Wonka of the Woods.” Through jeerleaders, taunts, and non-standardized (often unknown) distances – Laz questions whether our obsession with fairness ultimately limits our potential. His Barkley Marathons is widely regarded as the most difficult and ingenious ultramarathon ever devised. Set in the thorny wilds of Tennessee, runners hunt for hidden books in hills, hells, and hollers. In 38 years, only 20 runners have reached the finish line. His Backyard Ultras upend our notions of winning and losing—a race with no finish line, where “speed kills” and the best finish last. The Endurance Artist offers the reader a ringside seat to these crucibles and punches through the gore to expose a surprising humanity beneath. Along the way, an unflinching portrait of Lazarus Lake emerges – an aimless hippie-turned hospital orderly-turned accountant, who took a simple idea – that failure has to hurt – and made it into an art form. "I was captivated. The suffering, striving, and dreaming of the ultra-community is right there smack up against the unanswerable yet irresistible question: Why does anyone do this? So many insights into Laz and his legacy, while never losing track of the basic mystery of the man." —Tom Foreman, Emmy-award-winning journalist at CNN "Beasley finally delivers the tale so many of us have waited to read, a book as rambunctious, bloody and—yes, beautiful—as its subjects. If you're a runner—you'll devour it. If you're not a runner—you'll devour it. " —Chris Solomon, Contributing editor at Outside magazine “Whether you run or not, you will love reading about the quirky, brilliant, hillbilly genius of Lazarus Lake who, like Bob Dylan, isn’t afraid to experiment. He doesn’t care about expectations or what others think of him. The Endurance Artist will... leave you simultaneously laughing and cringing as you meet a cast of characters as exceptional as they come.” —Marshall Ulrich, best-selling author of Running on Empty and Both Feet on the Ground. Endurance athlete, speaker, and Route 66 UltraRun race director. 📢I'll be covering this year's Barkley for The Guardian. Stay tuned! #TheEnduranceArtist #lazbook #ultrarunning

Howie!! 👍

Run Rabbit Run, a 100-miler in the Routt National Forest of northern Colorado, is putting up a $100,000 prize to BOTH the top female and male finishers in 2027.

"decision point . the barkley fall classic, like its namesake, the barkley marathons, is not designed to nurse you to a finish. . it is designed to push you to your absolute limit... . and then to give you the opportunity to push yourself beyond. . this year's decision point was particularly cruel. after absorbing a brutal beating, the athlete finds theirself at the base of a frightful climb. the athlete in the picture has just begun an ascent of 2000 feet (610 meters) in 0.8 miles (1.3 km). . the choice is: call it a day with a marathon completion right there and walk away or; start that climb and sacrifice the marathon finish: all or nothing when you continue; a 50 km finish or a dnf! . to make it worse, there are TWO MORE climbs just as punishing between here and the finish. . needless to say, more athletes quit here than went on. many really were "finished" the aid station at the turnaround looked more like a battlefield triage than an ultramarathon aid station. they had already covered 24 miles (39 km) with more than 10,000 feet of climb (3000 meters) much of it on unmaintained trails choked with brush, vines and briers. . particularly inspiring were the ones who chose to attack that climb as the time limit for continuing drew near. they knew that the odds of even making it to the top of the rat jaw were slim. that in all probability they were doomed to a DNF. but they were determined to fight to the very end. . this is what keeps me coming back to put this on again and again. i have had the privilege of seeing some of the best athletes in the world putting on performances that will go down in history. but greatness is not confined to the athletes with exceptional physical gifts. greatness comes from the heart. every one of us has greatness in us. greatness is responding to the challenge when everything in us says it is time to give up. that moment at the decision point is what athletes come to the BFC to experience. we cannot really know what we will do at that moment unless we actually face it. . jackie milzman sent a kind note to us (steve durbin is the other half of putting on this event) after the race: "I have never had to dig as deep as I had to for that race, from the very first minute. Then coming into the decision point with two minutes to spare, knowing there was reasonably no way I’d have time to finish and having rat jaw ahead of me, and still getting back out there, and making it up rat jaw again to the fire tower, did something to my insides that I can’t put into words. I didn’t get the finish but I don’t think I’ve ever felt more proud of a DNF" . "i had snapped a picture of one of the last athletes starting up that monster, and thought maybe it was jackie. it wasnt, but this athlete is equally a hero in my eyes. and represents all the ones who never gave up, even tho they knew they were throwing away a sure finish in exchange for a horrible ordeal in fighting to the last minute.. . and facing almost certain defeat. . but you will never know, if you dont try! . a race director's job is to provide the athlete a venue in which to find greatness in themselves. jackie, this unnamed athlete in the picture, and many others found greatness in themselves yesterday... . it was a privilege to be there to see it." - LAZ

Alabama game postponed again and for this little thing?

Despite 90-degree heat and copious briars, 19 runners have now finished the Barkley Fall Classic.

8 have now finished the Barkley Fall Classic.

Six have finished the Barkley Fall Classic.

Barkley Fall Classic -- 50 out of 400-plus have made the 17-mile mark. 20 did it under 5 hours. Temps climbing to 90 degrees. Old shirt but my fav. #BFC50k

Why am I lying here awake in the back of my car at 4:20am on a Saturday? Because soon I will watch aa a few hundred runners seek to prove themselves at the Barkley Fall Classic. #BFK50k

IF you ever wondered about the Barkley Fall Classic slip & slide, here's a peek: facebook.com/reel/1321743209…

IF you happen to wander over to Frozen Head State Park, for the BFC or just personal leisure (why on Earth would you do that), The Endurance Artist is now available in the gift shop. 👍

Phil Gore is out of surgery for a hematoma that developed during his Backyard 168 project. He believes the pain in his leg began during the 104th hour. He's recovering well according to his FB page. PC: Phil Gore

More course records shattered

Happy Birthday, Howie!! The man who ran forever! Nice write up in @CanadianRunning 🙏 LINK: runningmagazine.ca/the-scene…

BFC, the Barkley Fall Classic, is coming this week, and is set to be a mass-casualty event.

MEG ECKERT, school teacher and ultrarunner, sets new Women's World Record for six days. Her 636 miles beats her own WR by 33 miles and bests the American Men's record, held by Joe Fijis, by 30 miles. PC: Arcadia De Miguel Sanz

Running Goals, my old friend Good 2 C U again 🎶