Knit to This
The Barkley Marathons
Ultra runners are wired a little bit differently than most of us. For these athletes, a marathon—a run of 26.2 miles—is really just a warm-up for something longer, like a 50-100 mile race across trails or through deserts or on a 1-mile loop over and over again.
And then there are the Barkley Marathons runners, who are a special sort of … devoted? Sure. Let’s call them devoted.
I first heard about the Barkley decades ago in a newsroom in Knoxville, Tennessee. One of our reporters was obsessed with this famous-in-running-circles event in nearby Frozen Head State Park. Eventually, he wrangled a trip to the staging grounds and wrote a story about the event.
No, he didn’t run it. Don’t be silly.
Time passed.
In 2015, the now infamous (in running circles) documentary. External Link. Opens in new window. premiered and the world (those who enjoy documentaries, anyway) learned about the Barkley and Lazarus Lake, its race director.
Let me assure you that you don’t need to be a runner to find this 90-minute movie a balm in a hectic world. You do, however, need to be a big fan of watching flawed and creative humans overcome their limitations.
Lake and some buddies started the race not long after James Earl Ray’s infamous escape in 1977 from Brushy Mountain Prison. Ray managed to make it eight miles in 58 hours before being hopelessly overcome by Frozen Head’s terrain. Lake and company thought they could have done 100 miles in the same time period. And so a race was born, not to praise Ray, mind, but to mock him.
If a runner can figure out how to enter (the field is limited to 40), he or she has 60 hours to travel five 20+ mile loops over. External Link. Opens in new window., under, and through the park. Sounds simple enough, right? Oh, my sweet summer child.
The route isn’t marked. Before the race starts (and the start time is a mystery every year), the runners are given a master map to copy. They are stripped of any electronics and need to provide their own compass.
Barkley takes place close to April Fool’s Day, which means the weather could be just about anything from hazy, hot, and humid to sleeting, snowing, and bitter. And sometimes all of that at once, depending on where you are on the course.
There is no course support. You pack anything you might need and hope you thought of everything.
There are no manned checkpoints. Instead runners need to find a dozen or so books scattered around, rip out an assigned page, and pack it back to the start. Miss a book and your race is over.
There are a million ways to fail; there are very few ways to succeed.
In its first 25 years, ten runners finished the race. The success rate has improved. Since 1995, 20 different people have completed all five loops. In 2024, the first woman was victorious. In 2025—the race happened in the middle of March—no one finished.
Each year, Lake finds a way to make the race a little bit more difficult. Most years, like this year, the course wins.
“If you’re going to face a real challenge it has to be a real challenge. You can’t accomplish anything without the possibility of failure,” Lake says. For each and every runner, the race won’t go the way they planned it. Watching them dig deep in the face of impossible circumstances is a testament to the human spirit—and to their drive to push their own limits just a little but more.
It’s not just runners who feel this impulse. How many knitting projects have you started that were just beyond your skill set? How many did you finish, despite the odds? And how many are still out there, waiting?
Sure, those stakes are lower and less aerobically challenging than the Barkley—but that doesn’t make them less interesting.
Each punishing loop of the Barkley ends in camp, where there is food, shelter, and comfort. The hardest part of the whole race is turning your back on that and heading out into the wilderness again to see what new horrors you’ll need to overcome. The only way back to safety is to dig deep and face them.
And if that isn’t a metaphor for life (to say nothing of knitting), I don’t know what is.
I loved this article!
I just received my MDK membership and pattern book ‘Mosaic’. I paged through frontwards and backwards and the dug in. Overwhelmed was I -a beginner knitter -as all the beautiful projects seem way beyond my garter stitch self-even the first project cowl. So much counting! I asked myself if this book would join the 5 started not finished projects?
Reading your article about long distance difficult running makes me encouraged-not discouraged! I may not finish all those projects but I will try Mosaic knitting if I can find a teacher to consult. I will consider the teacher a tool to help me reach an end and visualize that cowl on me or someone I love a lot.
(My knitting mother died at 94 and I am trying to finish her 2 unfinished projects too. )
Both adventures will be my race-accomplished in my favorite chair while visualizing those runners outside in the elements looking for race clues.
I ran the Philadelphia Marathon last fall at 65 and I think knitting is harder than running. There are times I have worked days on just figuring out a cast-on method. But I think the two hobbies go well together. Great article!
I did the Philly marathon about 20 years ago. Do they still have the route with a loop around the circle where you are back to the starting line at around mile 15 and then you have to do an ‘out and back’ for the last 10 miles? That reminds me of how they are describing the feeling of the Barkley base camp and needing to leave for another loop. It was SOOOOO hard when I was at the start/finish and tired and there was STILL 10 more miles to go.
What a rabbit hole…I followed the link and read the article by Sara Estes. I like your metaphor–articles like this keep me subscribing to MDK! Guess it’s time to pony up for an Apple TV+ subscription!
I ran a 50 mile Ultra Marathon at age 57. It was flat and open and HARD and LONG. The Barkley has always fascinated me and I know a couple people who have tried it. Craziness!!! Long, hard knits are so satisfying when finished. Thank you for the reminder to dig in and go long!!!
Fascinating. Appropriate. Inspiring. Thank you.
omgoodness, Adrienne – this is brilliant. and timely for me in just the right way. x
Adrienne, this is amazing! You always seem to come up with great and fascinating things to watch, and then tie it back to knitting! Your brain is amazing. Thank you for this recommendation. I’ll enjoy it as I work away on my projects.
I confess to have knit to many YouTube videos about the Barkley. And now it shows up on MDK! I’m glad to know I’m not the only knitting wacko out there.
I have never heard of the Barkley marathons, but I’m interested now.
Thanks for the article.
I have always thought the Barkley runners were a special kind of… devoted. Yeah, that’s it, devoted. I now have increased respect for their devotion. And tackling my first sweater seems less intimidating somehow.
I might have to get Apple TV for a month to watch this! I don’t have any marathon projects in mind, but I can have a marathon of finishing!
I live in Knoxville and have hiked Frozen Head in pleasant weather with kids and pets! This is a fascinating story I will explore further! And a great metaphor for life indeed!
Wonderful article. I looked in You Tube about this Barkley Marathon and found out that a female runner, Jasmin Paris from Scotland competed this horrendous marathon and was the first female to do so in 2024. I had tears in my eyes I’m such a feminist! So I had started this project my first fair aisle knitting top that has brought me to tears, also. Rip, rip yes and repeat till I’m almost finished with this top. Perseverance like the endurance in your article and I’m still learning.
The founder of that race swore a woman could never finish it – and then one did. Last year Jasmine Paris was the first woman ever to complete the race. She had something like 90 seconds to spare. This year he made the course so hard that no one finished. Think he didn’t like the lady smashing his sexist assertion? unknown, but likely.
Ms. Paris joins the ranks of 19 other runners who have ever completed the race in the alloted time. Quite the inspiration to persevere when things are hard!
As a runner who has finished 25+ marathons, there isn’t much that knitting and ultra running have in common. True marathoners (not the 1 and done) are always in search of good gear, a flat course to qualify, obsessed with getting miles in, and a VO2 max. Was this just a recommendation what to watch on Netflix? I’m lost on how this a knitting related article.
Why so negative? She did pull it into knitting. Also, MDK does regularly suggest movies, shows, podcasts, etc., to enjoy while knitting. If you don’t like a post why take the time to say so? Obviously many did like it. I hope you can go for a run soon and get back to your happy place, as it seems like you’re angry about something.
I have run one marathan, 15 years ago. Hated it! Never again. But I did enjoy the discipline of training for it. I think the training is kind of like knitting: sustained shorter sessions (and some longer boring ones like a big swath of stockinette) with a challenging but achievable long-term goal.
This is of the few times that I have immediately watched a “knit to this.” I grew up in Knoxville, so the opportunity to spend some time in the East Tennessee mountains in spring, even if virtually, was not to be missed. (Bonus: succeeded in tinking back double-knit mittens to fix the thumb increase)
Wow. Ordinary 26.2-mile marathons are plenty hard enough for mortals. This sounds astonishing.
Laz has created the ultimate ultra marathon. And yes 2025 proves this. No one finished!
I needed this article! Not for running, but for my knitting. I’m about to start the actual slip stitch pattern on the Pressed Flowers cardigan after several swatches and changing yarns. But I want this sweater and I want to master the slip stitch pattern. Can you say Waffle Sweater? If I could successfully knit the beautiful Honeycomb Scarf and figure out brioche, I can do this. Thank you Adrienne for the inspiration.