Podcast #62 Billy Reed Takes on The Barkley Marathon 2019

We have a great episode for you this week Billy Reed from Ballyclare County Antrim talks us through his experience of the Barkley 100, which is arguably the hardest 100milish ultra event in the world with only 15 finishers since its creation in 1986.

 

The Barkley course was designed by the infamous Lazarus Lake who also created Bigs backyard ultra known locally as the last one standing, Laz was inspired upon hearing about the 1977 escape of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., from nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Ray covered only 8 miles after running 55 hours in the woods and Laz who was a great runner in his time said he could have done at least 100 miles and so the Barkley Marathon was born.

 

Billy and I had to record this episode twice due to the noise pollution from the first recording so thank you Billy for taking the time to do it again, I’ve added some of the original conversation to the end of this episode if your interested in hearing some of Billy’s other exploits just listen on.

 

It’s a difficult enough podcast as you can't really give too much away about the race so all things considering I think we done a good job on bringing the enormity of the race to podcast, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Billy will always carry great memories of a special race and hopefully it will inspire someone else from Ireland to take on the challenge.