10/22/2023 0 Comments Download barkley raceBut things snowballed from there and I kept improving, kept pushing things farther.Īnd you know, my background was actually more in backpacking and thru-hikes and some multi-day trail runs on my own. So I signed up for a marathon, with disastrous results. So near the end of grad school, I thought, I need to see what I’m capable of doing while I’m still capable of doing it. I’d always been better the longer things got and the longer the course got. JK: Well I was finishing up grad school, and for a long time I had wanted to know what I could do at the longer distances. What brought you back to running and then to ultramarathons? Q&D: I saw that after running in high school, you had taken some time off while in college and grad school. I had my fair share of exploring in those mountains. I definitely spent some time in Frozen Head and some time in the mountains surrounding the park. John Kelly: Yeah, I’m originally from right there next to the course. You grew up in Tennessee, near the Barkley Marathons course, right? Quick & Dirty: Before we chat about this year’s Barkley race, I want to talk a bit about your background and your journey to that race. Tragically, Gary Robbins, whom Kelly spent the first four loops running with, just missed a finish after going off course a few miles from the end of his fifth loop. (He currently resides in Washington, D.C., where he works as a data scientist.) After a “fun run” finish in 2015 (60 miles, or three of the race’s five loops), and making it onto his fifth loop in 2016, Kelly finally came in under Barkley’s 60-hour finishing time limit this year. A hometown boy who grew up next to the race site, he is the first “local” to finish the race. To match the massive undertaking that is a Barkley finish, this chat is a bit longer than typical for the column, but Kelly’s approach and insight are fascinating. For this edition of Quick & Dirty, I chatted with John Kelly, the fifteenth ever finisher of the Barkley Marathons.
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