The Barkley Fall Classic (BFC) is a very challenging “50K” that is held in Frozen Head State park in Wartburg, Tennessee. I say “50k” because GPS and other tracking devices are not permitted and the distance of this race is a very questionable 31 miles. The race is known for its failure rate, which appears to be on average somewhere in the 60th percentile. Most define success by obtaining a Croix finishers medal,but you can avoid a did not finish “DNF”, by making a decision at one point to call it quits and take a marathon finishers dog tag. But who really wants to do that? Not me.
I first discovered the BFC, after watching a documentary on The Barkley Marathons on Netflix. This is the real daddy of races and one reserved for those special athletes who make all my running accomplishments in life look pathetic. I am not saying I am not proud of all I have done, I am, but anyone that even qualifies and makes the cut for the Big Barkley is really an outstanding athlete.
I watched the documentary, The race that eats it young, in March of 2017, and in April of that year I tossed my name onto the wait list for the baby Barkley, BFC, which is designed to give us normal athletes a small taste of the the Big Barkley. I of course did not gain entry into the 2017 race, as the wait list is very long. In October of 2017 was the sign up for the 2018 running, I immediately signed up, but alas I was once again sitting on the wait list and would not come off it.
In October of 2018, the race director (Laz) expanded his lottery system for the 2019 entries and the first 100 selected would come from those remaining from the 2018 wait list. Not long after the selection commenced, I received my email from UltraSignup saying ” Congratulations you have been selected to participate in the 2019 The Barkley Fall Classic – 50K!” . I of course immediately accept the invitation and my thoughts turned toward training.
I started my specific BFC training in May of 2019. My plan was simple and I executed it well for the most part. I would run between 40-60 miles a week from that point until the week prior to the race where I would do a 30 mile week. Race week it would be a couple really short runs leading up to race day. My goal each week was to have between 8K and 10K of elevation gain training in, I would run on all trails/mountains, and once a month I would do a longer training day that allowed me to get in lots of distance and lots of elevation in a single day. My once a month days would be a 25-35 Mile day with 9k to 12k of elevation gain. I would also run all my mileage in the heat of the day, versus avoiding it like I normally would. All my longer training runs would be self-sustained. I would wear or carry the gear I would have on me during the race, and consume the same food and liquids. With a solid idea and plan in place, now I just needed to plan my runs.
Being from Maine there are plenty of good mountains, if you want to drive to get to them. I didn’t always have the time to fit in three or four of driving on top of hours of training. I kept those days reserved for my once a month days. I did most of my weekly training on a local small mountain that has a steep .2 mile trail that only gains you a couple hundred feet of elevation. The math worked out when comparing distance to elevation gain, if I ran 31 miles I would be close to 10K feet of elevation. It was adequate training ground. I did many, many repeats on this trail and if you ever want to prepare yourself mentally for BFC then what better way than repeating the same trail 75 times? That is the highest I achieved to get in a 15 mile day. My brain was mush and my will to run any further was expended, but what did I do? I went and ran another 5 miles on a different trail. Run when you don’t want to run, right? That’s the Barkley way.
I also did some off trail running through swamps and power line cuts. I wish I had done more, for reasons I would discover during my experience, but at the height of the summer the ticks were too intense to be worth the training gain. At one point I removed over 100 from my dog and over 50 from myself. Thankfully, none had bitten in, but still not worth the risk. My thoughts at this point, based on the hype, were trails called Rat Jaw (RJ), Testicle Spectacle (TS) and Meth Lab (ML) were going to suck anyway, unless you are a genetically gifted beast, which I am not.
Besides running, I also did yoga 3 times a week and I did all around body weight lifting 4-5 times a week with a focus on light weights and high reps. My years of experience has taught me that my body needs variety to stay uninjured. I did twist my right ankle about mid-way through the summer, but thankfully a massage therapist did the Graston Technique once a week for about a month leading up to BFC and I would go in feeling strong.
Beyond, physical training, I also studied the park map, learned/memorized the trail names and blaze colors prior. I read many race reports to get a feel for the course and others experiences. Flying out before the race, I felt prepared and ready as I was ever going to be.
Running with Love 