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KEITH DUNN / TWITTER
Christchruch's runner, Greig Hamilton, receives the bugle call while he is "beaten", which means he concedes defeat at the Barkley Marathon in the Tennessee Mountains.
How exhausting is the Barkley Marathon? Well, there were no finishers in this year's edition. Just like last year.
Forty riders, including the Kiwi Greig Hamilton, took part in what is known as one of the most brutal endurance events in the world in the Tennessee mountains this weekend, but the five loops of the courses cover about 160 kilometers on rough terrain at extreme temperatures. to snow has turned out too much for all. Hamilton, of Christchurch, proved one of the craziest competitors, the penultimate to "kick", which involves blowing a bugle to signal his defeat.
The annual race started in 1986 and only 15 people completed it. It is called "the race that eats its young". The meanders and high altitudes – claimed by breed co-founder Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell – proved to be too difficult a challenge.
STEPHANE CUGNIER / INSTAGRAM
Greig Hamilton, endurance athlete in Christchurch, participant in the Barkley Marathon.
Cantrell starts the race in Frozen Head National Park by lighting a cigarette on Saturday morning, with a final cut on Monday night. The first three loops of the course are cynically described as the "fun race". Only six people have gone so far this year.
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Of these, only Hamilton and Belgian Karel Sabbe moved to the fourth loop. They had completed loop three less than 30 minutes before the four-hour start loop.
Hamilton, world champion in the cross-country sport of Rogaining, took a few hours to break free.
Sabbe, the record holder for the Appalachian Trail hike, continued but announced Sunday at about 2 am, ending the race, runnersworld.com announced.
John Kelly, one of 15 to have finished the race in the past, was the first to finish the first two loops this year, but did not line up for the third, tweeting his reason.
"Long story short: I stopped .I was good in the times, I felt strong, the conditions were (relatively) good.But I know what to do for 5 loops, and I realized that I did not have that motivation anymore. "Sorry for any disappointment," he posted on Twitter.
Cantrell imagined the race after the escape from a nearby prison by James Earl Ray, who had murdered Martin Luther King. Ray spent 55 hours in the mountains of Tennessee, but Cantrell thought he could "do at least 100 miles". The race owes its name to Barry Barkley, his racing companion and longtime neighbor to Cantrell.
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