TEN REASONS WHY I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO RUN THE BARKLEY MARATHONS:

1. I've done the usual ultra stuff: Western States, Old Dominion (a buckle), Laurel Highlands (4 finishes), and a bunch of shorter races.

2. My sister lives in Knoxville, so I've got a place to crash.

3. I never understood why they call slow courses tough. The tough courses are the ones where all you can do is run. It sounds like I'll have lots of time to enjoy the scenery.

4. If you don't let me in your race, I might not let you in mine. I'm thinking of starting up a new trail ultra, probably in the spring of 1994. It will be on the 54-mile Montour Trail, an abandonded railroad right-of-way near Pittsburgh. (It's a wimpy course, because the grades never get more than 2%.)

5. I will not attempt the 100-miler, so the course record is safe.

6. Sean Smith is considering sending in his application. He's half my age and has 1/4 the experience. He doesn't deserve to get in. I do.

7. If by some accident Sean does manage to get in, he's going to need someone older and more experienced to restrain his racehorse instincts and guide him around the course.

8. I have my reputation to consider. My friends all think I'm crazy.

9. I've had only 2 DNF's in 26 ultra starts. But my wife is proud of me because I can give up gracefully instead of killing myself.

10. This sounds like MY KIND OF RACE.

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From: CGIC1::AGIN 19-JAN-1993 14:00:43.64
To: SMTP%"sean.smith@theory.cs.cmu.edu"
CC: AGIN
Subj: Barkley, and urban legends

I finally got around to sending in my application to Barkley. My sister in Knoxville says we're welcome to stay there, provided we don't mind sleeping on the floor if other guests and family members take up all the beds. Monday evening following the race is Passover, and I will be staying over for that. I haven't made any decisions on transportation.

Here's something with relevance to urban legends: There's an article on the first business page of the New York Times today about Snapple. The company took aggressive action to combat false rumors that it was funding Operation Rescue, that it supported the Ku Klux Klan, and that its tea was brewed in South Africa. They succeeded in suppressing the rumors, but they never did find out how they originated. It's plausible that the rumors were started maliciously by a competitor. They were passed on by "people who believe in good things but don't know the truth."

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From: SMTP%"Sean.Smith@theory.cs.cmu.edu" 19-JAN-1993 15:57:20.11
To: AGIN@cgi.com
CC:
Subj: Re: Barkley, and urban legends

Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 15:48:52 EST
From: Sean.Smith@theory.cs.cmu.edu
To: AGIN@cgi.com
Subject: Re: Barkley, and urban legends

Thanks for the information!

I haven't got around to sending in my Barkley application (but I will any day now. I even have the matchbook---from my hometown, as per insructions, not from the town I'm currently living in.)

I'm not yet sure how to swing the transportation logistics for Barkley, but I (we?) may take you up on your kind offer of your sister's floorspace.

BTW, I've decided to run Old Dominion this year. I really don't want the hassle of trying to get up to Vermont. Do you have a copy of this year's OD100 application? (I have a Vermont 100 application if you're interested.)

I've also decided to head up to Bill Beck's run, as a supported training run and also as an attempt to set a distance P.R. Let me know if you want to come along (we're probably going up that morning, unless the weather's going to be bad.)

--S

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From: CGIC1::AGIN 6-APR-1993 14:20:21.86
To: SMTP%"sean.smith@theory.cs.cmu.edu"
CC: AGIN
Subj: Race report

I finished Barkley!

Gary Cantrell wasn't at all the person I had expected to meet. He's a big bear of a man with a full beard. He talks slowly, with a southern drawl. He spent the entire weekend wearing a broad-brimmed felt hat and a big, floppy overcoat. He has a strange sense of humor. We sat around the campfire Friday night eating chicken. Gary read all of the essays he had received. I think the best one (I forgot who it was from) was the one that said this guy was going to take up ultra running, and chose this one because it had the lowest entry fee. There was a lot more, but it ended with, "Please let me know as soon as possible if I'm accepted in the race, so I can start training for it." :-)

The race didn't start until 9 AM Saturday morning. It used to start at 6 AM. Last year I think it was 8 AM, and this year it's still an hour later. I think Gary is concerned that the race is getting too easy, and he wants to keep the front runners from covering too much territory in daylight.

There was a fairly good map and race directions. Contrary to all advice, I ran the first loop almost totally by myself. I used my map, compass, and directions a lot. I made a few minor errors, but I recovered quickly. I'm proud of the fact that I completed the first loop on my own.

The first 6 miles are mostly on a hiking trail that was constructed in the '40s or '50s, and not maintained since then. There are no trail markings of ony kind. The trail itself is rather faint, and it's very easy to lose the trail. At first, I wondered how anyone could follow it at all, but eventually I got the hang of it. There are lots of deadfalls that you have to go around or over, and try to pick up the trail on the other side. The worst part is where you go over a fallen tree and later discover that the trail switched back just before the obstacle.

The middle section has to be seen to be believed. For most of it, there's no trail at all. It would make great hashing territory. A butt slide down the side of one mountain, an abandoned railroad grade above a 200-foot gorge (with a beautiful waterfall), then two climbs in a row. The first climb, called "Hell", is right up the side of this mountain at about a 45% angle. My quickest time up Hell was 1 hour, using my hands a lot to pull myself up. Then you go down a road a short ways for the second climb called "Rat Jaw".

The race instructions say, "The much loved Rat Jaw Trail is the cleared area under the power lines, and goes all the way to the firetower. This year's runners will benefit from the extensive work done clearing all the trees on this trail since last year. You may take any route thru the cleared area that seems easiest to you, but do not leave the clearing and shortcut thru the woods. Now that this trail has been cleared for our benefit there is no excuse for such Ruizian behavior."

This was where it was a definite mistake to be by myself. Like a good Boy Scout, I went straight up the middle. Tennessee's sawbriers put Pennsylvania's blackberry jaggers to shame. At that point I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt. I may have short-cut through the woods a little, but I was afraid someone would see me, and kept mainly to the "cleared" area. When I got to the top, I was seriously beginning to doubt my ability or willingness to repeat the course two more times. I eventually talked myself out of dropping out by saying I would take the woods next time, and if that disqualified me from the race, I didn't care. On my next two loops I had company, and I discovered that everybody else thought the race instructions were just another example of Gary Cantrell's "humor".

The last section of the trail is merely on the order of difficulty of Laurel Highlands.

I finished the first loop in 11:29. I had hoped for 10 hours, but at least I was more than an hour under the cutoff and feeling fine. I took 34 minutes to eat and change my clothes and set out, again all by myself. It was dark out. (I had finished the first loop well past dark.) I kept thinking that starting the second loop was the stupidest thing I had ever done in my life, but I thought that as long as I was out, I might as well keep going and see what happens. It turned out that I had no difficulty following the trail at night, although my batteries kept giving out and I got a little worried that my spare batteries and spare flashlights might not be enough. There was a full moon that didn't set until 3 AM, and I was able to run a significant part of the way without a flashlight. I was not troubled at all by the sleepiness that almost did me in at Western States, except for a brief period just after the sun rose the next morning.

Six runners came in from Hawaii to run this race. One of them dropped after 3 miles. Four more dropped after the first loop. The one remaining was Dave "Kavika" Spaulding, and he caught up with me about 4 miles into the second loop. It turned out that we ran most of the rest of the race together. He's a nice, strange, and interesting guy. It was obvious he could have run the race much faster. After his Hawaiian buddies dropped out, he had no one to look after, and he latched on to me. He claims he's run about 30 ultras, and never had a DNF, including some tough multi-day affairs. (I'm proud of my 26-2 record, but he beats me.) He's sort of a hippie type who's gone native. He's really into Hawaiian ethnic culture, and he runs the Honolulu Marathon barefoot in a loincloth. He did a solo run around the Big Island to raise money to pay for a War Canoe for his canoeing club. And he smokes! He finished about half a pack of Luckies while we were out there--I kid you not. Monday morning he gave me a bag of coffee beans he says he and his partner grow on their plantation.

It took us way past daylight for Kavika and me to finish the second lap. It was 24:47, and we were about 40 minutes under the cutoff. The third loop is about 2 miles short, so there was still time to finish under the 36 hour limit.

Kavika took off after about 15 minutes, but I took 28 minutes to get going again. Kavika took a wrong turn, and we were back running together after the first mile. Halfway through the lap we caught up with Dick West, Steve Bozeman, and John Dewalt. The five of us mostly stuck together through Hell and Rat Jaw. It felt like we were making much better time than in the first loop, but upon looking at my times in retrospect, we were right on the same pace. I thought the five us would finish together, but Dick and Steve took right off at the last water stop, while Kavika and I climbed the fire tower to look at the view. Then Kavika took off like he was running a 10K. He passed Dick and Steve, and two more ahead of them. I knew we had 36 hours licked, so I stayed with John Dewalt, and we walked in at 35:30.

Fred Pilon won in 27 hours and something. The next three included, Dennis Herr, and two others whose names I forgot. I don't know their times or places. The other seven finishers were within 15 minutes of each other. Kavika was fifth, followed by Rick and Nancy Hamilton, then Dick West and Steve Bozeman, then John Dewalt and me.

This was the best year ever for the Barkley Marathons. The weather was ideal: sunny and cool. The full moon really helped. 32 started. 30 finished the first loop, which is a record. I don't know the statistics on the second loop. 12 started the third loop, and 11 finished, another record.

For John Dewalt this was his fifth try, and his first success. John was just ecstatic about his finish. He ran 4 100-milers the summer of 1991, but it's taken him this long to finish Barkley. I know Dick and Steve had tried unsuccessfully before. Kavika and I were the only rookies to finish.

[Dick West was a no-show for the Montour. He says the reason was because he had to work Saturday, not because of the snow.]

Three women started the race. Nancy Hamilton and Suzi Thibault finished together in 1991 -- the only females to ever complete the race. This year Suzi and the woman from Hawaii dropped after the first lap. Nancy finished.

I've changed my mind about those Asics Trail Lites. I started to develop blisters on the bottoms of my feet, I think at least partly because of that sideways motion I told you about. I felt much better after I put on my Nike Pegasuses for the third lap. I think I will lose 5 toenails this time -- another record! :-) I'm wearing sandals because regular shoes hurt too much. I've got scratches all over my arms and legs from Rat Jaw. The chafing in my butt is beginning to feel a little better, and my muscles feel basically fine. I think I'll survive to do other other ultras. But probably not Barkley again.

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From: CGIC1::AGIN 6-APR-1993 14:31:15.69
To: SMTP%"sean.smith@theory.cs.cmu.edu"
CC: AGIN
Subj: Bill Seiler

Oh, yes, Bill Seiler completed one lap. He said he was feeling fine, but he'd "learned his lesson." Jerry

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