With even less fanfare than usual, the Barkley Marathons have begun. Keith Dunn, who has long been the only reliable source of information once the race is underway, tweeted the following: “After a brief memorial to the Barkley family members who are no longer with us, the cigarette was lit at 3:04 am The Barkley 2021 Marathons have started. “

RELATED: Barkley Marathons Book Documents Race’s 15 Finalists

After a brief memorial to the Barkley family who are no longer with us, the cigarettes were lit at 3:04 am The 2021 Barkley Marathons have begun. # BM100

– Keith (@keithdunn) March 18, 2021

The race starts one hour after the founder Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell blows the conch.

The infamous 100 miles through Frozen Head State Park in northeast Tennessee was canceled in 2020 due to COVID, and this year’s run is a little different from the past, with COVID passports and masking and a distancing at the start. Participants (capped at 40, even under normal circumstances) must either have been vaccinated or have had the virus and recovered. For obvious reasons, almost all of the participants are from the United States, and there are more “Barkley virgins” (ie novices) than usual.

UTMB Champion 2019 Courtney dauwalter and three times Barkley finisher Jared campbell are on the course. In 2019, Campbell had to bail out after rolling his ankle badly on the first loop.

Five and a half hours after the start of the race, Dunn tweeted that someone had already fallen. At around 9:20 am, he tweeted the runner’s name: Peter Mortimer. According to Ultrasignup.com, Mortimer is 39 and finished second at both the Elephant Mountain 50 Miler in Cave Creek, Ariz in February and the Lone Cactus in the Last Person Ultra in November 2020.

The race, which involves completing five 20-mile loops over unforgiving, craggy terrain in less than 60 hours, has seen just 15 runners in its 35-year history. The most recent is John kelly in 2017, who grew up in the area and won the Montane Spine Race, the 429km race along the British Pennine Way, in January 2020 (Kelly had attempted the Barkley twice before finally finishing. Gary Robbins in 2018, who did not finish, and entered the race for the fourth time in 2019, shocking everyone by retiring after two laps.) No woman has ever finished the race. In 2019, fans followed eagerly as a British ultrarunner Nicky spinks, Canadian Stephanie Case and several other women entered the course, but were unsuccessful. Fans want Dauwalter to be the first.

This week, randomly on British Thursday, I thought: it has long been clear to me why a Briton was the first # BM100 finisher. Approximate lines drawn on the maps to follow “trails” that do not exist. Search with vague directions for important things hidden in obscure places (mailboxes). (1/3)

– John Kelly (@RndmForestRunnr) March 18, 2021

RELATED: Barkley Marathons Book Documents Race’s 15 Finalists

The race, a curious mix of 100 mile ultratrail, orienteering challenge and demonic treasure hunt, takes place on an unmarked course and GPS watches are prohibited. In the past, runners have been given a cheap Casio watch to keep track of their time (Dunn reports this year’s version is “a no-frills analog pocket watch”), and they change direction after the first two loops. Runners must find a number of books, which serve as “checkpoints”. To prove that they have passed each checkpoint, they must tear up the pages corresponding to their bib number and hand them over to Laz at camp after completing each loop. Highlights of the course include landmarks with names like Rat Jaw and Testicle Show, and the abandoned Brushy State Prison, from which James Earl Ray, convicted of murder Martin Luther King jr., attempted to escape in 1977. (According to racing lore, Laz, a former ultramarine himself, scoffed when he learned that Ray had only covered eight miles in 55 hours and that the idea of ​​the Barkley was born.)

RELATED: Laz Lake Thinks Jasmin Paris Could Become the Very First Woman to Finish the Barkley Marathons

Dunn tweeted that it had been raining for several hours before the start of the race. He reports that a runner returned to camp 40 minutes after the start, having forgotten his bib, and that another runner left 58 minutes late.