I thought I might write a more in-depth race report, but instead I’ll share what I posted to social media immediately following the race, and then supplement it with a bit of info on gear and nutrition, as well as more photos.

What I wrote a day after is raw and emotional and I want to share that feeling here:

I’m having trouble putting into words the emotions I feel having participated in the 2025 Barkley Marathons, to me the pinnacle of the “do hard things” ethos my endurance pursuits have gravitated towards over the years.  I have paddled a boat for 38 hours / 340 miles on the Missouri River, run 100 miles at altitude or in near freezing rain — the list could go on.   

But the Barkley has been the hardest event out there — with just 20 finishers in 38 years.   To toe the line after years of dreaming about it, after years of trying to get in, was somewhat overwhelming.  I had imposter syndrome leading up to it, and as I summited the very first hill as the last runner out of the 40 starters, it was hitting hard.   I have no idea why I couldn’t climb that 1st hill, but once I summited and started the descent, I started catching others, found the 1st book, and was on to the next climb, where I was able to hang with those I was now around.  

I’ll write a much more in depth report on the 2sparrows blog soon, so won’t go into much more detail here.  But from the 2nd climb on, I felt better, and after a few hours found myself in a group of five — John, Matt, Kenny, Nathan, and myself, two veterans and three virgins — all with the same goal — get all the books on loop one no matter how much time it took.  Thankfully Laz had given permission at the start to be out there beyond the cut off, and we took that to heart.   We did quite well other than book 9 — where we spent at least 5 hours, attacking and re-attacking, but all to no avail.   

We finally had to abandon it, but we were not defeated, we were determined to continue.  Matt did decide to head back to camp at the Fire Tower, while the rest of us continued.  I had been thinking in my mind we’d have to send one of us back, just to let everyone know the rest of us were still alive, uninjured, and determined to continue.  We had yet to see an elite runner pass us on their loop two, and literally had seen no one else for over 15 hours, so no one in camp knew we were ok or that we were together.   

The remaining 4 of us trudged on, down Rat Jaw, up and down a couple more mountains (where we lost John on the last climb who told three of us to go on), and on to camp and the famous yellow gate.  24 hours and 30 minutes on an incomplete loop one.  But I never felt defeated — this was clearly the hardest Barkley yet — three time five loop finisher John Kelly was barely able to eek out the only fun run (3 loops) of the event, with less than 10 minutes to spare before the 40 hour cut off.  And that included two 15 hour loops!   It was incredibly challenging, incredibly humbling, but at the same time incredibly validating – even though I didn’t complete loop 1 in time or with all the books, I belonged.

I estimate we covered 30-35 miles and 14,000-15,000 feet of vertical, 90% off trail.   (More than one loop should be, but re-attacking book 9 three different times added a lot of distance and vert!)

So incredibly thankful for my wife and crew Kelly Allenbaugh Butler who had no idea where I was for 20+ hours… And stayed up into the wee hours waiting…

Nutrition

Below are the day and night bags I had made. Not shown in the day bag is that I put 4-500 calories of Tailwind in both of my bottles. These equate to about 2500-3000 calories each and about 4-500 mg of caffeine in the night bag. With the late start time and me thinking a single loop could be well over 13 hours, I ended up carrying a day bag distributed in my pack and belt as then threw in a night bag in the back of the pack – just in case. This saved me, as when we finally reached the fire tower about 18 hours in, I had to calorie count what I had left to ensure I could make it, otherwise I would have had to head back to camp from there.

All the food was good — the only time I had trouble was with how dry the SIS Go Energy Bakes can be. I would of course had some real food on an inter-loopal if I had gotten that far.

Gear

Not shown are a few items like a naked running belt etc. The pack was a Salomon Adv Skin 12 which was borderline too small — if the weather had looked bad I might have had to carry a larger pack. I did need my belt to hold a few things — some nutrition and the course description.

I wore both a wrist compass and had a plate compass for bearings, but I almost never used the plate compass. Mainly because the runners I was with had already written down bearings and were faster checking/taking them in the field. But I would certainly carry both again.

The light set up was great. While the runners I was with all had to change batteries a couple times or pull out a 2nd/spare light, both the flash light and headlight I had never needed battery changes. They both take 18650’s and I had purchased Orbtronics 3600mAh batteries, larger than the 3400mAh Fenix offers. Flashlight is Fenix PD35 v2 which has a max lumens of 1600 (I see they now have a v3 which goes to 1700!), which we used extensively as we approached books or searched the distance for land features such as a spur or draw. None of the other guys had a bright handheld, but all of them said they would definitely carry one in the future! I have used this set up extensively for Rogaining and it really is key to have a bright handheld as you approach controls or to get a lay of the land. The headlight is the Fenix HMR65R-T v2.0 which I kept on the 2nd lowest setting all night — never needed the brighter settings since I had my handheld.

Clothing/shoes

I definitely had trench foot after 24 hours… I had slid into a stream at hour 3 or 4, so my feet were wet early and stayed that way. I had injinji toe socks with an over sock. I would go with a thinner injinji next time. The La Sportiva Cyclan was great, even though it’s advertised as a mid-distance shoe. The traction is really good on the crazy steep terrain we covered.

I also used XOSkin liners and had no chaffing (liberal amounts of Squirrels Nut Butter!!). A Stio Eddie short sleeve was fine — bright so everyone knew who I was. Arm warmers, a buff for a hat. (I had forgotten a real hat, but the buff was fine in this weather. I thought I didn’t have any gloves so my fingers got cold in the deep night up on the ridges in the wind, but found gloves the next day when I emptied the pack. 😦 )

All in all happy with all the gear choices!

Video

I also want to share this great video from the single track podcast which has both Kelly and me in it in a few places — didn’t hurt that we shared a camp site with Ron the filmmaker…

A few miscellaneous photos:

I’m still on cloud 9 a week after having been “out there” — such a long time dream for me that finally came true. It was a great event with a great group of people and I hope I’m allowed to participate again in the future.