The Legendary race that's seen only 15 finishers since 1986
When it comes to running events, there aren’t many around the world that have the legendary status of the Barkley Marathons. There also aren’t many British ultra-runners we’d love to see do it more than inov-8 athlete, Nicky Spinks.
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The footrace sees participants self-navigate their way around an unmarked course in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, USA. With no set route, the runners search for hidden books across the tough terrain, ripping pages out and bringing them back to race organizer, Laz Lake.
Since it was first staged in 1986, the event has seen only 15 runners complete the full 100+ miles. To date, none of those finishers have been female.
In inov-8’s new film Last Women Standing: The Barkley Marathons 2019 we follow Nicky, a 52-year-old breast cancer survivor and ultra-running record holder as she aims to become the first ever female finisher of the race.
Nicky previously made history by becoming the fastest person to run the double Bob Graham round in May 2016.
The event hit mainstream audiences in 2014 with the release of the Netflix documentary The Barkley Marathons, a film that details the five-lap race as it covers around 10,000ft of brutally steep, obstacle-laden, muddy mountain ascent through thick woodland and viscous undergrowth.
Check out the full trailer for Nicky’s attempt at the challenge here:
The free online film premiere will launch globally on 19 November 2019 and you can sign up here to receive updates as soon as it’s available.
Nicky is an inov-8 ambassador and wore the brand’s Graphene-Grip MUDCLAW G 260 shoes for The Barkley Marathons.
