2026 Barkley Marathon Results: No Finishers, but Sébastien Raichon Completes Fun Run
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The 2026 Barkley Marathons, which started at 6 a.m. on Saturday, February 14, had a lot going for it in terms of a difficult course, a difficult time of year, and even more difficult weather conditions. Rain, cold, mud, and fog — in addition to everything else Barkley is known for — all took a toll on the racers, and the event saw a repeat of 2025 with no finishers and only one Fun Run finisher.
This year, only four runners made it out for a third lap, and Sébastien Raichon (France) was the only one who completed it. His final time was 38:05:46, which was within the allotted time to be credited with a Fun Run — three laps of the course in under 40 hours — but he missed the 36-hour cutoff time to go out for a fourth lap by over two hours. It was a Valentine’s Day date that racers and their crews will long remember.
While no one was expecting a repeat of the 2024 Barkley Marathons, which had a record number of finishers — five out of 40 starters — including the U.K.’s Jasmin Paris, who became the first and thus far only woman to finish the event, racers held out hope that this year’s results would be significantly better than the 2025 Barkley Marathons, where there were no finishers and only one Fun Run completion by three-time Barkley finisher, John Kelly.
Yet even with all the hope in the world, conditions conspired against the racers. This was the earliest the race — which has a secret start date and start list — has ever been held. It’s the first time racers have faced February conditions at Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, and while conditions started out cold, they only got worse as fog and moisture rolled in throughout the race, making things slippery and slimy. And then there was also the issue of significantly less daylight in mid-February than at the normal mid- to late-March start date, which comes into play on the largely off-trail, unmarked course. If that wasn’t enough, the normal start line at the infamous yellow gate was under construction, giving runners a different start-finish line.
Ultimately, conditions got the best of every runner, making it a year to remember.
Bit of Barkley Background
The Barkley Marathons, which gained popularity after the release of the 2014 Netflix documentary “The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young,” is notorious not only for its difficulty, but also for its secrecy before and during the event. Even the process for applying for the race is a closely guarded rite. It’s a bit reminiscent of middle school cliques, where you have to know the secret password or wear the right kind of jeans to be part of it.
The race, which has seen only 20 finishers in its 40-year history — about 2% of participants — consists of a 20-plus-mile loop around the state park that must be completed five times. The route changes each year there’s a finisher, and runners generally alternate directions, though this year both the first and second laps were counterclockwise. Racers must find somewhere on the order of 10 books hidden in the woods and tear pages out to prove that they were there. Much of the route is off-trail and takes in famous landmarks, such as the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary tunnel, Rat Jaw, and Meatgrinder. It’s generally accepted that the 20-mile measurement is significantly shorter than the actual loop distance, and while runners go the same direction as each other the first four loops, any remaining runners on the final lap must go opposite directions. Racers get 60 hours to complete the whole event.
There’s no set start time for the event, and racers are given a 12-hour start window ahead of the event. When the race organization blows the conch, racers have one hour to get ready. They have a set amount of time to complete each loop, and if a racer misses the cutoff or chooses not to go out for the next lap, they “tap out” by having a bugle play taps for them. If you think it sounds a bit contrived, you’re not wrong.
While Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake, ran the show essentially alone up until 2025, Carl Laniak joined in last year and has taken over much of the race organization. Like last year, anyone on site is held to a high level of secrecy throughout the event, and racer identities aren’t revealed by the “official” Barkley Marathons news channel — Keith Dunn’s Bluesky and X feed — until well into the race. When he reports, “Chiseled Jaw Guy, Knee Guy, Old Guy, Midnight guy, and The Path Finder are the first five in,” or “The first five through the tower all have French accents,” he provides plenty of fodder for speculation. While American Max King’s sponsor, Kailas Fuga, shared that King was racing ahead of the event, and Mathieu Blanchard (France) earned an entry by winning the 2025 Barkley Classic 50k, the identities of the other entrants remained unknown to the general public.
How the Race Played Out
When the conch was blown at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, racers made their final preparation and lined up at the mini yellow gate in the dark, clad in plenty of warm layers. Laz lit his ceremonial cigarette at 6 a.m., and they were off. For one person, their race only lasted three hours before they dropped and had to find their way back to the start.
This year’s 40-person field came from 15 countries and had 10 women. Some of the top contenders on the start line are believed to have included Sébastien Raichon (France), Blanchard, Damian Hall (U.K.), King, Aurélien Sanchez (France), and Kelly. The women’s field is believed to have contained Emma Stuart (Ireland), Megan Eckert, and Séverine Vandermeulen (Belgium), among others. Raichon won this year’s 268-mile Winter Spine Race in the U.K. only a month ago, Blanchard won the 2025 Yukon Arctic Ultra and was second at the 2025 Hardrock 100, Hall reached the fifth lap of Barkley in 2024 but didn’t finish, King was sidelined by a knee injury at the event last year, Sanchez finished the race in 2023, and Kelly finished the race in 2017, 2023, and 2024. On the women’s side, Stuart won the 2023 Arc of Attrition 100 Mile, Eckert holds the women’s 6-day world record, and Vandermeulen is a successful orienteer.
Reports came through that partway along on the first lap, the top five were through the tower, and they all had French accents. Reports also indicated that the front of the field was made up of two larger groups of nine and 10, respectively, with the front group coming through with 2:40 on the clock, and the second about 45 minutes back. The whole field was through the spot by noon.
The first five runners — identified as Chiseled Jaw Guy, Knee Guy, Old Guy, Midnight Guy, and The Path Finder — completed the first lap in 9:47:08, and the fastest turnaround time to get back out on course was 9:22. Soon, a steady trickle of runners, 30% of the field, headed out for lap two, which is when the rain started.
We believe Vandermeulen finished loop one sometime around 12.5 hours elapsed and headed out for a second loop. We think she was the second-to-last of the 12 runners of the 40 starters who started loop 2, and the only woman to start loop 2.
With 16:05 on the clock, all 12 of the runners out on the second lap passed the tower partway through the loop, but the drops came quickly after that.
Raichon, Blanchard, and Hall all finished loop 2 together in 22:35:40. This was Raichon’s second attempt at the race, Hall’s third, and Blanchard’s first. Hall was the first back on the trail, opting to take the creek crossing barefoot. He was followed shortly by Raichon and Blanchard.
King, on his third attempt at the race, finished his second loop in 24:06:38 and went out for loop three after a 36-minute pit stop. He was the final runner to head out on loop 3 as the rest of the 12 initial loop 2 runners either dropped or missed the cutoff to start the next lap.
As Sunday, the second day, began, fog joined the rain, limiting visibility and making conditions even more challenging. Blanchard dropped mid-lap 3 because of the cold, and King dropped after finding four books as the fog continued to thicken.
As the clock ticked down to the 36-hour mark, when racers need to leave to start their loop 4, there was no sign of the two remaining runners — Raichon and Hall — on course amongst the fog.
About two hours after the cutoff passed but before the 40-hour Fun Run time limit, Sébastien Raichon finished his three-loop Fun Run in 38:05:46. Not long after, Damian Hall returned to the finish line without having completed the full third loop.
It was a year that the weather and course won — again.
2026 Barkley Marathon Results: No Finishers, but Sébastien Raichon Completes Fun Run by Eszter Horanyi.
