Only 15 people have ever finished the grueling and secretive Barkley Marathons — here's what the race is like, according to people who've tried

• The Barkley Marathons is a mysterious ultramarathon held every year in a state park in Eastern Tennessee.
• Runners have to complete five loops of a 20-mile course that most say is really 26 miles, making the race somewhere between 100 and 130 miles in total.
• The elevation and descent in the race mean that finishers do the equivalent of climbing and descending Everest twice.
• Since 1989, only 15 people have finished the race.

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For a runner who tries to enter the Barkley Marathons, one thing is certain: they have almost no chance of finishing.

The first Barkley race was held in 1986, but the course distance was bumped up to at least 100 miles — probably 130 miles, depending on who you ask — in 1989. Since then, there have only been 15 finishers.

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