As Breckenridge’s Chris Fisher arrived at the start line with his entry fee into the race — a license plate — he couldn’t help but crack a wide smile.

After summiting mountains across the globe and setting fastest known time speed records, Fisher had arrived at the epicenter of endurance running — the Barkley Marathons.

“During check-in it is really rad,” Fisher said. “For newcomers, which they call Barkley virgins, you bring a license plate from your original state or country. Being able to hand them my license plate was really rad. It was cool to do that initiation.”

The Barkley Marathons is not your typical race. For starters, the race is not the 26.2-mile distance of a usual marathon. Rather, it spans approximately 100 miles across some of the most challenging and grueling terrain near Wartburg, Tennessee.

Taking place within Frozen Head State Park, the Barkley Marathons is notoriously shrowded in secrecy in order to protect the surrounding ecosystem and prevent spectators. 

The longtime race director, Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell — with help from the new race director, Carl Laniak — hand selects each year’s field before giving out details of when the annual race is going to take place. Usually, the race takes place at the end of March or the beginning of April.

Unlike other races, the course changes every year and is designed to not be well marked. Participants must scrounge throughout the forest landscape for books that signify a checkpoint for each competitor. Runners locate and then tear pages from the books, which they present to race officials as a way to prove that they properly completed each 20-mile lap.

Each athlete has 60 hours to complete five laps of the course.

After presenting Cantrell his Texas license plate, Fisher took in the surrounding atmosphere of the ultramarathon race. With a waiting list for the race, Fisher patiently bided his time until he got his chance to tear through the dense forest that makes up the state park.

“I have been on the waitlist for over three years actually,” Fisher said. “The way to get in is kind of a secret, but if you ask the right people you will find out. There is an application process you go through, and they either let you in right away, put you on the waitlist or you don’t get in.”

With a projected start time of anywhere between midnight and noon on March 20, Fisher anxiously waited alongside his fellow competitors for Laniak to blow the conch shell. When the conch shell reverberates throughout the race camp, competitors then have 60 minutes until the start of the race.

“You check in and you try to go to bed to sleep as long as you can,” Fisher said. “The whole night prior to the start is kind of this anxious rolling around in bed, wondering when the conch is going to go off.”

After a restless, but full night of sleep, the tone of the conch shell rang out throughout the race camp at around 11 a.m., sending competitors into a frenzy to make their final preparations before the long-endurance effort.

With only 20 people ever completing the Barkley Marathons, Fisher knew he had his work cut out for him. As Cantrell lit up a cigarette, marking the official start of the race, Fisher allowed himself to feel the whirlwind of emotions crashing over him.

“One, I was just super stoked and humbled to be there amongst people who have been trying to get here or have been here for years,” Fisher said. “… It has taken years to get to this point and is one of the most iconic races in the world. The feelings were out of this world. It was very intense.”

As Fisher began looking for books, he leaned on his extensive endurance training and the knowledge he gained while scoping out the state park in the days leading up to the race.

“Once I found out I was in the race, I came home a little earlier than expected from Patagonia and actually spent a couple weeks in the park,” Fisher said, “learning the land, trying to familiarize myself with where things were.”

Teaming up with returners to the race like Tomokazu Ihara, Fisher worked to decipher the descriptions given to find the 16 books spread out along each lap of the course.

“There was no real issue finding the books when we were all together as a group,” Fisher said. “I think I was hanging on the front pack for the first six books. It was always helpful to be with people.”

However, as Fisher continued to bushwhack his way through the course and power his way up the many steep climbs, the difficulty of this year’s Barkley Marathons hit him.

“The course is mostly off-trail,” Fisher said. “It is going straight up and straight down through mega-difficult terrain. It is a really brutal course. It is not your average trail running race. It is very difficult.”

As the sun and Tennessee humidity slowly sucked the life out of Fisher, he tried to replenish his lost fluids but did not have enough electrolytes to sustain how much he was sweating. In an electrolyte imbalance, Fisher started experiencing cramps near the end of his first lap of the course.

“I probably drank a gallon of water out of the random creeks and streams spread throughout the course,” Fisher said. “I did not bring enough electrolytes. I was pretty much done and out of electrolytes within four hours of the race starting, where I was out on loop 1 for almost 11 hours.”

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Despite battling cramps and discomfort, Fisher completed the first lap, allowing him to sit down, consume some much needed calories, drink more water and repack his bag full of essentials. 

While slurping down a delectable shake from Sonic, Fisher watched as Ihara made quick work of the aid station. The quick pace from Ihara sent a flood of concern through Fisher, making him wonder if he was going to be able to get his body in a spot to return back out to the course.

“Tomo was out really fast, so seeing how fast he went stressed me out,” Fisher said. “I don’t think I was able to take care of my body well enough to get going for lap 2.”

Fisher pushed past what his mind was telling him, strapped on his pack and returned to the course for the second lap. As one of nine people to begin the second lap, Fisher put one foot in front of the other and tried to push himself further along the course.

Eventually, Fisher’s mind and body gave out, resulting in him throwing in the towel during the second lap. The 2025 Barkley Marathons was so challenging that no competitors finished the race before the 60-hour cutoff.

Although disappointed that he fell short of his goal of joining royalty and becoming a Barkley Marathons finisher, Fisher partially feels reassured that he is not the only one that struggled out on the course.

“Everyone kind of knew going into it that it would be a really hard year, especially with the course changes and there being so many finishers the year prior,” Fisher said. “It reassured me, but even now in the back of my mind I know I could have gone farther, I could’ve gone harder. Going in with that wrong mentality led to that sooner-than-later downfall.”

Fisher hopes to be reinvited to the Barkley Marathons in the years to come in order to address unfinished business in the woods of Frozen Head State Park.

“It is not up to me if I get to go back or not,” Fisher said. “I will put my application in, and if they accept me, I will absolutely show up at the starting line. There is unfinished business there. It is one of the only objectives that I have done over the last handful years that have kept me thinking.”