🪓 Barkley 2025: The Forest Took Everyone

No finishers. Not even close.

The 2025 Barkley Marathons slammed the door shut on all 40 runners this year. After a historic 2024 with five finishers (and the first woman ever), Laz wasn’t about to let that happen again.

Only nine runners made it back out for loop two. By 24 hours? No one had started loop three. Game over.

John Kelly, three-time finisher and Tennessee local, gutted out a Fun Run — three loops in 39:50:27, just 10 minutes under the cutoff. That might not sound like much next to his past completions, but here’s what he said after:

“That 3 loop ‘Fun Run’ hurt more than my last two 5 loop finishes.”

French ultra duo Sébastien Raichon and Maxime Gauduin showed up strong, but the course ate them too. Raichon timed out on loop three. Gauduin didn’t make it through loop two.

The women’s field was stacked. Kelly Halpin came heartbreakingly close to the loop one cutoff — just two minutes late. Claire Bannwarth and Christiana Rugloski were out after the first loop too. Conditions were rough. Temps swung wildly, fog rolled in at night, and the undergrowth was worse than it’s been in years.

This wasn’t a year to beat Barkley. This was a year to survive it.

Since 1986, only 20 runners have finished the full five loops. That number stays the same — and Barkley stays Barkley.

The pages were out there. The loop names were the same. The course was not.

📍Frozen Head chewed everyone up this year. But make no mistake — someone’s already training for 2026. TL;DR:

Barkley 2025 chewed up every runner — zero finishers. Only 9 made it to loop two. John Kelly pulled off a grueling Fun Run in 39:50. Top names like Raichon, Gauduin, Halpin, and Bannwarth were all stopped short. The course was tougher, the forest was unforgiving, and the finish count stays frozen at 20 since 1986.