Robbins came close in his first try last year but eventually got lost. Nobody even completed the course until the 10th year the race was held, and many years see nobody cross the finish line. The foot race, held annually in the backwoods of Frozen Head State Park, has a quirky culture and 30-year history of defeating the vast majority of participants. That one fatal error with just over two miles to go haunts me.North Vancouver runner Gary Robbins is in Tennessee to attempt, once again, one of the most difficult physical challenges known to humankind - the '100 mile' Barkley Marathons. I did not finish The Barkley Marathons, and that is no one’s fault but my own. “I thrashed my way to the road and put my head down and gutted out the hardest three minutes of my life to collapse at the gate, overtime, and from the wrong direction. Reflecting on the final minutes of the race, Robbins offers his view. “It’s been quite an emotional rollercoaster these last few days.” “Thank you everyone for all the heartfelt support and well wishes,” wrote Robbins. However, he did write on his blog to offer some insight. The Barkley Marathon is a 100-mile race that spans the woods of Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee.įollowing the race, Robbins posted on his Twitter account that he would be taking a hiatus from social media to rest. He is just the 15th person to ever complete the race.

Monday saw John Kelly, from Washington, D.C., finish. No Canadian has every finished and Robbins is the first person from Newfoundland and Labrador to ever compete in the highly selective event. The marathon, considered one of the most difficult in the world, takes only 40 participants per year. He missed the cutoff as a result of a navigational error and ended up approaching the finish line from the wrong direction. This time around, Robbins came agonizingly close to completing the trek, making it to the yellow gate that marked the finish just seconds after the 60-hour mark elapsed. Robbins, originally from Mount Pearl, ran the marathon for his second time after being forced to quit last year’s race partway through as a result of exhaustion.

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