In my latest You Can Be Found Anywhere I was fortunate enough to carve out some time on a trip to Tennessee to visit the amazing Frozen Head State Park. For trail runners, this is like the Masters course is to golfers or Wimbledon is to tennis players. This is the site of one of the most difficult and unique trail ultramarathons in the world. One that I have a dream to one day to participate in. Hoping I am able to compete in the version they set aside for less accomplished runners in the fall. Just like SEO is a long journey that you want to approach with the right tools and gear, ultra trail running requires doing the right things over a very long period of time to reach your goal.
The Barkleys Are the Ultimate Measure of Endurance and Persistence
The Barkley Marathons is a multiple loop race that tests runners in many ways. Though the best in the world try to complete a full 5 loops to officially complete the Barkleys, a vast majority never finish, and often are happy with the “fun run” of three loops or even making it through one loop. The Barkley Fall Classic gives others a chance to compete on one loop of this course. One loop is typically at or near marathon length and is run through deep forest and off trail, so there is a lot of running, but also a lot of figuring out where you are, navigating through briar patches and extreme ups and downs on the mountainsides.
Each loop of the big race starts and ends at the yellow gate that has been made famous in the trail running community as well as those that are just fans of the great documentary that was once on netflix, but is now available on Amazon Video. There have been a few more documentaries that have come out in recent years that have covered the experience of specific runners attempting the course, like the heartbreaking journey of Gary Robbins in his video “Where Dreams Go to Die,” which can be previewed in about 10 minutes here.
Needless to say, as a big fan of documentaries and a trail runner, when I saw that first doc I was hooked and had the need to get to this park and see what it was like for myself. Now that I have been here and run a little bit, the next step is to actually get in the race and experience an entire loop. Much like SEO is something you need to set a goal to accomplish and then work hard to reach that goal, I will need to train hard to get my body prepared to work well, just like you need your site to be in great SEO shape to start showing up in Google searches. Learn more about SEO training and give us a call to get started.
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