John Kelly Breaks Down Barkley Marathons & His Upcoming Appalachian Trail FKT Attempt
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 370
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
Episode description
Text us your thoughts about this episode or ideas for future episodes!
John Kelly returns to the Singletrack Podcast, this time to reflect on the 2025 Barkley Marathons and the insights he has gained from the notorious event over the past decade. He then dives into announcing and discussing his plans to attempt the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail later this year.
Timestamps:
- (0:00) - the difficulty of the 2025 Barkley Marathons course
- (1:36) - the importance of a "pipeline" of Barkley finishers
- (10:13) - the intentions of Lazarus Lake and Carl Laniak
- (14:58) - Barkley is not an orienteering event
- (23:00) - Brett Maune course record reflection
- (25:02) - whether Barkley will still be relevant after the Laz era
- (26:10) - Appalachian Trail FKT announcement
- (33:30) - the difficulty of beating the current fastest known time
- (37:21) - Appalachian Trail influences
- (43:14) - opportunities for improvement in the record approach
- (46:28) - building out support team
- (50:53) - how much it takes to prepare
- (01:04:15) - mental performance strategy
- (01:06:22) - final thoughts
Partners:
- Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made (https://nordarun.com/)
- Gorewear - use code SINGLETRACKPOD30 at checkout on their website to get 30% off your purchase.
- Naak - use code SINGLETRACK20 at checkout on their website (https://www.naak.com/) to get 20% off your purchase.
- Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains (https://raideresearch.com/)
Additional Links:
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android