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Author

Gary Cantrell

Gary Cantrell

Gary Cantrell writes the “View From the Open Road” column. Gary has written for UltraRunning more or less continuously since his column “From the South” first appeared in Volume 1, Number 1 back in May of 1981. He is perhaps most well-known as the founder of the Barkley, a trail race in eastern Tennessee. (Although some would comment that it isn’t really a race, and others would add that those aren’t really trails.) He is also the founder of the Strolling Jim 40 Mile and periodically organizes a 314-mile run across Tennessee, the Vol State Road Race. He is currently the race director of the Backyard Ultra. In the real world he works as an accountant.

  • Footprints of an Ultrarunner

    by Gary Cantrell 10/30/2019
    by Gary Cantrell 10/30/2019

    We cannot all have the talents of elite runners, but there is nothing that prevents us from approaching the sport with the same professionalism. You will leave your footprint on ultrarunning, one way or another. Leave the footprint you want those who follow to see.

    Read more
  • How to Finish Your Own Barkley

    by Gary Cantrell 03/29/2019
    by Gary Cantrell 03/29/2019

    The secrets to completing the Barkley, or your Barkley, are not about diet, equipment or your crew. You must learn as much as possible about the course you are facing and prepare yourself to eliminate wasted time. Most importantly, you must maintain the effort even when success doesn’t seem possible.

    Read more
  • Gary Cantrell on Rules

    by Gary Cantrell 09/14/2017
    by Gary Cantrell 09/14/2017

    Rules; who likes ’em? Nobody.

    Who needs ’em? Everybody.

    Running ultras is supposed to be fun. The last thing we want to deal with is having a bunch of rules to worry about. Unfortunately, ultrarunning is practiced by humans. And, without rules, some of those humans are bound to take liberties with what might seem innately obvious.

    Read more
  • The “Trail” Wins the Barkley Marathons

    by Gary Cantrell 03/08/2017
    by Gary Cantrell 03/08/2017

    We should have known better… The 13 starters were indicative of what would transpire. The fact that Barry Barkley, the race’s namesake, had to work and missed the event. The failure of the temperature to reach above freezing during the race – both the weekends, before and after, it had reached into the 70’s. Most of all, just knowing the nature of the Boundary Trail, we shouldn’t have even tried. But we did.

    Read more
  • The Ultrarunning Calendar

    by Gary Cantrell 01/17/2017
    by Gary Cantrell 01/17/2017

    The calendar was my first running “tool.” When I began seriously training, a simple wall calendar provided a handy place to record what I had done. These days, the old running calendar has become a part of social media. I think the value still distills down to the same essential ingredients: the numbers and the compulsion to improve them.

    Read more
  • Trans“con”: Following Robert Young’s Record Attempt Across the U.S.

    by Gary Cantrell 08/14/2016
    by Gary Cantrell 08/14/2016

    How we had come to be sharing the intimate moments of a collapsing transcontinental run attempt was quite a story in and of itself. A month earlier, when he began this run in California, Robert Young and his transcon were not even a blip on my radar.

    Read more
  • High dive (or a week before the big race)

    by Gary Cantrell 08/03/2016
    by Gary Cantrell 08/03/2016

    while i was plugging along down the road, today,
    i was thinking about the time period you have entered.
    This time immediately before the big race.
    these are the days of nerves.

    Read more
  • Whether There’s Weather

    by Gary Cantrell 03/24/2016
    by Gary Cantrell 03/24/2016

    No one watches the long-range weather forecast like an ultrarunner. Whether we are planning some long training run or preparing for an event, nothing weighs as heavily on us as the forecast. Of course, it really makes little difference if we are headed to a race. Having invested our children’s inheritance in the entry fee, we’re going to go no matter the weather.

    Read more
  • View from the Open Road: Behind the Sticks

    by Gary Cantrell 11/24/2015
    by Gary Cantrell 11/24/2015

    The first good advice that most of us receive, regarding the running of an ultramarathon, is to “break it down” into manageable pieces. And good advice it is. Once the…

    Read more
  • You Might Be An Ultrarunner If …

    by Gary Cantrell 06/24/2015
    by Gary Cantrell 06/24/2015

    With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, but, just as there are Americans, and Southerners, there are runners, and ultrarunners, and:

    Read more
  • The Night Before

    by Gary Cantrell 05/21/2015
    by Gary Cantrell 05/21/2015

    What am I doing here? And why did I decide that this was the race to “go for it?” Now I just wish I were at home between my own sheets with hyperactive bladder and bowels and cold sweaty feet and hands. Most of all, I wish that tomorrow held something other than an early rise and a day of exceedingly painful effort. Ah, well. close the eyes, breath deeply, and please, please, go to sleep.

    Read more
  • The Boring Ultrarunner

    by Gary Cantrell 05/07/2015
    by Gary Cantrell 05/07/2015

    Your great victories seldom make entertaining stories. What people want to hear about are your appalling errors and grievous miscalculations.

    Read more
  • The Borg

    by Gary Cantrell 12/25/2014
    by Gary Cantrell 12/25/2014

    As best I can tell, the GPS mile is somewhere between eight and nine tenths of a mile as measured by a steel tape, a wheel, a surveyor or even a laser beam. Even at a race held on a paved, certified, one-mile loop, the race director was accosted by runners during the event, swearing that the loop distance was far more than a mile… their GPS measurements proved it.

    Read more
  • Heart Of A Champion

    by Gary Cantrell 10/23/2014
    by Gary Cantrell 10/23/2014

    From the greenest novice, to the most seasoned veteran, as ultrarunners, each of us has an ambition of reaching our potential. Whether our goal is to simply achieve a finish…

    Read more
  • For The Challenge

    by Gary Cantrell 09/11/2014
    by Gary Cantrell 09/11/2014

    It is the number one answer to the number one question we get as ultrarunners… “Why do you do it?”

    “For the challenge!”

    The answer sounds so glib that it might come across as a throwaway line.

    But the truth is, there are many nuances to the challenge of running ultras.

    Read more
  • Habits Or The Trick Of Running Every Day

    by Gary Cantrell 04/09/2014
    by Gary Cantrell 04/09/2014

    There really is no big secret to improve our results as ultrarunners. For all the time and energy we expend on nutrition, gear, cross training, and other peripheral aspects of the sport; in the end our results are a direct reflection of our training mileage. And the biggest obstacle to accumulating the mileage necessary to achieve the results we desire is inconsistency.

    Read more
  • Getting Started

    by Gary Cantrell 11/28/2013
    by Gary Cantrell 11/28/2013

    There seems to be a consistent demand for how-to articles on ultrarunning. Newcomers to our joyous sport eagerly seek advice on how to minimize the time spent as novices so…

    Read more
  • The Bigger They Are…

    by Gary Cantrell 04/01/1995
    by Gary Cantrell 04/01/1995

    From the house it looked just like snow. For 36 hours, billions of tiny bits of ice had poured from the sky. By the time it finished, everything in sight was covered by a six-inch sheet of ice. No matter that I had listened to the unmistakable sounds of falling ice for a day and half, it looked like snow, dammit.

    Read more

Race Results

  • Ouachita Switchbacks 50 KM
  • Le Tour De Mission Viejo 50 KM
  • Bear Bait Ultras 50 KM
  • Bear Bait Ultras 50 Miles
  • Bear Bait Ultras 100 KM
  • Coldwater Rumble 100 Miles
  • Coldwater Rumble 52 Miles
  • Coldwater Rumble 52 KM
  • Daufuskie Island Ultra Marathon 39.3 Miles
  • Swamp Stomper 50 KM
  • 8 Hours of Ode 8 Hours
  • Frozen: H3 100 Miles
  • Long Haul 100 100 Miles
  • Frozen: H3 50 Miles
  • Frozen: H3 212 Miles

 

View all results

Weekly Newsletter

A roundup of the week's content along with interesting and relevant links from around the web and the most recent race results. Sent every Thursday.

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