More crucible than race, the Barkley Marathons in the hostile backwoods of Tennessee remains the world’s toughest footrace, where change, adaptation and the struggle to survive play out
A month before the 2025 Barkley Marathons, Lazarus Lake is out on his daily eight-mile stroll along the rural roads near his Bell Buckle, Tennessee home. Pausing mid-step, he fixes his gaze on a vine creeping onto the asphalt – kudzu, the invasive scourge of the American South. Laz pins it with the toe of his worn-out shoe, then crushes it with a sharp twist. Pop. “Nature isn’t about balance,” he says, kicking the remains aside. “That’s a common misconception – it’s war.”
Frozen Head State Park, where he’s held the Barkley since 1986, has managed to fight off this botanical kraken – so far. Introduced from Japan in the 1930s to combat soil erosion, kudzu earned its reputation as “the plant that ate the South” by swallowing entire forests, abandoned houses, and telephone poles at a pace of up to a foot per day. The government once paid farmers to plant it; now they pay them even more to destroy it.
