Last Saturday was the 4th running of the Barkley Book Fair. This run is a club run, a very relaxed event. You can just sense the energy in the air. Observe the runners and fans below.
Susan and Sandra were part of the cheering section, and Bobby awaited his 1st Barkley day race.
Russell also was running his 1st Barkley, and not only did he do the day race, but stepped up and did the insanely hard night run as well.
As always, the day race was about 4.5 miles, all on trails, with one nasty climb about 1.5 miles into the ordeal. There were 6 books to find, and all of the 10 runners made their way through the course and found all the books.
Brian did a great job marking the course and evidently hid the books in plain sight. Would the night run be so easy?
Brian scarfs down some cold juicy watermelon, compliments of Vicky!
Ed scarfs down some moonshine whiskey compliments of Ken aka K2. I believe you could run your car on that concoction.
Vicky is ready to tackle another edition of the Barkley Night Run. She ran with the lead pack for all of the night.
16 runners ran the night run.
From the left, Jason, Wade, and Ed were BBF Night Run Virgins. Jeff, in the green shirt, ran (and won) the night run last year. Lori, Ken aka K2 were newbies. That's me in the middle, without a light. Bee Sting Bob is just behind me. Bob brought 3 guys with him....relatives I believe. Travis was one, Kirk was another. The 3rd, I don't remember. They are the 3 guys in the back behind me...white shirt, yellow shirt, black shirt with black hat. In the back right both with Tatur shirts are Russell and Scott. In the pea green shorts is Vicky, then Nikki, and Desiree. The ugly mug taking a squat is Brian.
Once is was good and dark....about 9:30, I lit the fuse on the starting cannon. The fuse was a dud, and so I just said GO. The night runners headed around a modified loop on the Red Trail, and I headed down another trail to intercept them. I caught the lead group just as they were making their way up a creek wash.
Vicky had just ripped the page out of book one, and was making haste to get out of what might have been a snake infested area.
Nikki was right behind Vicky, pushing the pace, and all smiles. Enjoying the run way too much! Russell is wondering what in the heck he has gotten himself into!
Setting a blazing pace, the Bee Sting Bob Clan takes their time carefully removing their book pages. It was clear they had found the secret of the Barkley Book Fair....have fun at all costs.
After a little single track, a climb up a creek wash, a run downhill on a gravel road, and then actually a tenth of a mile on PAVEMENT?!?!, the BBF turned onto some railroad tracks. This race has it all.
My good friend Ken aka K2 looks a little weary, but he has found 2 books with only 10 more to go.
Book two was under the tracks in a culvert. Lotsa scrambling....that's the way I like it.
After another half mile on the tracks, the race turned back onto a paved bike trail. Cushy times. The longest steepest climb in the Tulsa area was soon to follow.
A climb of around 180 feet in .3 of a mile slowed the brisk pace of the runners. I am sure there were a few choice words for this trail, and maybe the person who chose it. Thank you. 3/4 mile of fairly flat dirt trails followed and then all the climbing was negated by a long descent back to river level.
After an aid stop, the poor night runners had to endure about a tenth of a mile back on the railroad tracks. The destination was some small caves up in the bluffs on the east side of Turkey Mountain.
I originally had wanted to reopen a trail along the base of the bluffs, but there have been several tree-falls and a trail that was once barely passable was now completely impossible. The tracks got them from point A to point B without so many ticks, chiggers, and poison ivy. Knowing all the shortcuts, I was there before the front runners to help them up the face of the bluff. I also wanted to get a few pictures.
There were a couple of old wooden ladders that helped a 20' ascent, and ropes that assisted the runners in a 30' climb and another 15' straight-up climb. I felt the need to be there to help the runners get up the first 5' of the 15' scramble. A mis-step could be a dangerous thing.
Would loved to have had some pictures of the ascent with ropes, but I was spotting the climbers and snapping pics was of a lesser priority.
Did manage to get a pic of Jason who scrambled right up the face of the bluffs like it was nothing. The monstrous hill hardly slowed him down at all.
Once the last of the groups were through, I needed to get back to the start/finish, and then over to the west side of the area to orchestrate another twist in the race. The runners went to the end of the mountain overlooking downtown Tulsa, and then northwest all the way down to Mooser Creek. I had planted a book in a pit area....did not look to snaky. There were quite a few ups and downs before the course found its way over by the YMCA camp. Then, they headed south, up a hill, down a hill, and finally over to some newly opened mountain bike trails. I had found a .15 mile loop, and it was my goal to mark the course so as to send one particular runner in circles and to see how many times I could get him to run this circle before he realized he was being had. Brian is so much fun to pick on. The fact that he was running with about 8 other runners just made it more interesting. Ed, who got a little off course, and Kathy, who ran the day race but not the night one, went with me to help pull this off. We blocked the trail where the exit to the loop was, and waited for them to come through. Once they embarked on the short loop, we waited in the darkness to see if they would be fooled into running it again. There was book 11 at the end of the loop, and a sigh with an arrow pointing them back around the loop. Remember, it was pitch dark, and these were new trails that probably none of them had ever been on.
They took the bait, and once they were out of sight, we scurried over to move the signs to different trees, and drop off book 12. The changes worked....oh there was a little talk about whether they had been there before, but there was another book, so off they went for a third loop. At the end of the 3rd loop, and now book 13, they were now 99% sure they were going in circles! Too Funny! Kathy, Ed, and I were gritting our teeth to keep from laughing out loud! When making the last changes, we had removed the brush blocking the trail, and jumped out and screamed at them as they approached. Brian and Desiree screamed like little girls. The rest of the race was nice fast single track, and the final pack ran it in. We were a little past the parks curfew, and we quickly picked up our tents, chairs, and ice chests of SODA POP. A few of us invaded IHOP and like last year, they hid us way back in the corner. Sweaty runners must be offensive.
Special thanks to Ken aka K2 for posting some great pics on his Facebook account. I swiped a couple of them for this post.
Will there be a Barkley Book fair next year? I am thinking so. I still may move both runs or at least the night run so we don't have a curfew to deal with. Maybe having it in May would allow us to start the night run earlier and finish earlier. I am thinking of ways to make the night run harder. Maybe having it on a full moon and banning LED lights? Hmmm....
Susan and Sandra were part of the cheering section, and Bobby awaited his 1st Barkley day race.
Russell also was running his 1st Barkley, and not only did he do the day race, but stepped up and did the insanely hard night run as well.As always, the day race was about 4.5 miles, all on trails, with one nasty climb about 1.5 miles into the ordeal. There were 6 books to find, and all of the 10 runners made their way through the course and found all the books.
Brian did a great job marking the course and evidently hid the books in plain sight. Would the night run be so easy?
Brian scarfs down some cold juicy watermelon, compliments of Vicky!
Ed scarfs down some moonshine whiskey compliments of Ken aka K2. I believe you could run your car on that concoction.
Vicky is ready to tackle another edition of the Barkley Night Run. She ran with the lead pack for all of the night.16 runners ran the night run.
From the left, Jason, Wade, and Ed were BBF Night Run Virgins. Jeff, in the green shirt, ran (and won) the night run last year. Lori, Ken aka K2 were newbies. That's me in the middle, without a light. Bee Sting Bob is just behind me. Bob brought 3 guys with him....relatives I believe. Travis was one, Kirk was another. The 3rd, I don't remember. They are the 3 guys in the back behind me...white shirt, yellow shirt, black shirt with black hat. In the back right both with Tatur shirts are Russell and Scott. In the pea green shorts is Vicky, then Nikki, and Desiree. The ugly mug taking a squat is Brian.Once is was good and dark....about 9:30, I lit the fuse on the starting cannon. The fuse was a dud, and so I just said GO. The night runners headed around a modified loop on the Red Trail, and I headed down another trail to intercept them. I caught the lead group just as they were making their way up a creek wash.
Vicky had just ripped the page out of book one, and was making haste to get out of what might have been a snake infested area.
Nikki was right behind Vicky, pushing the pace, and all smiles. Enjoying the run way too much! Russell is wondering what in the heck he has gotten himself into!
Setting a blazing pace, the Bee Sting Bob Clan takes their time carefully removing their book pages. It was clear they had found the secret of the Barkley Book Fair....have fun at all costs.After a little single track, a climb up a creek wash, a run downhill on a gravel road, and then actually a tenth of a mile on PAVEMENT?!?!, the BBF turned onto some railroad tracks. This race has it all.
My good friend Ken aka K2 looks a little weary, but he has found 2 books with only 10 more to go.Book two was under the tracks in a culvert. Lotsa scrambling....that's the way I like it.
After another half mile on the tracks, the race turned back onto a paved bike trail. Cushy times. The longest steepest climb in the Tulsa area was soon to follow.
A climb of around 180 feet in .3 of a mile slowed the brisk pace of the runners. I am sure there were a few choice words for this trail, and maybe the person who chose it. Thank you. 3/4 mile of fairly flat dirt trails followed and then all the climbing was negated by a long descent back to river level.
After an aid stop, the poor night runners had to endure about a tenth of a mile back on the railroad tracks. The destination was some small caves up in the bluffs on the east side of Turkey Mountain.
I originally had wanted to reopen a trail along the base of the bluffs, but there have been several tree-falls and a trail that was once barely passable was now completely impossible. The tracks got them from point A to point B without so many ticks, chiggers, and poison ivy. Knowing all the shortcuts, I was there before the front runners to help them up the face of the bluff. I also wanted to get a few pictures.
There were a couple of old wooden ladders that helped a 20' ascent, and ropes that assisted the runners in a 30' climb and another 15' straight-up climb. I felt the need to be there to help the runners get up the first 5' of the 15' scramble. A mis-step could be a dangerous thing.
Would loved to have had some pictures of the ascent with ropes, but I was spotting the climbers and snapping pics was of a lesser priority.
Did manage to get a pic of Jason who scrambled right up the face of the bluffs like it was nothing. The monstrous hill hardly slowed him down at all.Once the last of the groups were through, I needed to get back to the start/finish, and then over to the west side of the area to orchestrate another twist in the race. The runners went to the end of the mountain overlooking downtown Tulsa, and then northwest all the way down to Mooser Creek. I had planted a book in a pit area....did not look to snaky. There were quite a few ups and downs before the course found its way over by the YMCA camp. Then, they headed south, up a hill, down a hill, and finally over to some newly opened mountain bike trails. I had found a .15 mile loop, and it was my goal to mark the course so as to send one particular runner in circles and to see how many times I could get him to run this circle before he realized he was being had. Brian is so much fun to pick on. The fact that he was running with about 8 other runners just made it more interesting. Ed, who got a little off course, and Kathy, who ran the day race but not the night one, went with me to help pull this off. We blocked the trail where the exit to the loop was, and waited for them to come through. Once they embarked on the short loop, we waited in the darkness to see if they would be fooled into running it again. There was book 11 at the end of the loop, and a sigh with an arrow pointing them back around the loop. Remember, it was pitch dark, and these were new trails that probably none of them had ever been on.
They took the bait, and once they were out of sight, we scurried over to move the signs to different trees, and drop off book 12. The changes worked....oh there was a little talk about whether they had been there before, but there was another book, so off they went for a third loop. At the end of the 3rd loop, and now book 13, they were now 99% sure they were going in circles! Too Funny! Kathy, Ed, and I were gritting our teeth to keep from laughing out loud! When making the last changes, we had removed the brush blocking the trail, and jumped out and screamed at them as they approached. Brian and Desiree screamed like little girls. The rest of the race was nice fast single track, and the final pack ran it in. We were a little past the parks curfew, and we quickly picked up our tents, chairs, and ice chests of SODA POP. A few of us invaded IHOP and like last year, they hid us way back in the corner. Sweaty runners must be offensive.Special thanks to Ken aka K2 for posting some great pics on his Facebook account. I swiped a couple of them for this post.
Will there be a Barkley Book fair next year? I am thinking so. I still may move both runs or at least the night run so we don't have a curfew to deal with. Maybe having it in May would allow us to start the night run earlier and finish earlier. I am thinking of ways to make the night run harder. Maybe having it on a full moon and banning LED lights? Hmmm....
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