Robin
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running.bsky.social
Robin
@running.bsky.social
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running.bsky.social
Super interesting, key points:
- Navigation
- Navigation
- Navigation

If you can't read a map, you're going to struggle and it sounds like people tried to cut corners where possible instead of properly preparing for the basics?
drlygo.bsky.social Nicki Lygo @drlygo.bsky.social · Mar 22
Barkley debrief from Laz 👌🏻

#BM100
Barkley debrief from Laz page 1 Lazarus Lake 4h • 0 barkley debriefing to say the course won this year is an understatement. and since the smoke cleared, revealing a battlefield littered with the corpses of hubris and overconfidence i have been thinking back over the past year and especially the past week seeking to understand what went wrong... and i came out with some definite opinions about what triggered the massacre of 2025. that doesn't mean i am right but i think the cat ass trophies of 2025 can be greatly attributed to a few mistakes repeated by a lot of athletes. sure, the course got tweaked. it gets tweaked every year. and i knew going in that this was a difficult barkley course. but, while it had a little more climb it was also shorter. i was actually not certain we would not have another mass finish! but in the leadup to the race i saw errors being committed that lowered my optimism for the field. 1) taking bad advice. i saw it written over and over, until it took on a life of its own. "follow a veteran" Barkley debrief from Laz page 2 better to develop your own navigational skills. how do you know the veteran you follow did not become a veteran by following veterans? and even if you latch on to someone with serious navigation skills if they leave you out in the woods, all that happened was that they led you a long way from safety and the main thing you learned was what the right direction looks like when someone's ass is in the middle of it! 2) take a picture of the map, and retreat to your own tent to copy it. that one is so stupid we arent even going to allow it next year. first, it is going to be nearly impossible to mark the checkpoints accurately from a phone picture. if you make it small enough to see where the mark is, you cannot tell the exact location. if you make it large enough to see the exact location, you cannot see enough of the whole map to see where it goes. and exact placement of the checkpoint locations is critical! second, what everyone lost was the discussion that normally goes on around the master map. following a veteran might be a fools errand. having them tell you what to look for when locating checkpoints or selecting your routes can be worth its weight in gold. which gets back to navigation and the checkpoints. i don't think the athletes realized how critical it is to: mark the checkpoints accurately navigate to them. Barkley debrief from Laz page 3 great pains are taken to place the marks on the exact location of the checkpoint. and i think many of the athletes with rudimentary navigation skills are unable to look at the map and exactly visualize a location. contour lines are not merely a record of elevation change. they are a picture of how the ground is configured. what i kept hearing was; "i shot a bearing" shooting a bearing is the most rudimentary form of navigation. if it is not pitch black night, or white-out fog i would not use a compass to navigate at frozen head. i would look at the map and match the contours with my surroundings. then, instead of a straight line through all obstacles i would pick the best route to reach my destination. old trails and logging roads are easy to follow. in the absence of human-made routes if you look at the contours for the "easiest" route you are almost certain to find game trails going the same way. animals always choose the easiest route to go from here to there, that is how game trails are formed. and game trails also take out a lot of the briars and undergrowth. there is an additional benefit to following the contours. you know what the ground should look like as you approach the location. we heard a lot of known excellent navigators comment that they passed clusters of virgins "turning over every rock" nowhere near the next checkpoint. no amount of searching will help if you cannot identify the checkpoint locations! Barkley debrief from Laz page 4 3) trying to brute force error correction. some people searched for checkpoints for as much as 5 hours, going back and forth over the same ground. then came home with a description that did not sound like they were ever in the vicinity of the actual checkpoint! checkpoints are not "hidden" they are not probably in plain sight, and they have to be placed where hogs cannot get to them. but the map markings and directions are intended to make them easy to locate. in a race with zero margin for error, i would not look more than 5 minutes before consulting the map. find a nearby landmark that is easily identifiable. or even a couple of more distant peaks that you can see... if these do not match what you should see from the checkpoint, then you are searching in the wrong place! my conclusion about the weekend is not that kind. but sometimes what you need to hear and what you want to hear are not the same. barkley is out there on the edge of possibility. but it is not impossible. for most athletes the 100 is not going to be in their future. the best ability, preparation, and execution might not be enough. but most of them should have been able to knock out one loop under the time limit! the 2025 field left a lot of cards on the table.
March 22, 2025 at 8:43 AM
running.bsky.social
You know it must have been mad if this beast was "reduced" to 3 loops
March 20, 2025 at 7:30 AM
running.bsky.social
Laz clearly absolutely fuming that 5 finished last year, the added difficulty this year has completely seen everybody off 🤣 some of the very best runners in the world on their knees after one loop 🤣
#BM100
March 20, 2025 at 6:42 AM
running.bsky.social
Thanks @willbaldlygo.bsky.social for the research. Extra climbs, possibly storm devastated trails, I've heard mud and possibly different maps for runners. Throw in that you have fewer vets to help the lesser experienced runners. Sounds like it was more or less impossible this year #BM100
March 20, 2025 at 6:28 AM
running.bsky.social
3 runners left is absolutely mad, what on earth is the course like? Is it the nav?? What's going on!!!! #BM100
keithdunn.bsky.social Keith @keithdunn.bsky.social · Mar 19
Maxime Gauduin quit on Loop 3 with no pages and is tapped out. Three runners remain in the race. #BM100
March 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
running.bsky.social
So do we like Bluesky, is it safe to start posting?
March 18, 2025 at 11:52 AM
running.bsky.social
@ourjess.bsky.social happy birthday 🎉
August 6, 2023 at 4:26 PM
running.bsky.social
I'm fine thanks for asking
August 6, 2023 at 4:25 PM
running.bsky.social
I for one would welcome the aliens, got to be better than talking to humans surely
July 28, 2023 at 5:23 PM
running.bsky.social
I scoff at every song in the charts with swearing and then I remember what I listened to in my teens
July 28, 2023 at 6:04 AM
running.bsky.social
Trying to change broadband providers, just shoot me in the head please
July 27, 2023 at 3:43 PM
running.bsky.social
Saw the running.bsky account available and had to take it 🤣
July 25, 2023 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Robin
michubacca.bsky.social
I'm quite enjoying the tranquility of this place.
July 25, 2023 at 11:55 AM
running.bsky.social
Kids books that make you turn it 90° can literally fuck off, I'm tired, the kid is tired, why are you doing this to us
July 24, 2023 at 9:40 PM
running.bsky.social
10 years later Lucy follows me, ridiculous
July 15, 2023 at 6:53 PM
running.bsky.social
I'm not buying it, this is shit
July 15, 2023 at 10:27 AM
running.bsky.social
So this is the next big thing
July 14, 2023 at 5:00 PM