📚Book Announcement📚 Back at the Barkley firepit this year – and thrilled to announce THE ENDURANCE ARTIST is now available for pre-order! This rare look into Lazarus Lake will be published by 80/20 and distributed by Simon & Schuster. #BM100🔗bit.ly/3FuwNe5 It began with a question—one that ran through Laz’s life, his races, and my encounters with him: “What makes you quit?” And what started as a simple biography morphed into something else altogether. There’s hard, insanely hard, then there’s Laz’s creations. He’s been called everything from a hillbilly genius to an evil mastermind to “the Willy Wonka of the Woods.” Through jeerleaders, taunts, and non-standardized (often unknown) distances – Laz questions whether our obsession with fairness ultimately limits our potential. His Barkley Marathons is widely regarded as the most difficult and ingenious ultramarathon ever devised. Set in the thorny wilds of Tennessee, runners hunt for hidden books in hills, hells, and hollers. In 38 years, only 20 runners have reached the finish line. His Backyard Ultras upend our notions of winning and losing—a race with no finish line, where “speed kills” and the best finish last. The Endurance Artist offers the reader a ringside seat to these crucibles and punches through the gore to expose a surprising humanity beneath. Along the way, an unflinching portrait of Lazarus Lake emerges – an aimless hippie-turned hospital orderly-turned accountant, who took a simple idea – that failure has to hurt – and made it into an art form. "I was captivated. The suffering, striving, and dreaming of the ultra-community is right there smack up against the unanswerable yet irresistible question: Why does anyone do this? So many insights into Laz and his legacy, while never losing track of the basic mystery of the man." —Tom Foreman, Emmy-award-winning journalist at CNN "Beasley finally delivers the tale so many of us have waited to read, a book as rambunctious, bloody and—yes, beautiful—as its subjects. If you're a runner—you'll devour it. If you're not a runner—you'll devour it. " —Chris Solomon, Contributing editor at Outside magazine “Whether you run or not, you will love reading about the quirky, brilliant, hillbilly genius of Lazarus Lake who, like Bob Dylan, isn’t afraid to experiment. He doesn’t care about expectations or what others think of him. The Endurance Artist will... leave you simultaneously laughing and cringing as you meet a cast of characters as exceptional as they come.” —Marshall Ulrich, best-selling author of Running on Empty and Both Feet on the Ground. Endurance athlete, speaker, and Route 66 UltraRun race director. 📢I'll be covering this year's Barkley for The Guardian. Stay tuned! #TheEnduranceArtist #lazbook #ultrarunning

It's the 40th anniversary of Thornton Melon doing the Triple Lindy and winning the National Championship for Grand Lakes University. Back to School (1986)

Both were after the limits of human potential. Both hippies. Both on the other side of the law at times. One forgotten. The other not so much. HOWIE: amazon.com/Search-Al-Howie-M… LAZ: amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DV4NBP4…

Of the original 88, 70 remain in HOTS. Day three underway.

One HOTS runner's supplies for the run. Cigars are crucial. PC: Tim Hardy

LIKE a swarm of buffalo gnats... "and they are off! . way off . a little over 4 hours ago the forty one 400 milers were unceremoniously dumped from a tour bus on the side of a highway in south carolina. . armed only with a map of a route they have never seen, they have set off to return to their cars, parked in a hayfield on a remote mountaintop in north georgia. even in the early morning the humid air settled on them like a hot, wet blanket. . an hour and a half later an additional 46 assorted multiday runners set off on the 350 mile fun run. . everyone was smiling and festive the last time we saw them... . if reality has not yet set in, it is at the minimum buzzing around their head like a swarm of buffalo gnats. . today and tomorrow are all about acclimation. the effective temperature today is expected to be 102, with this only the opening salvo of a four day heat wave. . while many of the athletes have heat trained, there is a difference between training in heat, and living it. . and god help those who have come from arid western climates or from, basically, anyplace that is not a daily steam bath. . the race now revolves around surviving until the body adjusts to living in a pressure cooker." - LAZ #HOTS

HOTS this year has begun in Savannah. Runners were put on a bus and driven to a destination unknown to them. Now, they know. The job now is to run back to their cars. PC: Walter Handloser #HOTS

OH MY HEAVENS! 🇺🇸 Cooper Lutkenhaus beats Olympic and World champion 🇰🇪 Emmanuel Wanyonyi 1:42.08 to 1:42.09 at the Oslo Diamond League. The best 800m runner in the world is 17 years old. Fearless running by him.

The Craziest Race you most likely never heard of is about to begin. HOTS "for 12 months they have wondered. . where will they sleep tonight? where will they be unceremoniously dumped beside the road tomorrow? . the heart of the south is about to begin. . they know where it finishes. but not where it starts... . missouri? kentucky? florida? louisiana? georgia? miss'ippi? west virginia? north carolina? south carolina? arkansas? alabama? . they know one thing. at 0730 (central time) tomorrow their cars will be parked in a hayfield 400 miles away... . and they will have 11 days and 10 nights to reach them. . on foot alone with only what they can carry or find along the way. . what will they eat? where will they find fluids? where will they sleep? . that will be up to them to figure out. . life will be very simple.... . stay alive and keep moving. . the HOTS is about to begin." - LAZ

LAZ after walking Across the Country for a third time, enjoying a chocolate beverage. Baker's Beach, San Francisco. PC: Olle Berg

LAZARUS LAKE, 71, has stuck his cattle prod in the Pacific, finishing his third walk across America and his second Transcon. 💥 "hear me my friends my feet are sick and sad from where the sun now stands i will walk no more forever apologies to chief joseph" #lazcon COMPLETE

THOSE wanting to walk with Laz as he finishes his walk across America: The Geezer is expected at 0700 at the Golden Gate Bridge. Be sure to give him space. He can bite. PC: Olle Berg #lazcon

Laz has spotted the Golden Gate Bridge. He will take an easy day, today. Then, hit the bridge Saturday morning and walk to the ocean. PC: Olle Berg #lazcon #sanfrancisco #california The Endurance Artist: amazon.com/Endurance-Artist-…

Geezer alert for San Francisco. 💥 Saturday is the Golden Gate Bridge. Laz has now walked over 4,000 miles on this trek. "my response time isn't what it was a thousand miles ago." #lazcon Final Leg, Day 57

Laz can smell the sea air. He looks to be in San Francisco on Saturday, marking his second Transcon and his third walk across the country. #lazcon Final Leg, Day 56

Laz has left Sacramento. But not before being stalked by another Barkley Gate. #lazcon Final Leg, Day 55 San Francisco coming.

Laz has made Sacramento. 💥 "the last eruption of the santorini caldera actually blasted this statue head into low orbit... you learn stuff here." #lazcon Final Leg, Day 54

"it is not an adventure if you know how it will come out." Laz gets lost but rebounds with a big mileage day. Barkley's yellow gate caught following him. 👀 #lazcon Final Leg, Day 53

After quitting his job as a ticket puncher on a bus, Al Howie had a simple mission in life: Never Stop Running... to break records, to escape the law, the escape himself. BOOK LINK: amazon.com/Search-Al-Howie-M…