The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End - Jared Beasley

A rare look into an enigmatic accountant from the Tennessee backwoods who morphs into Lazarus Lake, the world's most notorious race maker. \nThe Endurance Artist is an all-access pass to the world's most grueling races and the mastermind behind them. \n \nGary Cantrell, better known by the nom de guerre Lazarus Lake, has been described as a hillbilly genius and the Leonardo di Vinci of pain. His Barkley Marathons is considered the most difficult ultramarathon ever devised, a fight club in the wilderness run in secret. With books hidden in the woods, a cigarette-start, and elevation gain that amounts to summiting Mount Everest twice, the Barkley defies convention. Big's Backyard Ultra pushes human beings to their absolute limit on a four-mile loop that is run every hour starting on the hour until there is just one runner standing--most recently, a high school teacher who ran 450 miles without sleep. \n \n Author Jared Beasley uncovers the world of a recluse hell-bent on rewriting the rules to reveal a life reimagined and failure reinvented. Laz calls into question our obsession with winning and fairness, success and failure, and whether these ideas handicap potential.\n