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ISBN: 9798990795822
Print Length: 304 pp.
Trim: 6” x 9”
Format: Paperback
The Endurance Artist
Lazarus Lake, the Barkley, and a Race with No End
In The Endurance Artist, author and journalist Jared Beasley embeds himself in the backwoods culture of the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard Ultra to shine light on their elusive race director, the man known as Lazarus Lake.
The first biography authorized by Laz himself, The Endurance Artist offers runners an unprecedented, fascinating, insider view into the man behind ultrarunning’s most feared and revered races. Through personal reporting and interviews with Gary Cantrell’s inner circle, Beasley reveals how this iconoclastic innovator has upended beliefs about human endurance, failure, and redemption—and pushed the world’s toughest runners to new limits.
Gary Cantrell has been described as a “hillbilly genius,” “a master of sadomasochistic craft,” and the “Leonardo da Vinci of pain.”
His Barkley Marathons is known as the most difficult ultramarathon ever devised, a fight club in the wilderness run in secret among a devoted, cult-like group of STEM professionals and intrepid orienteers. With books hidden in the woods, condolence letters, a cigarette start, and an unmatched elevation gain that amounts to summiting Mount Everest twice, the Barkley defies convention.
In his latest diabolical creation, Laz’s new race concept, Big’s Backyard Ultra, is meant to push human beings to their absolute limits. His backyard ultramarathon is set on a four-mile loop that is run every hour, starting on the hour, until there is just one runner standing. In Laz’s own backyard, a high school teacher runs 450 miles without sleep.
Author Jared Beasley ferrets his way into the world of a recluse hell-bent on rewriting the rules to reveal a life reimagined and failure reinvented. Laz forces each of us to ask hard questions about our obsession with winning and fairness, success and failure, and whether these ideas ultimately handicap potential.
The Endurance Artist is an all-access pass to the world’s most extreme races and the mastermind behind them, where we witness firsthand the gears, the machinations, the egos, the surprising humanity of one madcap genius’s fever dreams.
About the Author
Jared Beasley is an author and journalist who never expected to become immersed in ultrarunning. A former actor with a degree in theatre and literature from The University of Alabama, he offers a human perspective to a sport often marked by danger and denial.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Canadian Running, and Outside, and he writes a monthly column, “Detours of the Lost and Found,” for Ultrarunning Magazine. Two of his articles were recognized among Runner’s World’s top ten stories of 2020, and he has featured on podcasts such as Ultrarunner, Author’s Stories, Bad Boy Running, and The Shakeout Podcast.
His debut book, In Search of Al Howie, earned rave reviews and a Kirkus star for literary merit. Adventure Journal described it as “a moving biography that recalls an unplugged era of human-powered adventure.” Beasley has since contributed over 50 ultrarunning features to major media outlets.
Chapter Excerpts
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Praise for The Endurance Artist by Jared Beasley
See what media and ultrarunning experts are saying about The Endurance Artist by Jared Beasley.
New Book, The Endurance Artist, Is the First Authorized Biography of “Lazarus Lake,” the Creator of Ultrarunning’s Hardest Races: the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard Ultra
Meet Gary Cantrell, an out-of-work accountant who came to rule the world of ultrarunning by inventing races where the world’s best athletes are destined to fail.
Meet Lazarus Lake and Jared Beasley During The Endurance Artist Event Series
These fall events featuring The Endurance Artist offer a rare opportunity to meet Lazarus Lake and journalist Jared Beasley.
Before He Became Lazarus Lake, Gary Cantrell Was “Insanely Not Popular”
Before he became an ultrarunning icon, Gary Cantrell did not have many friends. He spent much of his youth chafing under authority.
In Deep: What’s It Like to Run Loop 4 of the Barkley Marathons?
See loop 4 through the eyes of Karel Sabbe, a 32-year-old dentist from Belgium and one of the world’s best endurance athletes, as he seeks a missing book.
Laz’s Other Epic Race: Big’s Backyard World Championship
Ultrarunning’s best athletes converge at the 2023 Big’s Backyard Ultra world championship, Laz’s ultimate test of running endurance.
A Foray Into the World of Lazarus Lake
After a series of eccentric tests, Jared Beasley punches his ticket to Little Dog’s Backyard Ultra and legendary race creator Lazarus Lake.
The Barkley Marathon and Its Assorted Life-Threatening Injuries
Adapted from Chapter 1 of The Endurance Artist by Jared Beasley. In The Endurance Artist, author and journalist Jared Beasley embeds himself in the backwoods