This past weekend, I had the opportunity to train at Frozen Head State park down in Tennessee. If you don’t know what that means, hopefully this picture will help you out.

Still not sure? Frozen Head is the site of the (in)famous Barkley marathons. The race itself has been around for a bit more than 30 years, but only 15 people have ever finished the race. To say it’s tough is an understatement.

Back to training. I traveled down to Frozen Head to get a taste of the area. It is beautiful. The terrain is tough, up and down, up and down. Even the jeep roads in the park aren’t easy to run, but they’re about as runnable an area in the park as you will find. The trail is littered with switchbacks, but some are so steep you may need your hands to climb. While some of the trails were maintained, others had blowdowns from recent storms that hadn’t been cleared. If you think you’ve reached the top of the hill, you’re likely wrong.

The day I went down, it rained, the whole day. Because the area is so mountainous, there never seemed to be much mud, but it was slick. Leaves were still scattered on the trails from the fall and they were slick from the rain. The hills drained the heaviest rain down towards the creeks, but on some trails, the creeks and the trail themselves were one and the same. The mountains also brought some high winds, which made the air cold. As we turned some corners, winds would be right in our faces, while at other times the wind couldn’t be felt at all. This rain/ wind combo also came with fog, but the fog would come and go so fast. One minute you couldn’t see more than 5 feet in front of you, the next you could see for miles.

It is very important to note here: stay on the trails! This may seem obvious, but the park rangers told me they have issues with folks wondering off trail in attempt to find parts of the Barkley course. The route I ran was all park trails. The park itself has miles of trails you could run/ hike. No need to wonder around in other areas (that would also be dangerous).