The Endurance Artist

Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End

De: Jared Beasley

Narrado por: Steve Quinn

A rare look into an enigmatic accountant from the Tennessee backwoods who morphs into Lazarus Lake, the world’s most notorious race maker.

The Endurance Artist is an all-access pass to the world’s most grueling races and the mastermind behind them.

Gary 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.

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.

©2025 Jared Beasley (P)2025 Dreamscape Media

Good Not Great

I really enjoyed the Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young documentary and am fascinated by Laz. At times, the book does a good job of capturing who he is and his unique personality. At least 1/3, if not half, of the book is devoted to talking about how individual races went. I think it’s necessary to explain Laz’s creation of the races, his reaction to how people finish, etc. but I wanted to know more about him. I wasn’t listening to this to discover who finished where in which races.

I also didn’t not think the narrator captured the tone or Laz very well when he is quoted.

What are the limits?

I started running some years ago and after doing a few Peachtree Road races I became acquainted with a highly unusual race. It started with me reading that the race was based on the story of James Errol Ray the assassin of Dr Martin Luther King who had escaped from Brushy Mountain State Pen in Tennessee and was captured sometime later hiding in leaves but no further than 8 miles from the pen and famously Gary Cantrell said I could have done 100 miles in that time. This was born the Barkley. To quote the title of the documentary it’s the race that eats its own. I have always been fascinated by just what are the limits of human endurance how much pain can you take. As a football coach on hot August/September nights you could catch glimpses of it in the 4th quarter when we needed one more stop or one more score. Can you make yourself go? This book tells that story of the man behind the Barkley and Bigs Backyard.

Great book!

Loved the book! Taking away a performance star because of the constant mispronunciation of Tullahoma. Like nails on a chalkboard to a native of the area.

One of the heads of the Mt. Rushmore of Ultra Running. In perspective.

Through the book Laz is taken down from the dusty old pedestal that many thought to avoid. He's off and full of anecdotes but this book brings his journey into perspective for anyone interested in the story of a Mount Rushmore esque character. Highly recommend.

Finally, insight to such a mysterious man.

A niche book, for those that know, it bolsters all your viewpoints. Not an ultra runner, don’t be afraid of this book, it’s terrific insight to a unique man.
The subject man has extracted more from a person than they ever could have produced on their own.

He’s quirky and thought provoking!

Don’t miss out. Well written, fast and swift read.