Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
One of our primary goals in making The Finisher was to collect as many interviews as possible with key figures from the Barkley Marathons community.
In early January, for example, we visited with Courtney Dauwalter, Amelia Boone, Lazarus Lake, Beverley Anderson-Abbs, and Jared Campbell. There were others I had hoped to connect with as well. One person we weren't able to interview was Sue Johnston, a two-time "Fun Run" finisher.
For some reason, however, Gary Robbins slipped my mind at the time. I later realized that Gary would be critical to the film's narrative. Gary was present at the 2024 Barkley Marathons, crewing for John Kelly. He also witnessed the pivotal interaction between Jared Campbell and Jasmin Paris at the transition between Loop 4 and Loop 5. In fact, Gary played an important role in that moment, pulling Jared aside to encourage him to let Jasmin leave camp first — a strategic move that allowed her to choose the optimal direction for her final loop.
In this fairly brief conversation, I ask Gary several Barkley-related questions, with the intent to include some of his insights in our film.
I hope you find his perspective interesting! In retrospect, I wish we had honored the importance of this conversation with an in-person visit (but I'm still stoked we were able to get something).
We also spoke offline and plan to record a longer-form follow-up interview in the near future, covering a wide range of topics. Lastly, I’ll aim to update this post with an audio-only version of our conversation soon.
Photo Credit instagram.com/trappephoto
Partners:
Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made (nordarun.com/)
Gorewear - use code SINGLETRACKPOD30 at checkout on their website to get 30% off your purchase.
Naak - use code SINGLETRACK20 at checkout on their website (naak.com/) to get 20% off your purchase.
Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains (raideresearch.com/)
Follow Singletrack on Instagram:
instagram.com/runsingletrack
Subscribe to Singletrack on Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/singletrack/id1572382413
Subscribe to Singletrack on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/7jAsWCRNSCU8nh81vrAaC2?si=3ac02e4e32b946c4
One of our primary goals in making The Finisher was to collect as many interviews as possible with key figures from the Barkley Marathons community.
In early January, for example, we visited with Courtney Dauwalter, Amelia Boone, Lazarus Lake, Beverley Anderson-Abbs, and Jared Campbell. There were others I had hoped to connect with as well. One person we weren't able to interview was Sue Johnston, a two-time "Fun Run" finisher.
For some reason, however, Gary Robbins slipped my mind at the time. I later realized that Gary would be critical to the film's narrative. Gary was present at the 2024 Barkley Marathons, crewing for John Kelly. He also witnessed the pivotal interaction between Jared Campbell and Jasmin Paris at the transition between Loop 4 and Loop 5. In fact, Gary played an important role in that moment, pulling Jared aside to encourage him to let Jasmin leave camp first — a strategic move that allowed her to choose the optimal direction for her final loop.
In this fairly brief conversation, I ask Gary several Barkley-related questions, with the intent to include some of his insights in our film.
I hope you find his perspective interesting! In retrospect, I wish we had honored the importance of this conversation with an in-person visit (but I'm still stoked we were able to get something).
We also spoke offline and plan to record a longer-form follow-up interview in the near future, covering a wide range of topics. Lastly, I’ll aim to update this post with an audio-only version of our conversation soon.
Photo Credit instagram.com/trappephoto
Partners:
Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made (nordarun.com/)
Gorewear - use code SINGLETRACKPOD30 at checkout on their website to get 30% off your purchase.
Naak - use code SINGLETRACK20 at checkout on their website (naak.com/) to get 20% off your purchase.
Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains (raideresearch.com/)
Follow Singletrack on Instagram:
instagram.com/runsingletrack
Subscribe to Singletrack on Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/singletrack/id1572382413
Subscribe to Singletrack on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/7jAsWCRNSCU8nh81vrAaC2?si=3ac02e4e32b946c4
