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“Born and bred in the briar patch, that’s me,” laughed Brer Rabbit. “I told you not to throw me there. In all the world, that’s the place I love best!” With a lippity clip, he hopped away. –
// Joel Chandler Harris
I was once again at the summit of Chimney Top, collecting my final page of the Barkley Marathons. Six years had passed since I first finished the notorious race, becoming just the 15th person in over 30 years to do so. The last time I was at this point in the race, I was deliriously stumbling through fog, wearing a plastic grocery bag and bright orange hat I had found in the briars, not sure whether any of it was real or if I was dreaming.
After finishing in 2017, the grocery bag ripped to shreds by briars and just hanging on like a sash
Deep Roots
The experience this time could not have been more different. It was a calm, peaceful evening. I had plenty of time left to finish and my mind was clear, so I sat to enjoy the orange and purple hues spreading across the sky as I looked down through the barren trees at the green fields of my family’s farm.
To my left stood Kelly Mountain, with the water flowing down the “holler” and out into Kelly Creek, beside the old log home that five generations of my family had lived in. A few feet below me was the exact spot where I sat with my dad over three decades earlier when we took one of our family hikes up Chimney Top. Behind me lay the Frozen Head trails, which my grandpa had helped build during the Great Depression as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal initiatives that helped put people to work in a dirt-poor area where people hadn’t heard of the stock market or had any work since long before it fell.
The logs have been covered by clapboard siding, but the original home still stands and is now a small museum
If anyone ever asks me the desert island question, what one thing would I take with me if I were stranded – my answer is my Grandma Kelly. You could put her on a rock in the middle of the ocean surrounded by sharks, and somehow, she’d find a way.
New Branches
None of that family history involved running. None of the history of anyone in the entire community involved running. The high schools didn’t even have track teams. On the surface it seemed impossible that someone from the area would even attempt Barkley, let alone finish.
But still, that connection to the people and the mountains is a large part of what drove me. I wanted it for me, and for the community. With the right fuel, that same resilience and resourcefulness my grandma had could be applied to anything. Through years of failure and learning, I gained the skills and experience necessary to finish. For any goal that didn’t have that intrinsic motivation, that didn’t deeply inspire me, I likely would have given up.
Our greatest strength lies deep within. It comes from who we are, and what we strive to become. Outside of necessity or danger, that strength is only fully realized by true passion – goals that are personally meaningful and connect to our core. For me that was Barkley. It’s also the Appalachian Trail – traveling 2,200 miles through my home mountains and far beyond, and in the process supporting recovery from the recent destruction caused by Hurricane Helene.
“These mountains are in my blood and my blood is on these mountains,” I had repeated to myself through both Barkley finishes to keep me going through the lows. I said it one last time before standing up to confidently head down and become the third person to finish the race more than once.
John Kelly is attempting to break the record for the near 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. This blog series will coincide with weekly video episodes following his journey.
Watch the first video below:
John Kelly is the original architect and developer of Envelop Risk’s core technology, CyberTooth. After spending a few years in the UK building the team, he now lives back in the US with his family. John is also an internationally recognized ultra marathon runner, one of only three people to complete the Barkley Marathons more than once and the record holder on many well-known routes, including the Pennine Way. The thoughts and views in these posts are his own reflections from experiences as an accomplished athlete and entrepreneur, and do not necessarily reflect the views of others at Envelop Risk.
