The Endurance Artist

Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End

Jared Beasley

$42.99

Paperback

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English

80/20 Publishing, LLC
16 September 2025

Biography: sport; Extreme sports; Marathon & cross-country running; Active outdoor pursuits

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.

By: Jared Beasley
Imprint: 80/20 Publishing, LLC
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9798990795822
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 16 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jared Beasley is an author and journalist who never expected to find himself embedded in the world of ultrarunning. A former actor with a degree in theatre and literature from The University of Alabama, he brings a human perspective to a sport that is at times rife with danger and denial. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Canadian Running, Outside, and he has a monthly column in Ultrarunning Magazine, ""Detours of the Lost and Found."" Two of his articles made Runner’s World’s top ten stories of the year in 2020. He’s been a featured guest on several podcasts, including Ultrarunner, Author’s Stories, Bad Boy Running, and The Shakeout Podcast.

Reviews for The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End

""If you’re a runner—you’ll devour it. If you’re not a runner—you’ll devour it. Beasley finally delivers the tale so many of us have waited to read, a book as rambunctious, bloody and—yes, beautiful—as its subjects."" -- Chris Solomon, contributing editor at Outside magazine, writer for The New York Times, National Geographic * * ""Gripping. I could barely put it down! Laz emerges as a much more compassionate and complex character, his story is utterly fascinating."" -- Lord Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley, 13th Bishop of Newcastle and Member of the House of Lords, ultrarunning enthusiast