Nicky Spinks, the Inov-8 brand ambassador, and her running partner, Stephanie Case, were the women who endured the longest at this year's Barkley Marathons. For the second year in a row, no one finished the race. Indeed, since its inaugural edition in 1986, only 15 runners – all of them men – have ever finished. Spinks, a 51-year-old cancer survivor, wore Inov-8's Mudclaw G 260, with graphene soles, for the race, but the cold and rain proved to be too much. She and Case took an escape route back to base during the second of five laps. Every year, Gary “Laz Lake” Cantrell sets a different, unmarked course for the ultramarathon through the mountains and woods of Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. Competitors must tear pages from books hidden along the course to show where they've been, and they get 60 hours to complete all hundred miles, regardless of the weather.

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