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

By Jared Beasley

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DV4NBP4S
• ISBN13: 9798990795822
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: 80/20 Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 8.9"