Trail runners rescue litter of puppies from site of Barkley Marathons

Two trail runners came across five puppies seemingly abandoned within Frozen Head State Park in the Wartburg, Tenn., area

Two trail runners recently rescued five puppies from Frozen Head State Park, the site of the Barkley Marathons. Ashley Blake posted to the popular Facebook group “Trail and Ultra Running” that she and her training partner encountered the litter halfway through a training run for the Barkley Fall Classic, a race designed to offer runners a taste of what the actual Barkley Marathons is like. The Barkley Marathons is a 100-plus-mile race through the brush of the state park in the Wartburg, Tenn. area. (Winners of the Fall Classic earn automatic entry to the big Barkley, which is limited to 40 entrants.) “Halfway through a Barkley Fall Classic 50k training run in Frozen Head [State Park] my training partner and I found a litter of five shivering puppies,” the post reads. “With freezing temperatures and no food, they surely would not have made the night. The wonderful rangers met us and will bring them to the shelter today. Now we can add saving puppies to the list of ultra running adventures.” In an edit to the original post, Blake’s update notes that “we took the puppies this morning to the shelter. There are four beauties that need homes. ‘Barkley’ is now part of my friend’s family, made a perfect birthday present.”