Back in the days of the COVID pandemic, a race popped up on my radar that was just an hour's drive from home. It was a 55km trail race in November, and it would mimic some of the traits that are more commonly associated with The Barkley Marathon. This new race was Bar-ka-koo - 5 laps of 11km, run in alternate directions, where one had to collect and carry a log on every lap as proof you'd been to each of the checkpoints. With a 10-hour cut off, it was either a very generous time limit even with the snow, or it was going to be one heck of a tough course. It turned out to be the latter, and with just 4 solo finishers that year and no teams finishing, it began to gain a reputation for being a darn hard race. I was one of the finishers that year in 9 hours and 4 minutes - whether it was the deep snow and bitter cold weather that year that made it a hard slog, or whether it was the brutal course that had my body aching for a week afterwards I don't know, but I knew one day I...