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Published by 80/20 Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
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.
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.
Product Details
- Publisher: 80/20 Publishing (September 16, 2025)
- Length: 280 pages
- ISBN13: 9798990795822
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Raves and Reviews
"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! Brilliant."
– Lord Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley, 13th Bishop of Newcastle and Member of the House of Lords, ultrarunning enthusiast
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): The Endurance Artist Trade Paperback 9798990795822
