Vol State 500K: A Journey Through Madness, Blurring the Lines of American Division

In July 2023,120 people started a 314-mile race across five states in the South, mostly through Tennessee. Nancy Barber was one of them, and even she doubted her decision.

"It's the Bible Belt of the South. I'll be eating convenience store cuisine, walking just this side of heat stroke, hoping to catch four hours of sleep a day, including naps on benches and concrete floors. Why would I consider repeatedly hiking all night on Tennessee backroads, searching for discreet places to pee, dodging hallucinations and hillbillies? Why, as Race Director Lazarus Lake so eloquently put it, would I want to spend ten days learning to 'live like a stray dog'?"

Why would anyone want to walk 314 miles in 10 days in July across (mostly) Tennessee? Dismayed by the polarization in the U.S. and working toward emigration to the U.K., Nancy Barber, a liberal university lecturer from Florida, feels called to join this bizarre race through five states and 17 conservative counties that all voted for Donald Trump twice and likely would a third time. Along the sweltering and stormy ten days and nights of the Last Annual Vol State 500K Race, she meets road angel after road angel who blurs the lines of American division and helps rekindle an appreciation of her roots.