The notoriously challenging and always obscure Barkley Marathons trail running race came and went with just a whimper this year.But the 40 runners who started this peculiar event near Wartburg, Tennessee, all left in anguish.On Saturday morning at 6 a.m., Barkley creator and race director Gary Cantrell, also commonly known as Lazarus Lake in the trail running world, lit a cigarette in a parking lot of Tennessee’s Frozen Head State Park, thus signaling the official start of this year’s race. About 40 hopeful and courageous trail runners from 15 states and 15 countries set off into the park’s treacherous terrain to achieve the near-impossible amid cold, wet, muddy, foggy, and very slippery conditions.As with every other Barkley in recent years, this year’s field of runners was chock full of highly accomplished competitors with high-profile results, including what is believed to be a record 10 women.None succeeded.…