‘What Are Ya’ll Running From?’—Tennessee Half Marathon Hecklers Go Viral

It was like a scene straight out of the classic film “Deliverance” — except it was along the course of the Franklin Half Marathon in Tennessee earlier this month.

According to a story in The Tennessean, locals April and Red Duck Cantrell and a bunch of their buddies decided to have a little fun along the course, which went through Leiper’s Fork, Tenn.

There was good-natured heckling. There was a squealing pig (or at least a recording of one). And there were dueling banjos (the video description on YouTube states “if you hear banjos, you may want to run faster.”)

“In Leiper’s Fork, we’ve kind of become known to do quirky things,” said April, who shot the video that’s gone viral. “We prefer to entertain ourselves as much as we do others.”

According to The Tennessean, several runners stopped to take pictures with the crew. As you see in the video, one of the men put a pause to the heckling and ran alongside the participants for a little bit—wearing overalls.

The race organizers seemed amused by the crew, even publishing a tongue-in-cheek account of the hecklers on their official site.

“We had all stayed up drinking moonshine all night and next thing you know a bunch of people in tight shorts started running by,” said Red Duck, according to the Franklin Half Marathon account.