British ultrarunner Sarah Perry rewrote the record books last week when she ran for 95 hours and nearly 400 miles at the Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship.
Created by Laz Lake of Barkley Marathons fame, the format continues until there is just one person left standing from the 72 starters – all national champions or world top-rated.
They run 4.167 miles every hour, on the hour. So 24 hours equals exactly 100 miles. And the women’s world record up until then had been held by American Megan Eckert with a total of 87 loops, which are officially called ‘yards’.
But both Eckert and Perry surpassed that in Bell Buckle, Tennessee – Eckert exiting after 92 yards before Perry went on to complete 95 before back pain got the better of her.
Finding a ‘flow state’
It was a remarkable achievement, way surpassing her previous best of 59, and in a fascinating Q&A with her sponsors INOV8 she has had time to reflect on what unfolded.
The first thing that springs out is just what a struggle the first 48 hours were as she explains: “It took me two whole days to warm up. My legs felt awful and I seriously questioned what I had done wrong and considered that maybe I had overtrained.
“I trusted the process and thankfully came out of the other side and finally found what can only be described as a flow state.”
It wasn’t long after that she went past her PB of 59 hours which meant she was then in unchartered territory.
‘Sleep is the key to going long’
That obviously brought many new challenges, with sleep top of the list.
She said: “I finally started sleeping well on night two. Sam Harvey (fellow Backyard runner) came into my tent and firmly told me I need to run faster night laps and that I need to sleep. This advice almost definitely changed the course of my race. With a little bit of extra time on the night loops, I was able to sleep from 3-6 minutes after every lap.
“On night four I was getting deep sleep and sometimes felt like I had slept for a long time when in reality it was just a few minutes. This is a new experience for me as previously I haven’t gone long enough to need to sleep.
“One thing I noticed is that the sleep deprivation really gets to people after night three. We all definitely fell asleep on our feet at some point (which usually coincided with falling down one of the drops to the side of the road), but others became confused and disoriented. Sleep is the key to going long in the backyard.”
Many other things – especially the camaraderie between the runners and their crews – shine through in the INOV8 article which you can read in full here.
