Britain’s Sarah Perry has broken a whole host of records – including a women’s world best – with an astonishing performance at the Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship in Tennessee.
You can read more here about the event, which was created by Laz Lake of Barkley Marathons fame, but in a nutshell 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 this point was held by American Megan Eckert who was runner-up – or credited with the ‘assist’ – at the same event last year.
And Eckert surpassed that this year when both she and Perry made it through the 88th lap early on Wednesday local time, the last two remaining women, having started at 7am on Saturday.
Record breaker
They both continued too but then on the 93rd yard, Eckert was over the time limit and therefore out of the race.
Perry soldiered on though and was closing in on a landmark 96th yard, which would have been four full days and 400 miles. But she was by now troubled by back pain, which was getting worse, and though she made it to the finish in time on the 95th lap, she said immediately that she was not going back out.
That mark of 95 laps meant she had also shattered her own British women’s record of 59 as well as the overall British best which had been Matt Blackburn’s 87 laps.
Just nine runners remained in the event starting the 96th lap – and one of those was Australian Phil Gore who holds the overall world record of 119 hours.
Time to catch up on sleep
The Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships take place in Laz Lake’s ‘backyard’ in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, with Laz in charge and ever-present throughout the event.
He was on the live feed when Perry ‘dropped’ and was quick to offer some touching words of congratulations.
He said: “I think most of us that have done long distances know what it’s like when your back starts hurting – you can’t get it straightened out.
“It was a joy to watch you – you did a fabulous job completing 95 laps. I think the best thing for you to do now is to try and catch up on some sleep!”
