While some teachers spent the second week of September easing into their school routines, Megan Eckert was making more ultrarunning history. The New Mexico middle school math teacher shattered the six-day women’s world record and the American men’s record by running 636.482 miles, completing her feat on Wednesday morning in Balatonfüred, Hungary. The 40-year-old entered the Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners Six-Day World Championship aiming to break both records.
She finished as the event’s overall winner, beating Norwegian Simen Holvik, who logged 584.631 miles. There’s so much that goes on, so many ups and downs. It’s going to take a long time to process.” This was the second time she has broken the women’s world record: she set it for the first time last year by running 603.155 miles at the world championships in France.
The men’s American record (606.243 miles) had stood since Joe Fejes set it in 2015. Eckert surpassed both marks by more than 30 miles. The results are pending ratification by the International Association of Ultrarunning.
The feat involved 1,140 loops around a 0.5581-mile flat and paved track. Eckert maintained an average pace of 4.420 miles per hour over the 144-hour stretch, which included pauses for rest, food and logistics. She reached the 550-mile mark after 123 hours and was reportedly still moving strongly and smoothly after taking two-hour sleeps and 15-minute naps throughout.
Eckert became the first woman to pass the 1,000km (621-mile) mark, which she did in 139 hours 55 minutes 46 seconds. She finished only about 14 miles short of the overall six-day world record (650.919 miles) set by Russia’s Iván Zaborski in France last year.
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