Megan Eckert runs 636 miles in six days, world record
Megan Eckert covered 636.482 miles at the 6-day world championships in Hungary, a women's world record and the overall American record, men included. Plus the Novablast 6 beats the Nimbus 28, and a $10 million meet opens in Budapest.
The big stuff
Megan Eckert sets 6-day world record, beats US men's mark too
Eckert ran 636.482 miles (1,024.319km) at the EMU-GOMU 6-Day World Championships in Balatonfüred, Hungary, on a flat, fully paved 0.5581-mile loop. That beats her own 2025 world record of 603.155 miles by 33.327 miles and Joe Fejes's 2015 overall American record of 606.243 miles by 30.239 miles. She averaged 4.420 miles per hour for six straight days, sleep and stops included, on two-hour sleeps and 15-minute naps, and became the first woman past 1,000km in a six-day race. Full report and pacing breakdown.
In 6 days of running, she covered 636.482 miles (1,024.319k), breaking her own record by 33.327 miles (53.634k) and setting an overall American record in the process.
While most runs of this duration slow significantly after about 108 hours, Eckert largely maintained her pace in the closing days and hours of her effort.
That's also the overall American Record (ahead of Joe Fejes's 606.2 miles)!
Shoes, gels and gear
Run Testers: Novablast 6 beats Gel-Nimbus 28, lighter and $15 cheaper
The Run Testers call the Asics Novablast 6 ($155, 9.1oz/258g, 41.5mm heel stack (how much foam is under the foot), 33.5mm forefoot, 8mm drop) the clear winner over the Gel-Nimbus 28 ($170, 10.3oz/292g, 43.5mm heel, 33.5mm forefoot, 10mm drop): just as comfortable at easy pace, far more capable when you speed up, with the Nimbus better only for plush, relaxed long runs. Believe in the Run's Dirt Division says the Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra Evo (39mm heel, 33mm forefoot, 6mm drop, 3.5mm Continental lugs, horseshoe carbon rim plate) works best on moderately technical terrain like Western States, not the steep mountains it is marketed for, and calls the Kip Run Summit Max at $150 a premium ATPU (a light, bouncy foam) midsole at a good price. The Run Testers also rate the Shokz OpenRun Air 2 ($129.95, 26.4g, 10 hours battery, up 2 hours) a modest upgrade over the original OpenRun and a good pick if you do not want to pay for the OpenRun Pro 2.
There's a clear winner here, which for me is the ASICS Novablast 6
The Novablast 6 has the bouncier sprightlier more agile more nimble feel to it which I prefer. You sit more cradled in the Nimbus 28 and everything feels a little bit flatter
a quite modest upgrade in some respects, particularly on the design side of things
Rules, records, business
World Athletics Ultimate Championship starts Friday in Budapest, $150,000 per title
The first World Athletics Ultimate Championship runs Friday through Sunday in Budapest with a record $10 million prize pot and $150,000 for each individual champion, 381 athletes from 65 federations across 28 disciplines. Everything longer than 800m is a straight final, fields are 8 to 16 deep, and there is no per-country limit. Gault has Kerr and Wanyonyi as heavy favorites and calls the men's 5k open, with Wolfe, Hocker and Ingebrigtsen all contenders; Kerr's 1500m on Sunday is his first and last of the year, and Gault's story details a workout he closed with a 48.41 400m. Gault's preview.
There is a record $10 million prize pot, with individual champions taking home $150,000 apiece.
It’s the removal of certain varieties of strategy and gamesmanship to make an already simple sport even simpler, all in the interest of goading the field into running a little quicker.
Quick hits
Joe Rubio says super shoes weaken the lower leg, cites stress fractures
Running Warehouse co-founder Joe Rubio says a friend who treats top runners' injuries saw two to three navicular (a bone in the midfoot) stress fractures a year before plated shoes and now sees close to a dozen, and that wearing super shoes all the time weakens the lower leg because the foot is immobilized. It is one person's anecdote, not a study. His fix is what his athletes, including Craig Engles, do: a barefoot mile on grass and drills in a sand pit after super shoe sessions, in the first Ask Joe Anything episode.
One runner says only 164 of 252 finished hot Last Chance BQ.2
One r/AdvancedRunning poster who dropped at mile 17 of Last Chance BQ.2 in Geneva, Illinois, says his Garmin read 72°F and 85% humidity at the start and 81°F by the time he stopped, and that only 164 of 252 starters finished. He was on 2:56 pace through halfway off a completed Pfitzinger 18/70 cycle, and his report is mostly about whether quitting was smart or soft.
Monti marks 20 years since Emilie Mondor's death before planned NYC debut
David Monti notes it is 20 years since Canadian Emilie Mondor, the first Athletics Canada woman under 15:00 for 5000m, was killed in a car accident at 25, two months before her planned marathon debut in New York. He says women in that year's race wore black ribbons for her, in his post.