{"id":260646,"date":"2026-09-01T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/01\/a-cheeseburger-worked-really-well-the-secrets-behind-a-record-breaking-152-hour-run\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:00:02","slug":"a-cheeseburger-worked-really-well-the-secrets-behind-a-record-breaking-152-hour-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/01\/a-cheeseburger-worked-really-well-the-secrets-behind-a-record-breaking-152-hour-run\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A cheeseburger worked really well\u2019: the secrets behind a record-breaking 152-hour run"},"content":{"rendered":"

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B<\/span>eing wrenched out of deep sleep by your alarm and forced to leave the comfort of your bed can be a horrible experience at the best of times. To go through that process again and again over the course of one night sounds like a bad dream. But last week, for six days and 15 hours, it was Phil Gore\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n

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It gets worse \u2013 or better, depending on your penchant for self-inflicted suffering. Each time ultra-runner Gore was woken he had two minutes to put on his shoes and headtorch before a bell signalled it was time to start his next 6.71km running lap. He had slept for no more than 15 minutes. Pounding the pavement in the dark while the Perth suburb of Forrestdale slept, Gore would return about 40 minutes later and jump straight back into the bed he had set up at the Armadale Soccer Club. Rinse and repeat, all night, then all day (minus the sleep), all week.<\/p>\n

This particular combination of voluntary sleep deprivation and physical exertion is a feature of Backyard Ultra running events. In this endurance race format participants run one 6.71km-lap every hour. Completing a lap with time to spare means time to rest until the top of the next hour \u2013 and the start of the next lap. But failure to complete a lap within the allotted hour results in elimination from the race. The format has no time limit, ending only when there is one runner left.<\/p>\n

One lap might sound like a walk, or run, in the park, but once the kilometres start to add up and the shadows grow long it\u2019s a totally different game \u2013 one in which Gore is a world champion and world record-holder.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>To sleep or to eat? Gore closes his eyes at one point during the event.<\/span> Photograph: William Buck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI do actually sleep pretty well in these events,\u201d he says. \u201cThe deeper I get into the event, I am getting into those deep sleep stages, and I can lie down for 15 minutes, and it might feel like I\u2019ve been down for two or three hours. My crew will have to wake me up because I would just be passed out \u2026 and then that time from getting up out of bed to getting to the start line, that\u2019s the hardest time of the whole event, because all you want to do is just go back to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Australian athlete set the 119-hour world record at Dead Cow Gully in 2025, he did so with the feeling he had \u201ca lot more left to give\u201d, but the traditional Backyard format requires the final runner to stop one lap after the second-place runner drops out \u2013 limiting the potential boundaries of the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019ve done a lot of these now \u2013 I\u2019ve done 16 and I\u2019ve won 14 of them \u2013 whenever you win, you don\u2019t get to push yourself to the limit,\u201d Gore says. So, his Project 168 was born \u2013 the goal to run 6.71km every hour for a whole week, two days more than his world record. \u201c[It was] a personal challenge for myself to see how far I can go, but also to help set a benchmark that other up-and-coming Backyard athletes can strive to reach,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Parts of the race can be lonely, particularly those in the middle of the night.<\/span> Photograph: William Buck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fuelled by Nerds, meat pies and Coco Pops, and supported by a small crew of friends and family, Gore finished just short of the 168-hour target, barely scraping in for lap 152, which he completed in his slowest lap time of 58 minutes. Two minutes later, at 4pm on day seven, he set out on lap 153.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [was] just moving even slower than I was for the lap before,\u201d he says. \u201cI got about 25 minutes into the lap and I wasn\u2019t even at 1,800 metres yet. That was when I gave up and realised there\u2019s not a way that I can move at a pace to finish this lap in time \u2026 I just stopped and collapsed on the ground and got my crew to scoop me up and put me in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be a challenge where I could find my limit, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve done. Maybe [there is] a little bit of disappointment that I wanted my limit to be a bit further away\u201d<\/p>\n

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