Sarah Penny sets new British backyard ultra record

Runner Sarah Penny has set a new British record for the longest backyard ultra run by a woman. At the Rasselbock Running ultra marathon in the Midlands over the weekend, Sarah completed 41 laps in the allotted 41 hours, totalling a whopping 170 miles.

Backyard ultrarunning is a notoriously difficult practice as runners not only have to cover incredibly long distances, but in laps. In a backyard ultra event, participants must usually complete each lap under a time limit in order to take on the next. If they don’t make the start line within the time they must drop out – or they can drop out of their own accord rather than take on another lap. The last runner standing is the winner.

Sarah managed to complete 41 laps, with each lap comprising just over 4 miles, in a time limit of one hour per lap. She beat the previous British women’s record of 35 laps. The world women’s best is 74 laps, held by American runner Jennifer Russo.

The ultra was won outright by Mike Raffan with 42 laps, after Sarah made the tough decision to stop after 41.

Sarah told inov-8 that she finds the “backyard format fascinating”.

“In particular,” she said, “I love that gender stereotypes that are usually attached to running races do not apply. As long as you’ve got endurance and can…