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The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42 km 195 m, usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. More than 800 marathons are held worldwide each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.
Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain.
An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres. The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running.
Scott Gordon Jurek is an American ultramarathoner, author, and public speaker. Throughout his running career, Jurek was one of the most dominant ultramarathon runners in the world, winning the Hardrock Hundred (2007), the Badwater Ultramarathon, the Spartathlon, and the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run (1999–2005). In 2010, at the 24-Hour World Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, Jurek won a silver medal behind Shingo Inoue and set a new US record for distance run in 24 hours with 165.7 miles. In 2015, Jurek set the Fastest Known Time running record for the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail.
Jesper Olsen, or Jesper Kenn Olsen, is a multiple national record holder ultra distance runner from Denmark, and was the second person verified to have run around the world, as well as the first verified to have run around the world in a north-south rather than east-west direction.
The Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race is the world's longest certified footrace. In 1996 Sri Chinmoy created this event as a 2,700-mile (4,345 km) race. At the award ceremony that year he declared that the 1997 edition would be extended to 3,100 miles (4,989 km).
Multiday races are ultramarathon running events which are typically either segmented into daily events of a specified distance or time, or staged so that runners can run as far as they want, at their own discretion, over a set course or over a set number of days. Multiday races can range from continuous 48-hour track events to staged transcontinental treks.
William Morley Sichel is a British long-distance runner.
David Abbott "Ab" Jenkins was the 24th mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah between 1940 and 1944. He was a professional race car driver. Jenkins' interest in motorsports began with racing motorcycles on dirt tracks and across country. He then became interested in land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He was instrumental in establishing Bonneville as a location for such events, and in attracting overseas drivers such as George Eyston and Sir Malcolm Campbell to compete there.
Arthur "Al" Howie was a Canadian long-distance runner who won more than fifty marathons, ultramarathons, and multiday races in over two decades, including the 1991 Trans Canada Highway run in the record time of 72 days and 10 hours. A brass plaque on Victoria's Mile Zero marker commemorates this athletic event for which he raised $750,000 for a fund for children with special needs. Two weeks after running across Canada he won the Sri Chinmoy 1300 Miler in New York improving on his own world record time. Both the Trans Canada run and the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) race qualified for the Guinness Book of Records. He lived in Duncan, B.C., from 2005 until his death in 2016. He had been receiving treatment for Diabetes I. The City of Duncan awarded him the Perpetual Trophy for Excellence and Sportsmanship in December 2007, and in 2014 he was inducted into The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.
Geoffrey Kiprono Mutai is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. On 18 April 2011 at the Boston Marathon, Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever at the time in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds, though the time was not recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations as a world record since the Boston course does not meet the criteria to be eligible for the mark.
The Athens International Ultramarathon Festival is a Multiday race which takes place at the former Ellinikon International Airport in Greece.
Christoph Strasser is an Austrian ultra cyclist who is a six-time winner and record holder for the fastest time in the Race Across America. From 16 to 17 July 2021, he became the first person to ride more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) in 24 hours, on a course at Hinterstoisser Air Base in Zeltweg, Austria.
Eleanor Robinson is a British former ultramarathon runner and two-time winner of the IAU 100km World Championships. She was the first woman to run over 150 miles in a 24-hour endurance race. She was the winner of the first Badwater Ultramarathon in 1987. She was twice bronze medallist at the IAU 100 km European Championships.
Gary Allen is an American long-distance runner, race director and entrepreneur. He is the founder and director of the Mount Desert Island Marathon, the Millinocket Marathon & Half and the co-founder of the Downeast Sunrise Trail Relay and the Great Cranberry Island 50K Ultra Marathon.
The backyard ultra or last one standing is a form of ultramarathon race where competitors must consecutively run the distance of 6.706 kilometres (4.167 mi) in less than one hour, which is a pace of 100 miles per 24 hours. The race is over when only one runner remains to complete a lap. This runner is marked as the winner and only finisher, with all other runners receiving a "DNF". The runner who completes the second-most laps in a race is often referred to as the "assist", in the sense that their effort is ultimately what determines how long the race is allowed to continue--there is no predefined end length or time in a backyard ultra, as long as multiple runners can complete each loop within an hour.
Michael Hartley is a British ultramarathon runner. He has held the record for a number of British long-distance trails, including the Pennine Way, and has represented Great Britain in the 100km road race.
Donald Alexander Ferguson Ritchie was a Scottish ultramarathon runner.
Aleksandr “Sania” Sorokin is a Lithuanian long-distance runner who holds multiple world and European records. As of May 2023, he held seven world records on the track and road: 100 km (road), 100 miles (road), 100 miles (track), 6-hour run (track), 12-hour run (track), 12-hour run (road), 24-hour run (road). Sorokin won the IAU 24 Hour World Championship in 2019, IAU European 24 Hour Championships in 2022 and the Spartathlon in 2017.
