Latest news with #BackyardUltra
The Hindu
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Marathoner Ashwini Bhat on running the ultra mile
It is 4pm, and Ashwini swipes her card as she exits a gym at Millers Road, greeting us with a welcome smile. 'I train here thrice for nearly three hours every week,' she says. Not too long ago, the 39-year-old participated in the Backyard Ultra Bangalore, running for 28 hours and setting the national record for women at 187.6 kms in the process. Backyard Ultra is an ultra-marathon event that was founded in 1910 by Gary Cantrell from Tenessee, USA, that requires participants to complete one loop (one kilometre) in one hour in order to enter the next loop. The unique feature of the race is the lack of a finish line; the race is declared over when only one participant remains to complete the loop. The Bengaluru edition of the race took place recently. 'In this format, the most interesting thing is that your family and friends can come and support you, so more than an individual pursuit, it becomes a community activity,' notes Ashwini, who finished second. Life before the race Ashwini Ganapathi Bhat recalls being athletically-inclined since childhood, engaging in field hockey and other sports since her school days, but she ran a marathon for the first time as an IT professional at an event organised by her company. 'We are used to races being about finishing first, but I was intrigued by the distance. It was never about how fast I could cover the distance, but how far I could go.' The fascination with distance led Ashwini to quit her job in 2016, and after a year as a professional photographer, she decided to become a full-time runner. 'I realised quite early on, that I have a lot of endurance, which helps one last longer in a race. That is how ultra running happened,' she says, explaining the switch from small distance runs, trails and marathons to ultra events. Running, for Ashwini, has primarily created a global community that looks out for each other and induces perseverance in one another. 'Once, I had to travel to the United States for a hundred-miler, and needed an affordable place to stay. One of my friends reached out to the Bay Area runners in San Fransisco, and a total stranger messaged me,' she said, describing her introduction to Ajit Narwal, a fellow Indian runner who hosted her with his family for the next 10 days. 'Running has become a common ground that connects us; it defies all boundaries making it easy for you to connect with somebody because everyone suffers, and everyone goes through similar setbacks and challenges on their growth curve. So when I meet a runner, it's easy for us to converse and strike up a friendship. That is something I am grateful for — of strangers being a blessing.' She further acknowledges the constant support of her husband and in-laws, who cheer her at every event. Consistency is key Prepping for an event such as the Backyard Ultra, requires immense grit and determination, physically, emotionally and psychologically. This is why, Ashwini says, her training routine had to include multiple layers and immense discipline. 'You can practice running for hours, build body strength, etc., but the actual conditions at the race can never be simulated. The weather can affect you, your body can experience discomfort, and your shoes can cause blisters. The terrain, the time and the tension, all of these aspects need presence of mind. Learning mental techniques can help you to face the moment, bear the pain, and build a mindset to tell yourself — you've done it before. It happens. It is okay.' She notes that although she has been a self-trained runner for the past decade, she now trains with gyms and performance trainers, who have meticulously charted out a routine that helps her keep her body and mind in sync, building endurance on the field. 'I have learned to listen to my body and understand it better now,' she says. Ashwini observes that a challenge she faces daily is keeping up with her routine. 'The struggle is only in those five seconds when you decide to say 'Yes' or 'No',' she says, affirming that being consistent is the only reason she has been able to reach where she is today. Towards greater distances Ashwini reveals that her greatest motivators are other women who tell they were inspired by her. 'Women have a natural endurance; that is just how our body works, and if I have encouraged someone to try, then that makes me happy.' She is also a trainer and coaches other runners, applying her experiences and studying researches on various training methods. 'Even while running the Backyard Ultra, I would observe the techniques different runners were using, and constantly consider how I could apply them while training others.' On the running front, she aspires to participate in the Mumbai edition of Backyard Ultra, scheduled for next year. 'I am someone who looks at it from a long-term perspective, I would like to be a runner throughout my life. That is my dream. I want to be able to say 'Yes' everyday.'
ABC News
25-06-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Endurance athlete Phil Gore sets Backyard Ultra world record at Dead Cow Gully
Australian endurance athlete Phil Gore has broken the world record for the Backyard Ultra marathon after running almost 800 kilometres in five days on a southern Queensland cattle farm. The West Australian ran 119 laps of the 6.7-kilometre course at the Dead Cow Gully Backyard Masters event outside Nanango, 180km north-west of Brisbane. "It's amazing," Gore said after crossing the line in the early hours of Thursday morning. "The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher and I'm glad that I'm still able to keep up with it. Gore ran 797.3km to break the previous world record of 116 loops, which was held by Belgian Łukasz Wróbel. Billed as a race with no finish line, the Backyard Ultra format has no predefined length or time but requires runners to complete a 6.7km loop every hour. The competition is over when only one runner remains to complete a loop. A field of 263 runners set off at 7am on Saturday and the final two competitors were still running before daybreak early on Thursday. Sam Harvey from New Zealand was the final runner to drop out of the race at the start of the 118th loop, which set a New Zealand national record for the Backyard Ultra distance. "I wanted to get to sun-up … and 500 miles, but gravity wasn't my friend," Harvey said, adding that his Achilles tendon "blew up" on Tuesday night. During the event two female national records were broken. Australia's Holly Ranson ran 61 loops (408km) and New Zealand's Jane McAlpine ran 53 loops (355km). Race director and fourth-generation cattle farmer Tim Walsh said the event, which attracted runners from Japan, Belgium, Spain and the United States, was now a fixture on the international running calendar. After running for five days straight, Gore joked that his next race will be shorter. "I might do a 24-hour instead," he laughed.
Sydney Morning Herald
29-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I'm a savage': An exercise in human potential or self-harm?
Loading Yet, Goggins would also reveal he had pushed himself so hard he had blood in his urine, and left his body with so many health issues it had 'pretty much shut down on me'. A celebration of human potential, or self harm? Achieving what once seemed impossible stretches our perspective on life and by challenging our bodies, we challenge our beliefs about ourselves. Through suffering, the theory goes, we can cultivate gratitude and build tolerance for life's day-to-day stresses. But when are we celebrating human potential, and when are we elevating self-harm? What is the line between transcending our beliefs about what we're capable of and self-destruction? The answer depends on who you ask. Olympic marathon runner, Jess Stenson has an intimate relationship with suffering through her sport. 'Pain shows up in a lot of different ways,' says the 37-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 'It can be mental suffering – feeling overwhelmed or anxious, or I have self-doubt – or it can be physical pain.' She accepts that to achieve her potential, she has to push through mental pain and some physical pain, including blisters, chafing and cramps. Loading At the 37 kilometre mark of the 2018 Commonwealth Games marathon in the Gold Coast, however, Stenson started feeling dizzy, disorientated, and began shivering. 'This might be a bit dangerous,' the lululemon athlete recalls thinking. Nauseous and vague about where she was, Stenson, now a mother of two, finished the race in third place, but had taken her body to a place she won't go again: 'That was before becoming a parent, but now even more so, I have my health to think about so I can look after the people around me. You've got to know your risk versus your reward.' The 'risk versus reward' is different for Chris Turnbull, whose 2023 record for the fastest transcontinental run across Australia was broken by Goodge. Driven by curiosity about where different adventures take him in body and mind, he isn't averse to dizziness and disorientation. 'No, I love that too,' says the 41-year-old Sydneysider. 'That's another experience.' But, like Stenson, long-term health is a consideration. 'Whether there's going to be permanent physical or mental damage I think is a clear line,' says Turnbull, a civil engineer by trade and father of two. While he admits it can be difficult to tell in the midst of an extreme challenge if any harm is temporary or not, he believes we can do much more than we think without hurting ourselves permanently. His curiosity once motivated him to work for 24 hours, just to see if he could operate mentally for that long; to choose to run during peak rain so he can splash through puddles and see the dam levels near where he lives; to run for 31 hours continuously (and 208 kilometres) in the Backyard Ultra event last month; and, of course, to run across Australia. It took him six months to recover from his transcontinental run. During the recovery, he suffered exhaustion and nerve issues which caused dizziness and tingles to shoot up his legs when he tried to run, 'but it went away'. 'I feel almost like a collector of experiences now,' he says, adding that they override the 'small discomfort' of the pain. 'Today there is very, very little that we need to do that causes us discomfort in life,' says Turnbull. 'It's up to us then if we want to do anything hard, which will often come with personal growth and unlock some new perspective in your mind.' The line between transcendence and self-harm Loading Honorary professor Kieran Fallon, the former medical director of the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon and head of sports medicine at the Australian Institute of Sport, largely agrees with Turnbull that it's challenging to cause permanent damage. 'Overall there's not a great deal of data on each bodily system, but there is some, and it indicates that it doesn't really cause that much trouble long-term,' says Fallon, now at Australian National University. Some endurance athletes are more likely to get cardiac fibrosis which can lead to cardiac rhythm disturbances, and there is an increased risk of malignant skin cancer from being out in the sun as well as osteoarthritis in the knees and hips. Issues with the nerves and tendons are common, but typically resolve if the person gives them time to recover. Female endurance athletes need to be wary of relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), which can affect fertility and overall health and performance. Otherwise, Fallon says that unless a person has a specific, rare problem like rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), and acute renal failure, most issues are temporary. Dr Zena Burgess, CEO of The Australian Psychological Society, says there is much to be celebrated in the kinds of endurance feats that also involve some suffering and that positive addictions are, well, positive. 'Building mental resilience, having pain tolerance, setting goals and having coping strategies – all of that is fantastic,' says Burgess, an ocean swimmer who has participated in triathlons. It becomes destructive, she says, if a person can't ever stop, when the relentless pursuit becomes more important than anything else in their life, when it defines their self-worth and when they no longer listen to their bodies. She doesn't revere someone running 400 kilometres on a broken foot, as one US ultra-runner spoke about in April. 'I'd be celebrating the person who stopped and actually got treatment and then went back to train and was motivated again,' she says. 'The resilience of being able to keep trying, not just causing damage to your body and dealing with suffering.' For Goodge, the lines between constructive and destructive are nebulous, perhaps because both can exist at the same time. 'I always played rugby and, honestly, when I was a kid I wasn't very good at it,' says the Cadence hydration-sponsored athlete over the phone. 'At one point my Dad just said, 'Do you want to go fishing instead?'' At some point, however, he realised that he might not be the most skilled player, but he could be the most dogged. It was a mindset that led to a semi-professional rugby career, something he never thought possible, and to pursue running in his grief after his mother died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2018. Loading The same bullish mentality is what propelled him towards 'powerful and profound experiences' including running across Australia. 'It is extreme, and it is self-destructive, but that's kind of why I lean in to it,' he says. If his body doesn't recover from brutal challenges he puts it through, he will turn his attention to the other pursuits he's passionate about, in fashion and business. 'When I lock in, I lock in hard but outside of that I'm just conscious of enjoying life to the max. Life is finite,' Goodge says.
The Age
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
‘I'm a savage': An exercise in human potential or self-harm?
Loading Yet, Goggins would also reveal he had pushed himself so hard he had blood in his urine, and left his body with so many health issues it had 'pretty much shut down on me'. A celebration of human potential, or self harm? Achieving what once seemed impossible stretches our perspective on life and by challenging our bodies, we challenge our beliefs about ourselves. Through suffering, the theory goes, we can cultivate gratitude and build tolerance for life's day-to-day stresses. But when are we celebrating human potential, and when are we elevating self-harm? What is the line between transcending our beliefs about what we're capable of and self-destruction? The answer depends on who you ask. Olympic marathon runner, Jess Stenson has an intimate relationship with suffering through her sport. 'Pain shows up in a lot of different ways,' says the 37-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 'It can be mental suffering – feeling overwhelmed or anxious, or I have self-doubt – or it can be physical pain.' She accepts that to achieve her potential, she has to push through mental pain and some physical pain, including blisters, chafing and cramps. Loading At the 37 kilometre mark of the 2018 Commonwealth Games marathon in the Gold Coast, however, Stenson started feeling dizzy, disorientated, and began shivering. 'This might be a bit dangerous,' the lululemon athlete recalls thinking. Nauseous and vague about where she was, Stenson, now a mother of two, finished the race in third place, but had taken her body to a place she won't go again: 'That was before becoming a parent, but now even more so, I have my health to think about so I can look after the people around me. You've got to know your risk versus your reward.' The 'risk versus reward' is different for Chris Turnbull, whose 2023 record for the fastest transcontinental run across Australia was broken by Goodge. Driven by curiosity about where different adventures take him in body and mind, he isn't averse to dizziness and disorientation. 'No, I love that too,' says the 41-year-old Sydneysider. 'That's another experience.' But, like Stenson, long-term health is a consideration. 'Whether there's going to be permanent physical or mental damage I think is a clear line,' says Turnbull, a civil engineer by trade and father of two. While he admits it can be difficult to tell in the midst of an extreme challenge if any harm is temporary or not, he believes we can do much more than we think without hurting ourselves permanently. His curiosity once motivated him to work for 24 hours, just to see if he could operate mentally for that long; to choose to run during peak rain so he can splash through puddles and see the dam levels near where he lives; to run for 31 hours continuously (and 208 kilometres) in the Backyard Ultra event last month; and, of course, to run across Australia. It took him six months to recover from his transcontinental run. During the recovery, he suffered exhaustion and nerve issues which caused dizziness and tingles to shoot up his legs when he tried to run, 'but it went away'. 'I feel almost like a collector of experiences now,' he says, adding that they override the 'small discomfort' of the pain. 'Today there is very, very little that we need to do that causes us discomfort in life,' says Turnbull. 'It's up to us then if we want to do anything hard, which will often come with personal growth and unlock some new perspective in your mind.' The line between transcendence and self-harm Loading Honorary professor Kieran Fallon, the former medical director of the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon and head of sports medicine at the Australian Institute of Sport, largely agrees with Turnbull that it's challenging to cause permanent damage. 'Overall there's not a great deal of data on each bodily system, but there is some, and it indicates that it doesn't really cause that much trouble long-term,' says Fallon, now at Australian National University. Some endurance athletes are more likely to get cardiac fibrosis which can lead to cardiac rhythm disturbances, and there is an increased risk of malignant skin cancer from being out in the sun as well as osteoarthritis in the knees and hips. Issues with the nerves and tendons are common, but typically resolve if the person gives them time to recover. Female endurance athletes need to be wary of relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), which can affect fertility and overall health and performance. Otherwise, Fallon says that unless a person has a specific, rare problem like rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), and acute renal failure, most issues are temporary. Dr Zena Burgess, CEO of The Australian Psychological Society, says there is much to be celebrated in the kinds of endurance feats that also involve some suffering and that positive addictions are, well, positive. 'Building mental resilience, having pain tolerance, setting goals and having coping strategies – all of that is fantastic,' says Burgess, an ocean swimmer who has participated in triathlons. It becomes destructive, she says, if a person can't ever stop, when the relentless pursuit becomes more important than anything else in their life, when it defines their self-worth and when they no longer listen to their bodies. She doesn't revere someone running 400 kilometres on a broken foot, as one US ultra-runner spoke about in April. 'I'd be celebrating the person who stopped and actually got treatment and then went back to train and was motivated again,' she says. 'The resilience of being able to keep trying, not just causing damage to your body and dealing with suffering.' For Goodge, the lines between constructive and destructive are nebulous, perhaps because both can exist at the same time. 'I always played rugby and, honestly, when I was a kid I wasn't very good at it,' says the Cadence hydration-sponsored athlete over the phone. 'At one point my Dad just said, 'Do you want to go fishing instead?'' At some point, however, he realised that he might not be the most skilled player, but he could be the most dogged. It was a mindset that led to a semi-professional rugby career, something he never thought possible, and to pursue running in his grief after his mother died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2018. Loading The same bullish mentality is what propelled him towards 'powerful and profound experiences' including running across Australia. 'It is extreme, and it is self-destructive, but that's kind of why I lean in to it,' he says. If his body doesn't recover from brutal challenges he puts it through, he will turn his attention to the other pursuits he's passionate about, in fashion and business. 'When I lock in, I lock in hard but outside of that I'm just conscious of enjoying life to the max. Life is finite,' Goodge says.
