hour 71

two more hours until the sun comes up and it cant come too soon. the struggle to keep eyes open has become a universal reality in big’s yard this third night. . much will be revealed by the return of the sun. exactly how much damage has been wrought by this...

hour 70

tobbe gyllebring stopped after 69 leaving 23 to head into the 70th hour.hey are now only 3 hours from collecting a third consecutive 24 hour 100 miler. . the unsung heroes of this blood sport are the crews. waiting patiently for their runners at the end of every yard...

hour 69

what will happen, we wondered when all these athletes who never surrender meet in the same place? . what happens is a long and bloody war of attrition. what happens is that competitors do not quit in their chair. they keep stepping to the line until they physically...

hour 68

it is like hammering away blocks of granite. the 26 just keep lining up and running. you can look through the field and see that most of them are hurt to some degree or another. logic alone tells you everyone has suffered at least some damage. the 26 ran a sub 24 hour...

hour 67

we lost yukinori yoshida this hour when he could not get back in time. so now there are 26 runners steadily closing on 300 miles less than a marathon away. . the distance bell had been mostly quiet the first couple of days. not surprising when you consider the...

hour 66

hello, i am back. it took a while to shake off the cobwebs after 40 glorious minutes of sleep but i feel like a new man! . the 27 surviving runners can only be described one way. they are hard. there is not a second wasted when they come in off their loops and it...

hour 65

nothing seems quite real in the night. i am standing at the scorers table i know what to do watch the clock and blow the whistle a few shadowy figures are moving in the darkness at the edge of the area illuminated by the light in the tent. i have to concentrate on the...

61-62 yards

the backyard is where anything can happen, and probably will. firebuilding duties eliminated the last hour. . while i was gone we lost runners to nosebleeds and sore knees the water was repaired and we have water again. the toilet service cleaned the runners’...

60 hours

in 2019 the winner of big’s did 60 yards. right now we have 31 people out on the 60th yard. i think this is what they mean by exponential growth. . when there is nothing in our experience to go by the only thing we can do is guess at what outcomes will be. so...

hour 58-59

with everything that has happened the past two hours this will have to end up being another combined update. i dont think i can even reconstruct the sequence of events suffice it to say that: people finished loops and quit people went out on loops and came back people...

hour 57

thembinkosi (thembi) sojola of south africa did not make it back. he wont bring back the gold coin. just a silver coin and a shiny new south african record of 55 hours. . a close second behind the problem of heat on the trail is the dust. all those footsteps have...

hour 56

we lost dan yovichin (usa) when he did not make it back to complete the 55th yard. half the field is gone 38 have dropped 37 fight on the heat should break soon the runners need a break, because a lot are barely beating the...

hour 55

report delayed while we waited on jennifer and tomikasu to emerge from the woods. their cause was hopeless but they refused to quit in their chair. as long as they were alive they fought. winners. now there are 38. there are others playing dangerously close to the...

hour 54

slowly the hours slip past. the road is now only 6 hours away. but today it is hotter than yesterday and the runners more tired. every hour is a separate struggle for survival, . . sports are no respecter of age the backyard is more forgiving than most but out here on...

hour 53

and so we lose niklas sjoblom of sweden and angelika huemer-toff, the austrian champion. angelika had a splendid outing, improving her best performance by 18 yards from 44 to 52. still there were tears. it gets harder with each runner they have invested so much of...

hour 52

i told you there would be casualties. and not even the ones we expected. . every runner in the field is operating on a margin so thin that anything can take them down. the belgian brecht vandamme is gone. victim of the hills the uk’s john stocker is gone. victim...

hour 51

we are going to lose some today. of course we know there will be casualties on the trail. they are into their third day of running without a break but somehow it is different watching it in progress. . some of the runners are working hard to make the cutoffs they are...

hour 50

at last a number that looks impressive. willie david christopher from malaysia was unable to make the cutoff. the surviving 45 went on when the bell rang. now we are down to the ones who came to play. no one will be giving up easy. they arent going to hit a bad...

hour 49

only one runner stopped at 48. so obviously the other 46 have come to play. . the lone athlete to stop at 48 hours was niki micallef. niki earned his place at big’s as the maltese champion. but he stepped into the starting corral two days ago with the smallest...

hour 48

so all 47 started the 48th yard. no one was in any apparent trouble coming out of 47, so it seems likely they will all make it. . as exciting as it is to see this sort of a mass accomplishment what makes it sweetest is the performances of the women. . all 4 are still...