HEADLINES
The people, campaigns, research and updates making an impact in our running community this month
COPYRIGHT: MAGGIE GUTERL / GABI MAUDIERE / ANTHONY STASULLI
FIRST WOMAN TO WIN BIG DOG BACKYARD ULTRA
Maggie Guterl earns a place in running history as the last person standing
American ultrarunner Maggie Guterl became the first woman to win the Big Dog Backyard Ultra. She was the last runner standing at the race, battling for 60 hours and covering 250 miles to get the win.
This annual race is the creation of Laz Cantrell, who also founded both the Barkley Marathons (in which UK ultrarunner Nicky Spinks was one of the two last female standing this year) and the Vol State 500K.
The concept of the race is simple: runners have an hour to complete a 4.16-mile trail loop during the day, which switches to a similar distance road loop at night. These loops repeat until there is one runner left. Cantrell, the organiser of the race, believes last-man-standing races are the best for enabling men and women to compete equally. After the second night of running, the race had come down to man versus woman for the last eight hours, with Guterl battling against Will Hayward of Hong Kong.