Dowdle Runs 630k (392 miles) for Backyard Ultra Record

American ultra-runner Mark Dowdle won the 2026 Last Soul Ultra in Germany on Tuesday morning, completing 94 hourly loops to set the largest backyard-ultra total ever recorded on German soil.

Four days on a secret loop near Düsseldorf

The race began on a former military base with 169 athletes. Each hour, every runner had to finish the 6.7-kilometre circuit and return to the starting corral before the bell sounded, or be eliminated.

Dowdle arrived just 15 minutes before the gun, after flight delays forced him to charter a private aircraft. Four days later, he was the only one still moving.

A duel through the darkness

Runner-up Ayyoub El Osrouti matched Dowdle stride for stride deep into the race. By the second night the two men were alone, walking longer stretches through the early-morning darkness and still making the bell.

El Osrouti finally stopped at 93 loops, the second-best backyard performance by a German runner ever. Dowdle had broken his own personal record back at loop 74, then kept going for 20 more.

"For 94 hours, I've been running the same four-mile loop, and truth be told, I don't have to," Dowdle said in a video posted near the end. "But I want to be here."

A mark built step by step

Dowdle's 94 loops surpassed the previous German benchmark of 90, set by Belgium's Merijn Geerts in May 2022. The total amounted to roughly 630 kilometres, nearly 140 kilometres beyond his own prior best from Texas earlier that year.

The world record of 119 loops remains with Australia's Phil Gore. Pre-race favourite Harvey Louis, holder of a 108-loop personal record, withdrew after 46.

Dowdle finished with a string of coins, the trophy assembled from tokens each eliminated runner surrendered. His next target is the Big Dog's Backyard Ultra in Tennessee this October.