COURTNEY DAUWALTER

Round and round, she went, for 67 hours Think your running route is repetitive? Then spare a thought for Courtney Dauwalter. The American ultrarunner ran 279.2 miles around the same 4.1-mile loop in October. The reason? She was taking part in the Big Dog Backyard Ultra, perhaps the world’s cruellest race. The rules are simple: the race is over when only one runner is left standing. Dauwalter outlasted all but one of the men. ‘The format is set up in such a way that you can really chase after your limit,’ she says, by way of explaining why anyone would choose to take part in such a race. ‘You've got to be confident in yourself and your ability to keep going and then just be willing to keep putting one foot in front of the other.’ Dauwalter says she was OK until the 200-mile mark – aren’t we all? – but then things became more and more difficult. She was outlasted by the indomitable Swede Johan Steene – but the joke is really on him. Steene’s ‘prize’ for winning is a place on the start line of the Barkley Marathons, a race so tough that only 15 runners have completed it in its 33-year history.