Five men made it to 24 loops, or exactly 100 miles (161km), but by the 29th loop, it was only Toh and Lau left in the running. The race began on Saturday, Oct 15, at 8pm. Of the 15, there were two women, one of whom made it to 22 loops. "To be honest, I did expect (the record) to be equalled at least, but beyond that it's always very hard to gauge, as it's a race with no fixed ending," said Ms Chua, who is the also the owner of sports retailer Red Dot Running Company. The race organiser, Ms Jeri Chua, said that the event was first held in Singapore during the pandemic in 2020, and back then the winner came in at 34 loops, which was the Singapore record. Indeed, it was only following 51 such 6.7 km loops of the park - about the distance between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur - that Toh was eventually declared the Singapore winner, after Lau did not complete his 51st loop within one hour.
The last runner standing will be declared the winner, and so such races can often last longer than an entire day. The tournament format meant that stamina and endurance mattered more than raw speed.
Thus, unlike other ultramarathons traditionally held in mountainous regions with cooler climates, the runners in Singapore were plying 6.7km laps in a hot, humid and sometimes muddy route in Pasir Ris Park. This meant that each participating nation held their own race in their respective country, with all nations starting at the same time. Toh and Lau were part of a 15-strong team that represented Singapore in the Backyard Ultra championship, which is a form of "satellite competition". Those who fail to return before the hour is over, or choose not to start the next lap, are eliminated. Under the competition's rules, marathoners must consecutively run 6.7km laps at the start of every hour. The overall winners hailed from Belgium, where two runners ran a world record of nearly 677km in 101 hours. They each ran a total of around 340km over 50 hours, with Toh beating Lau in a mental battle during the race's final hour to clinch the national win and breaking the previous Singapore record of around 228km over 34 hours. SINGAPORE - After running the "race of their lives", two Singaporean ultramarathoners beat fatigue and outlasted hundreds of global competitors from countries with more established ultramarathon scenes, such as Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Norway.Īcross three days from Oct 15, runners Joshua Toh, 45, and Deric Lau, 46, competed in the 2022 iteration of the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship, a global ultramarathon race format that was first held in the United States in 2011.
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