Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter takes on the world's most sadistic endurance race

Steene’s 283 miles, run over the course of nearly three days, is a new Big’s Backyard record, well beyond Calmettes’s 245 miles, and his own 2014 winning distance of 204 miles. But the key player in this brutal game was Dauwalter. She pushed Steene into uncharted territory. Her 279 miles obliterated the previous top women’s mark of 120 miles, and was, in fact, more hours and miles than she’d ever run. This was not a great woman’s performance; it was an extraordinary human achievement. Two-hundred-seventy-nine miles is the farthest anybody, save one, has ever run at Big’s Backyard.

That is absolutely insane! To put that in "real world" perspective for you, check this site out: https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php

Search for your home in the "address" section (note: it doesn't need to be an address, just put in your city name), then put in 283 miles in the "radius" section and finally click on the map somewhere. Now zoom out and keep zooming out until you can see the circle. For me that ends up looking like this: https://i.imgur.com/NRjbOBE.png

Toronto to Detroit, Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Cleveland (and then some) or almost to Montreal, New York, Philly, Washington and Columbus. I have made many of those drives over the years (±5-8 hours) in one day and they felt grueling enough... I can't even imagine what running that distance over 3 days with no sleep must feel like. Insanity!