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Feel like you’ve read a lot about the 50k treadmill world record on our site in the past few months? Well, you’re not going crazy—the record has been broken three times in just over three months.
On April 16, Swiss orienteer Matthias Kyburz ran 50 kilometers on a treadmill in 2:56:35, taking 50 seconds off the record set in February by German Florian Neuschwander. Before Neuschwander, American Mario Mendoza ran 2:59:03 in January to break the previous record of 2:59:49, set by ultrarunner Michael Wardian.
Kyburz wasn’t planning to attempt the record this year. However, when his planned races were canceled or postponed, like many races around the world, Amazing Runners World Show coronavirus pandemic, Nutrition - Weight Loss.
“I haven’t done anything like this in eight years when I did a world record attempt,” Kyburz told Runner’s World. “It was 12 guys and we ran on the treadmill for 24 hours and set the world record, but that was only two hours on for me.”
Right from the start of his record run, Kyburz’s treadmill effort looked smooth. But he started slower than record pace on the first half, so the Swiss athlete needed a negative split on the second half. Kyburz mentioned struggling at the 30K and 45K marks, and also getting dizzy around 38K. He wasn’t sure he was going to continue after that, but when it passed at 40K, he powered through the pain in his legs and captured the record, averaging a 5:40-per-mile pace.
“It’s nice really nice to have realized it at the end without any big issues,” Kyburz said on the Facebook live stream after his run. “It’s nice to do a project like this. To do it in such difficult times to feel this joy now. It’s amazing for me.”
Within a minute of finishing, Kyburz was celebrating with his wife, who was one of a few people with him for his run because of social-distancing guidelines. He popped champagne and blasted confetti before announcing his plans for relaxing.
“Recovery is easy because I will go home because you should stay home, so I’m going there and laying on my sofa and eating a hell of a lot of chocolate,” he said. “I think this is what I’m going to do the next two weeks.”
Kyburz did just that when he got back to his apartment. His wife surprised him by laying out 50 chocolate bars—one for every kilometer—and he plans to slowly eat them all over the coming weeks.
“I expected to be hurting more,” he said the day after his run. “But I’m walking fine in my apartment, so I’m picking up chocolate everywhere today.”
With the record dropping so often this year and many runners in similar quarantine situations, it is possible we see another in 2020. Kyburz said if that happens, they can have it.
“I won’t go a second time,” Kyburz said. “It was a special situation. Only one time. Not again.”
In addition to running for the record, Kyburz was also raising money to fight the coronavirus pandemic Why TikTok Is Flooded With Track Memes Right Now here.
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Races - Places Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
