About the author:

Rupantar has been the race director of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team since 1985, having been asked by Sri Chinmoy to serve in that capacity. As well as working on the big races the US Marathon Team organise each year - the 3100 Mile Race and the Six and 10 Day Race - he also spends a considerable amount of time archiving the Marathon Team's 40 year history on this website.

martinfryer.JPGTaiwan, December 9, 2012: Martin Fryer of Australia, in his first race as a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, set a new Men's over 50 World Record for a 24-hour track race (pending ratification by the IAU) at the 10th running of the Soochow International Ultra-Marathon 24-Hour Track Invitational. Martin was second overall and his distance of 247.59 km saw him just eclipse the old mark of 247.21 km set by Dave Cooper of Great Britain in Chevilly-Larue, France back in 1985.

(Photo by Prabhakar of Martin Fryer  in the 2011 Self-Transcendence Six Day Race in Flushing, New York, where he won the men's division with a distance of 487 miles).

The following report is from Prachar Stegemann:

"Martin described the conditions as the worst he has ever run in - 23 hours of rain out of the 24, with really strong winds and one inch of water covering the track for most of the race. Nevertheless he says he had one of his best ever races, with his consciousness always focused and clear.

Martin actually didn't realize he had broken the World Record until 90 minutes after the race when we (Prachar) contacted him from Australia. He had thought the World Record was 248 km and he had just missed out!

Martin is looking forward to a good rest now."

(Prachar Stegemann is the main Race Director of the Australian branch of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and whose blogs can be found in CoolRunnning Australia)

For complete race results...

The following  excerpt is from the Bald Runner Website which contains a report and photos of the race:

"After the gun has been fired to warn that the 24th hour had elapsed, only the “best among the bests” stood standing. The top runners were offered chairs on the very spot where they stopped their runs."