Running News Daily

Sara Hall broke the women’s treadmill world record on Saturday in the Chaski Challenge

American Sara Hall broke the women’s treadmill world record on Saturday, running a 1:09:03 in a virtual event called the Chaski Challenge. This event was organized by the Chaski Endurance Collective, an online coaching company, and it saw three men and three women break records ranging from half-marathons up to 100K runs on the treadmill.

Many treadmill world records have been broken in 2020, from 50K and 100-mile runs all the way up to a 30-day effort, and on the weekend, eight more records fell thanks to Hall and five other elite runners.

Both the men’s and women’s half-marathon treadmill records were broken on Saturday. On the men’s side, John Raneri (who has a half-marathon PB of 1:01:51) ran a 1:03:08, beating the previous record by 29 seconds. Going into Saturday, the women’s half-marathon record was 1:20:43, but it was beaten twice, first by Renee Metivier and then by Hall.

Metivier posted a 1:19:29 en route to her 50K record, and just two hours later, Hall—a former Pan Am Games gold medallist who has a 1:08:58 half-marathon PB to her name—bettered the mark once again, finishing 21.1K in 1:09:03.

The marathon and 50K records were lowered for both the men and women on Saturday as well. Metivier set both records for the women, adding to the half-marathon record she’d set earlier in the run. She ran a 2:41:11 marathon to beat the 2:42:07 record, and 8K later, she set the 50K record in a time of 3:11:38, smashing the previous best of 3:51:25.

For the men, Tyler Andrews broke the marathon record of 2:20:45, passing through 42.2K in 2:17:56.

He continued on for another 25 minutes to finish the 50K in 2:42:51. Going into Saturday, Andrews was also the owner of the men’s treadmill half-marathon record, which he set in 2015. This is the fourth time in 2020 that the men’s 50K record has been lowered, with the previous best coming back in April when Swiss orienteering champion Matthias Kyburz ran a 2:56:35.

Mario Mendoza was the first man to break the 50K treadmill record in 2020, which he ran back in January, but on Saturday, he wasn’t looking to reclaim that title. Instead, he doubled up and ran the 100K, running a world’s best time of 6:39:25.

The final record of the day came from Regina Lopez in the women’s 50-miler (80K). Lopez crossed the virtual finish line in 8:41:37, ending the night on a high for the Chaski Challenge, which saw eight records fall in total.