When American Megan Eckert set a brand new girls’s six-day world document on the Six Days of France on Might 4, 2025, she didn’t simply eek out a couple of extra miles than earlier document holder Camille Herronshe ran greater than 40 miles farther than any lady earlier than, setting a brand new customary of 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers).
That is Eckert’s second world document after she set a brand new girls’s yard extremely document on the Massive Canine’s Yard Extremely with a distance of 362 miles, or 87 yards (laps) in 2024. She’s a dominant drive in multiday lap racing, with general wins on the 2024 Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour, Saguaro Showdown Yard Extremelyand Six Days within the Dome. She talked about her journey into operating and racing and her first world document in an in-depth iRunFar profile earlier this 12 months.
Now, just some months later, she’s a double world document holder. In a cellphone interview 4 days after the occasion, Eckert talks about how she got here to join the Six Days of France, her private targets for the race, her pacing and fueling technique, and a number of the highs and lows of the occasion.
You may learn extra about her run in our information article about her world document in addition to take a look at our interview with Ivan Zaborsky who set a males’s six-day world document on the identical occasion.
After breaking the ladies’s six-day world document on the 2025 Six Days of France race, Megan Eckert went on to run one other 43 miles. All photographs courtesy of Mount to Coast.
(Editor’s Observe: This interview has been evenly edited for readability.)
IranFar: Hello Megan, how are you?
Megan Eckert: I’m drained, after all. Days of journey are actually tough. That was my first journey over to Europe, so on the best way again, it was exhausting. However yeah, aside from that, I’m good. I don’t really feel too poorly contemplating. Simply jetlagged.
IranFar: Congratulations in your new world document. I really feel prefer it’s been a few months since we final talked, after you set your final world document at Massive’s (Massive Canine’s Yard Extremely). How does it really feel to be a two-time world document holder?
Eckert: We’re solely what, 4 days post-race, and I don’t suppose it’s actually sunk in but that I set the world document. It’s a reasonably distinctive, wonderful expertise. I really feel honored. There usually are not many individuals who get to set a world document and even get the chance to. Even simply to have that chance is unimaginable.
IranFar: So, once we talked, I feel it was in December 2024, you had been speaking about doing the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour after which going again to Massive Canine’s’s Yard Extremely for doubtlessly one other crack at that world document. When did the six-day world championships come in your radar?
Eckert: My first six-day run was in June of final 12 months. I did Six Days within the Dome in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I ended up there as a result of I had met Joe at a race, and he instructed me all about six-day races and stated, “I feel you is perhaps good at them.” And in order that sort of caught at the back of my head. When registration got here up for Six Days within the Dome, I stated, Why not give it a shot? Go for six days. And I had a very good first expertise. I actually love the six-day format. I just like the challenges that encompass it, and the minute I received off the observe on the Dome, I used to be already considering, What’s my subsequent one going to be? And it will possibly’t be a 12 months from now. I wish to do one other one. I can’t bodily do one other one now, however I wish to do one other one. And that’s how Six Days of France ended up being the occasion that I picked.
Constant pacing and an eye fixed on operating greater than 600 miles noticed Megan Eckert far exceed the prior girls’s six-day world document.
IranFar: Did you select it as a result of it was the world championships?
Eckert: No. I selected it as a result of I had heard superb issues in regards to the location and the course itself. It’s a really distinctive a part of France, sort of tucked not fairly within the mountains but, however there’s a ravishing river that flows by means of the campground (the place the race happened). There’s plenty of help at that race. It’s only a very nice location. It was extra, If I’m going to run for six days, it’d as properly be in a ravishing place.
IranFar: Coming into the race, did you’re feeling totally recovered from the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour?
Eckert: I did really feel totally recovered from Snowdrop. I had chosen to stroll my 55 hours at Snowdrop simply to have a reset. I didn’t must race that one. I feel it’s essential to have A races after which races that you just simply go and goof off and have time. And so Snowdrop I made that my “have time, goof off, discuss to folks, benefit from the expertise” and never race, and I feel that actually benefited me going into this race, the place I hadn’t had a bunch of races the place I pushed proper in a row going into this.
IranFar: You took Six Days of France out rather a lot slower than the world document tempo. Did you could have the world document in thoughts if you went into this? And was your pacing intentional to take it out slightly bit slower than what Camille Herron has performed?
Eckert: Sure, most undoubtedly. I had the world document in thoughts going into this, and to be completely sincere, I had 600 miles going by means of my thoughts going into this. That was the final word objective, world document or not, I wished to get to 600. So going out sluggish was intentional. I’m not a quick runner. I don’t have a observe background. I don’t have a half-marathon background. I did two marathons after which dove into ultrarunning and path operating, so my background isn’t pace. I needed to play to my very own strengths, and pacing is a type of issues that I’m very, superb at. I really feel like I’m able to preserve a slower tempo for an extended time frame.
IranFar: And what was the pacing plan for the six days, simply by way of sleep, taking breaks, and consuming?
Eckert: Sleep was about each 12 hours. It diversified relying on how fatigued I used to be on the time and what mileage I additionally wanted to go for the subsequent block.
IranFar: Did you could have a go-to snack that was good for the entire time?
Eckert: I imply, these items are “eat as a lot as you possibly can so you possibly can gasoline your physique to maintain going.” And, I’m a really sluggish eater. So, my husband, who’s my crew chief, was simply, “Shove meals in your mouth, get going. You’ve received to go.” And I’m sitting there nibbling on rice muffins. Every thing I began with, I used to be capable of eat all through the race. I used to be very fortunate that I didn’t have to vary my diet. So, I had bowls of gummy bears. I had barbecue potato chips. I had pasta, eggs. And for all of those races, my turkey and pickle sandwiches that I used at Massive’s. I used them once more right here. It at all times works.
IranFar: Have been you operating principally based mostly on really feel, or did you could have a set distance you wished to cowl each six hours? Was your crew telling you it is advisable to go sooner, it is advisable to go slower, or had been you simply operating?
Eckert: It was a mixture of each as a result of it’s such an extended time frame and the climate situations diversified a lot. The primary day it poured down rain. There have been puddles on the course and so we had been having to go off the observe slightly bit into the mud simply on the skin edge and are available again in as a result of the puddles had been three inches deep in spots. So on these days when it’s like that, it’s not price it to hit mileage. It’s simply persevering with to maneuver ahead. And the identical with the recent afternoons. There have been afternoons that had been within the higher 70s Fahrenheit, the solar was totally beating down on us, and people mileages didn’t matter. After which there have been instances the place situations had been excellent, and I picked it up, and I had a plan for these. So it’s a steadiness between enjoying the course, the situations, and what your physique is feeling all on the identical time.
IranFar: Do you’re feeling such as you had been the one making selections, or did your crew mainly inform you what to do?
Eckert: Often, I might exit for six to 12 hours, after which I might come again and be like, “Hey, how did that one go?” And they’d give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. However in these, I discover that I don’t wish to push too arduous, and I do know what too arduous seems to be like for me since you wish to go the entire 144 hours. So no matter I used to be in a position to try this felt snug bodily and emotionally was okay for that block.
Megan Eckert grew to become the primary lady to run greater than 600 miles in six days.
IranFar: And you then smashed the world document by 40-some-odd miles. Was there some extent, since you had been under world document tempo for lots of it, if you knew that you just had been going to get the world document?
Eckert: I didn’t know till I had it. And the one purpose I say that’s due to my expertise at Massive’s the place I went out on that night time lap, and I’m like, I could make all of it night time. After which swiftly, my calves seized up and I used to be hobbling half a mile in quarter-hour or one thing, so I do know these issues can occur so shortly. They may occur half a mile earlier than and forestall you from attaining your targets. So, I didn’t know I had it till I really received there.
IranFar: You had been by no means capable of loosen up and cruise?
Eckert: I knew if I stayed relaxed then the objective was extra achievable than if I burdened over hitting it. I consider in setting these mini targets all through. So my PR was 526 miles in my earlier six-day effort, in order that was the massive one which hit that earlier objective. Then I used to be capable of knock off these little issues alongside the best way, these little accomplishments that had been significant to me and possibly no person else cared, however they meant one thing to me.
IranFar: Did you could have any specific highs and lows both bodily or mentally all through the six days? Moments you’ll at all times bear in mind or moments you hope to neglect without end?
Eckert: The warmth on the ultimate afternoon, it simply felt like anyone had turned the furnace up. As a result of the physique will get so drained, it has such a tough time regulating temperatures towards the top. It was arduous to push by means of that. Then, the primary night time once we went in for our first sleep, I wouldn’t name this a low, it was sort of a type of issues the place I used to be like, No, this won’t go in keeping with plan.
They’ve us in these little cabins, and we’ve got all our clothes arrange and the meals arrange and whatnot. You go in, you sleep, you return out on target. This was our first time making an attempt to navigate the cabin scenario of get meals in you, go down for a bit, get some sleep, get your sneakers on, get again on the market. And my crew chief and I hadn’t practiced this, and we had been simply bumping into one another on this cabin making an attempt to get able to go down, or making an attempt to get able to exit, and saying, “We’re going to have to determine one thing higher as a result of we’re losing priceless time right here making an attempt to navigate this cabin.” Which really is sort of humorous, how horrible that first sleep was. I imply, we actually had been shouldering one another. And the crew chief is my husband, so we are able to snicker about it.
IranFar: I bear in mind you telling me that if you did — I feel it was your first marathon in 2016 — that it rained and was depressing weatherwise, and also you completely liked it. So when it began to rain on the final eight hours of this race, had been you excited for rain or had been you simply able to be performed?
Eckert: I used to be very excited for the rain till I spotted I didn’t have sufficient clothes on, and I received very chilly and got here onto the porch. My temperature had plummeted, and I wanted to get dried off and alter garments and so forth. As soon as I received the clothes regulated, I didn’t thoughts the rain one bit.
IranFar: I like the way you excel below troublesome situations.
Eckert: It’s a part of the problem. I appreciated this one being open air as a result of there have been extra challenges, too, past simply operating for six days. There was no telling what the climate would throw at us or what we had. There have been these little issues right here and there, issues that we needed to navigate.
IranFar: Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak. Your world document was big, and it was so thrilling to look at.
Eckert: Thanks a lot.
Operating within the rain didn’t cease Megan Eckert’s constant tempo.
