Speedy Racer: Lithuanian ultramarathoner runs nearly 200 miles in just 24 hours
Just over 200 miles separate the American metropoles New York City and Washington, D.C. – a distance usually travelled by plane, train, or car.
But Lithuanian ultramarathon racer Aleksandr Sorokin ran that distance in just 24 hours, as part of the 2022 IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) 24 Hour European Championships.
The speedy racer set off from Verona, Italy on 16 September 2022, and ran 198.598 mi (319.614 km) within 24 hours, a range that could have taken him all the way to the city of Florence 145 mi (231 km) away.
Aleksandr blew past all his competition, averaging a pace of 7 min 15 sec per mile (4:30/km) throughout the entirety of his run, flying through the finish line to collect the race record and Guinness World Records title for greatest distance run in 24 hours (male). His time is still unbeaten.
“I’m very tired, however I’m double-excited,” he said on a post on Instagram after the race. “Very very thankful for all your support, I really felt it.”
Perhaps because of this support, the now-43-year-old was able to surpass his previous 24 hour mark of 188.6 mi (303.506 km), set in August the previous year.
He explained his race logic on social media, saying he was able to improve upon his prior time by breaking the race into thirds: first focussing on getting a 10-14 km advantage over the second place runner during hours 1-11, then turning on “survival mode” to keep his position between hours 12-22 as the exhaustion hit, before finally saving energy for the final two hours when he knew he was going to win.
“I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been,” Aleksandr said in an interview with the New York Times in 2022. “Being a world record holder is very important to me, but my main motivation is that my results are still improving. I want to see how much more I can accomplish.”
This learning-mentality has contributed to the runner’s success, as he became a four time winner of IAU Athlete of the Year Award (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) and collected a number of Guinness World Records titles for: fastest 100 km ultra distance (male) at 6 hr 5 min 35 sec, fastest run 100 miles ultra distance (male) at 10 hr 51 min 39 sec, fastest road run 100 kilometres (male) at 6 hr 5 min 35 sec, farthest run 6 hours ultra distance (male) at 61.2 mi (98.5 km), and farthest run 12 hours ultra distance (male) at 110.2 mi (177.4 km).
Yet surprisingly, the champion ultramarathoner didn’t pick up running until 2013 – for years, he was a champion kayaker until he retired after a shoulder injury. Aleksandr said he started running to get back in shape, but he wasn’t inspired by the traditional marathon lengths. It wasn’t until his first 100-km race where he finally felt like he was doing what he was meant to do.
"I began running to get in shape when I weighed 100 kg (220 lbs). At the time, I wasn't playing any sports, just drinking and smoking a lot. Then I just began running,” he said to the Independent. “The thing about running is you can do more than you think you are capable of."
And no matter how many races he runs (and wins!) Aleksandr still is the first to admit how difficult these competitions are. While others claim to reach a “runner’s high”, he practises what he calls “radical acceptance”, whereby he tries to make peace with how miserable his body feels.
“There’s only one word to describe the last hours of a race: torture,” he said to the Times. “Time feels like it goes slower. The laps feel like they get longer.”
Nevertheless, he likes to use those long stretches of silence during the race to think about how far he’s come. Just over a decade ago, he first started jogging around his city in Lithuania – now, he’s the world record holder for racing 200 miles, almost the length of his entire country, in just 24 hours.
“With experience and results comes responsibility too,” he once said. “I understand what to expect from myself.”
Header image: Alamy