In 2024, American Megan Eckert raced greater than 2,100 miles. Certainly, the miles Eckert racked up throughout her races alone is a quantity many endurance runners could be happy with for his or her complete annual mileage.
Throughout all these miles, Eckert set a brand new ladies’s yard extremely report on the Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely with a distance of 362 miles, or 87 yards (laps), and received every of the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour, the Saguaro Showdown Yard Extremely, and Six Days within the Dome outright. She additionally labored as a center faculty particular training instructor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and coached highschool observe and cross nation.
This could be a unprecedented yr for anybody, however perhaps much more spectacular for somebody who in 2008 had signed as much as run a five-kilometer race with a good friend, did all of her coaching on a treadmill, after which didn’t present as much as the beginning line as a result of she was nervous about operating exterior.
Eckert’s ascension to the highest of multiday operating occasions was speedy, particularly contemplating that after her DNS (didn’t begin) on the 5k in 2008, she didn’t choose up operating once more till about 2016 when she was in her 30s. Issues occurred shortly after that. She raced a highway half marathon in late 2016, adopted it up by one other half marathon three months later, after which made the leap to a path marathon in Could 2017. Since then, she’s competed in occasions starting from shorter path races to Six Days within the Dome, the place in 2024, she ran some 526 miles to take the general win.
Eckert’s story is way from the usual one among a highschool and collegiate runner, however as soon as she picked up operating as an grownup, an unceasing curiosity about what her physique might do has, and continues, to drive her to see precisely how far she will go.
Early Days of Working
Eckert grew up in Houston, Texas, and decidedly didn’t love operating as a child. Whereas she performed basketball and volleyball, which concerned operating for coaching, she readily admits, “Working wasn’t my favourite a part of it.” She had an excellent motive for her dislike of operating, and she or he explains, “I did observe in junior excessive, and I had injured myself within the very first meet of the season. I tore a ligament at the back of my knee, and had eight weeks of bodily remedy. So I at all times feared operating.” She added, “My life was basketball. I didn’t wish to do something that would damage that.”
Then there was the 5k in 2008 that her good friend had talked her into coaching for and racing along with her. After coaching on the treadmill within the fitness center for six months, Eckert was too intimidated to run the race. She says, “My good friend and her boyfriend on the time, they went and did it. And I used to be like, ‘Yeah, I’m good with the treadmill within the fitness center, doing my two or three miles.’” She says, “I used to be too afraid to go exterior,” and admits, “I believe I used to be afraid of failure.”
She didn’t take into consideration operating once more till 2016. Her return to operating stemmed from a want to get her life again on observe after hitting a tough patch. “I wasn’t making wholesome selections; I had gained fairly a little bit of weight and was a heavy drinker. I used to be making an attempt to get down the proper path once more. Working was a stress outlet for some time.”
Megan Eckert operating the 2024 Six Days within the Dome multiday race. All images courtesy of Megan Eckert except in any other case famous.
She began by operating a few miles a day — exterior this time. She’d met her now-husband in the identical time interval, and accepted his invitation to tag alongside for the 2016 Rock and Roll Half Marathon, which he was operating with a good friend in San Antonio, Texas. It was love at first run regardless of, or perhaps due to, the course situations. “I liked it. It was chilly. It was raining. I believe it was 37 or 38 levels Fahrenheit in San Antonio. It was windy. It was not probably the most preferrred operating day.”
When Eckert reached the break up the place the marathon distance went in a single route and the half marathon turned towards dwelling, she needed to proceed on the longer course. “I had no enterprise doing the entire, however I actually did wish to hold going.” That half marathon was her first operating race, and she or he was hooked. Wanting to enhance her efficiency, she signed up for one more half marathon three months later.
Discovering the Trails
Within the three months between operating her first half marathon and her second, Eckert acquired a pair of path footwear and fell in with the native path group, the Rockhoppers, based mostly in San Antonio. Eckert explains that the group invited her to their group runs within the space. “They took me beneath their wing early on in my operating.”
Eckert and her husband volunteered at a neighborhood race, and she or he instantly felt at dwelling in the neighborhood. She says, “I liked the folks. The race director was superior. The volunteers have been nice. The runners have been nice.” Incomes race credit for her volunteer work, Eckert signed up for a path marathon in Could 2017, her first marathon-distance occasion. She received the ladies’s class. She explains, “I felt so good that complete race. I used to be having a lot enjoyable on the market. I used to be loving the course.”
Megan Eckert atop Mount Whitney in California.
Ending the path marathon in Could, Eckert shortly signed up for her first 60k race in August of the identical yr. When Eckert says, “It escalated in a short time,” one might say that she’s making a little bit of an understatement.
Her confidence and curiosity of how far she might go grew shortly. She explains, “I bailed on the 5k as a result of I didn’t suppose I might do it, after which to see that I might do that half, after which I might do one other, after which I might do a marathon … that’s when the questions began coming in of how far, and what can my physique maintain as much as, and what’s my physique able to.”
Teaching
In 2019, Eckert and her husband relocated to Santa Fe after falling in love with the paths there throughout a race. She continued work as a center faculty instructor and began teaching cross nation in 2022, and observe within the spring of 2024.
She run commutes to high school every time attainable, a distance of three miles every means. She says, “I attempt to reduce the variety of days I drive in a month. I’m a particular training instructor, so sometimes I’ll must drive to convey some further stuff for crafts or a laptop computer, however most days, I run commute.” There’s a placing similarity to Harvey Lewis, the 2023 Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely winner, who can be a instructor and run commutes to high school day-after-day. Eckert is fast to say, “I’m not Harvey. I don’t have a backpack with a laptop computer and all of the stuff he hauls.”
Eckert’s faculty neighborhood helps her operating, and her college students take discover. She says, “The children are like, ‘You’re that instructor that runs to work.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I additionally coach over at the highschool, so once you’re sufficiently old, you’ve acquired to come back be a part of.’”
Now at a much bigger faculty than she coached at in Texas, and with much more operating expertise, Eckert’s teaching type has advanced to develop into extra personalised for every of her pupil athletes. She says, “Some want the robust love; some want a extra compassionate aspect.”
Eckert isn’t one to speak about herself a lot, and for a number of years, she stored her operating achievements on the down-low round her faculty life. She says, “I used to be quiet about what I did exterior of teaching. I didn’t discuss an excessive amount of about operating. Then final yr, a good friend mentioned, ‘Why are you not bringing this as much as them? Why are you not speaking to them about this?’ When the children ask now, we talk about it.”
Eckert continues, “It’s an open-ended dialog. I’m not a quick individual, they usually’re operating these 5ks, they usually’re fast. A few of my children are very quick, so it’s fascinating to listen to their views on their operating expertise and their operating improvement, as a result of they aren’t the identical as mine. I believe all of us discover operating uniquely and develop right into a runner in our personal means.”
Escalating to World Data
Whereas Eckert hadn’t raced a yard ultra-style occasion earlier than 2024, she wasn’t a stranger to operating lengthy distances. Over the brand new yr’s vacation because the yr modified from 2022 to 2023, she raced the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour and was the primary lady. She liked the occasion, and the truth that it was a fundraiser for pediatric most cancers analysis and school scholarships for childhood most cancers survivors. She returned to the following version hoping to enhance her efficiency, and that point, she was the general winner.
Megan Eckert being topped total winner on the 2023 Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour, which concluded on January 1, 2024.
Shortly after the occasion, somebody talked about that she would possibly benefit from the yard extremely format of racing, the place racers must line up each hour, on the hour, to finish a 4.167-mile loop. The final individual to line up and full a lap is the winner. It’s a format that’s as a lot of a psychological recreation as a bodily one.
The 2024 Saguaro Showdown Yard Extremely in Mesa, Arizona, was a qualifier for the 2024 Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely, the world championships of the yard extremely format. The Saguaro Showdown could be simply over a month after Eckert had run practically 219 miles at Snowdrop. Nursing “a little bit of an overuse damage” after Snowdrop, Eckert didn’t enroll instantly. She says, “I babied [the injury] for a number of weeks. After which per week earlier than the Sagauaro Showdown, proper earlier than registration closed, I used to be like, ‘I believe I’m feeling a bit higher. I can do that.’”
She signed up for the occasion about eight days beforehand after which received total with 65 laps and 270.8 miles.
She says, “I felt good early on in that race — simply good power. I liked all the things concerning the course and the folks, so I rode that. I held on to the great vibes for nearly the whole lot of the race.” The run certified her for Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely in October.
Simply 9 months after finishing her first yard extremely, Eckert accomplished 87 laps at Huge Canine’s, incomes her the place of Help, or the final individual to drop earlier than the winner completes their closing lap. A seized calf on lap 88 was her final downfall, and she or he was compelled to show again after the primary half mile. However the distance broke the prior ladies’s yard extremely report, held by Jennifer Russo, by 51 miles, or 13 laps.
Eckert is satisfied she will go additional, and says she was stunned by her damage, “I used to be feeling nice. I had even instructed my crew a number of yards [laps] earlier than my calves seized, ‘If I can get to the night time, I do know I could make it to the following morning … I used to be feeling good.” She goes on to say, “It was very sudden for me to not full lap 88 and to stroll again.”
Megan Eckert on the 2024 Saguaro Showdown Yard Extremely.
Trying Ahead
Eckert’s pupil athletes have been racing again in New Mexico the identical weekend because the Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely, and knew their coach couldn’t be there with them as a result of she was operating her personal race. Eckert says, “Once I acquired again, [the students said,] ‘You ran a number of of our races in a row!’ I believe they do grasp what an extremely is. And so they ask questions. They’re inquisitive. They wish to know.”
It’s arduous to think about that Eckert isn’t planting the seeds that can sprout lifetime runners by sharing her experiences along with her college students. And whereas she coaches others, Eckert isn’t one to observe a structured coaching plan, saying, “I don’t work with a coach. I don’t even observe a plan. Every thing could be very free.” Persevering with, she says, I’ve at all times simply gone out and run what I really feel like. The extra skilled I develop into, the much less I observe any construction. Early on, I bear in mind I acquired Bryon Powell’s guide, ‘Relentless Ahead Progress.’”
No matter Eckert’s operating plan is, or isn’t, it appears to be working. As soon as once more, she began 2025 on the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour and hopes to return to Huge Canine’s Yard Extremely once more in 2025. She’s on the at-large record for the occasion this yr along with her 87 laps, which implies she’s certified except sufficient folks run farther throughout qualifying occasions all year long.
She says, “If any person bumps me off, I perceive, however I hope that it’s sufficient as a result of to get there on the at-large record, to be part of that 75-person occasion, could be a dream.”
When requested about her purpose if she will get the chance to return, she says, “I want to see if I might maintain the general [record] in some unspecified time in the future.”
She finishes by saying, “I believe plenty of it will be taking what I discovered on the course final yr and my strengths after which catering to them, as a result of there have been some errors I made in attacking the course that I believe led to being compelled to cease at lap 88. So, if I tweak a number of issues … It could be a problem, however I believe I might get there.”
Name for Feedback
- Have you ever adopted Megan Eckert’s profession?
- What a part of it has been most spectacular to you?
