When American Megan Eckert set a brand new ladies’s six-day world report on the Six Days of France on Might 4, 2025, she didn’t simply eek out a couple of extra miles than earlier report holder Camille Herron, she ran greater than 40 miles farther than any girl earlier than, setting a brand new customary of 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers).
That is Eckert’s second world report after she 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) in 2024. She’s a dominant pressure in multiday lap racing, with total wins on the 2024 Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour, Saguaro Showdown Yard Extremely, and Six Days within the Dome. She talked about her journey into operating and racing and her first world report in an in-depth iRunFar profile earlier this yr.
Now, just some months later, she’s a double world report holder. In a cellphone interview 4 days after the occasion, Eckert talks about how she got here to enroll in 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’ll be able to learn extra about her run in our information article about her world report in addition to try our interview with Ivan Zaborsky who set a males’s six-day world report on the identical occasion.
After breaking the ladies’s six-day world report on the 2025 Six Days of France race, Megan Eckert went on to run one other 43 miles. All pictures courtesy of Mount to Coast.
[Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.]
iRunFar: 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, apart from that, I’m good. I don’t really feel too poorly contemplating. Simply jetlagged.
iRunFar: Congratulations in your new world report. I really feel prefer it’s been a few months since we final talked, after you set your final world report at Huge’s [Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra]. How does it really feel to be a two-time world report holder?
Eckert: We’re solely what, 4 days post-race, and I don’t assume it’s actually sunk in but that I set the world report. It’s a fairly distinctive, wonderful expertise. I really feel honored. There will not be many individuals who get to set a world report and even get the chance to. Even simply to have that chance is unbelievable.
iRunFar: So, after we talked, I feel it was in December 2024, you have been speaking about doing the Snowdrop Extremely 55 Hour after which going again to Huge Canine’s’s Yard Extremely for probably one other crack at that world report. When did the six-day world championships come in your radar?
Eckert: My first six-day run was in June of final yr. I did Six Days within the Dome in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I ended up there as a result of I had met Joe Fejes at a race, and he advised me all about six-day races and mentioned, “I feel you may be 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 mentioned, Why not give it a shot? Go for six days. And I had a extremely 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 monitor on the Dome, I used to be already considering, What’s my subsequent one going to be? And it might’t be a yr 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 a watch on operating greater than 600 miles noticed Megan Eckert far exceed the prior ladies’s six-day world report.
iRunFar: 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 concerning 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 lovely river that flows via the campground [where the race took place]. There’s loads 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 lovely place.
iRunFar: Coming into the race, did you are 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 have to race that one. I feel it’s necessary 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, speak to individuals, 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.
iRunFar: You took Six Days of France out lots slower than the world report tempo. Did you may have the world report in thoughts whenever you went into this? And was your pacing intentional to take it out somewhat bit slower than what Camille Herron has completed?
Eckert: Sure, most positively. I had the world report in thoughts going into this, and to be completely sincere, I had 600 miles going via my thoughts going into this. That was the last word aim, world report or not, I needed to get to 600. So going out gradual was intentional. I’m not a quick runner. I don’t have a monitor background. I don’t have a half-marathon background. I did two marathons after which dove into ultrarunning and path operating, so my background is just not 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 keep a slower tempo for an extended time frame.
iRunFar: 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.
iRunFar: Did you may have a go-to snack that was good for the entire time?
Eckert: I imply, these items are “eat as a lot as you may so you may gasoline your physique to maintain going.” And, I’m a really gradual 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. The whole lot 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 alter 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 Huge’s. I used them once more right here. It at all times works.
iRunFar: Have been you operating principally primarily based on really feel, or did you may have a set distance you needed to cowl each six hours? Was your crew telling you that you must go quicker, that you must go slower, or have been you simply operating?
Eckert: It was a mix of each as a result of it’s such a protracted 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 have been having to go off the monitor somewhat bit into the mud simply on the surface edge and are available again in as a result of the puddles have been three inches deep in spots. So on these days when it’s like that, it’s not value it to hit mileage. It’s simply persevering with to maneuver ahead. And the identical with the recent afternoons. There have been afternoons that have 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 have been good, and I picked it up, and I had a plan for these. So it’s a stability between enjoying the course, the situations, and what your physique is feeling all on the identical time.
iRunFar: Do you are feeling such as you have been the one making choices, or did your crew principally let you know 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 might 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 appears like for me since you wish to go the entire 144 hours. So no matter I used to be ready to do this felt comfy bodily and emotionally was okay for that block.
Megan Eckert turned the primary girl to run greater than 600 miles in six days.
iRunFar: And then you definitely smashed the world report by 40-some-odd miles. Was there a degree, since you have been beneath world report tempo for lots of it, whenever you knew that you just have been going to get the world report?
Eckert: I didn’t know till I had it. And the one purpose I say that’s due to my expertise at Huge’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 hastily, 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 reaching your targets. So, I didn’t know I had it till I really received there.
iRunFar: You have been by no means capable of loosen up and cruise?
Eckert: I knew if I stayed relaxed then the aim was extra achievable than if I burdened over hitting it. I imagine 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 aim. Then I used to be capable of knock off these little issues alongside the best way, these little accomplishments that have been significant to me and possibly no person else cared, however they meant one thing to me.
iRunFar: Did you may have any explicit highs and lows both bodily or mentally all through the six days? Moments you’ll at all times keep in mind or moments you hope to overlook ceaselessly?
Eckert: The warmth on the ultimate afternoon, it simply felt like any person 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 tip. It was arduous to push via that. Then, the primary night time after 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 may not go in response to plan.
They’ve us in these little cabins, and we have now all our clothes arrange and the meals arrange and whatnot. You go in, you sleep, you return out heading in the right direction. 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 footwear on, get again on the market. And my crew chief and I hadn’t practiced this, and we have 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 invaluable 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 have been shouldering one another. And the crew chief is my husband, so we will snicker about it.
iRunFar: I keep in mind you telling me that whenever you did — I feel it was your first marathon in 2016 — that it rained and was depressing weatherwise, and also you completely beloved it. So when it began to rain on the final eight hours of this race, have been you excited for rain or have been you simply able to be completed?
Eckert: I used to be very excited for the rain till I noticed 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.
iRunFar: I really like the way you excel below troublesome situations.
Eckert: It’s a part of the problem. I appreciated this one being outdoor as a result of there have been further 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.
iRunFar: Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak. Your world report was big, and it was so thrilling to observe.
Eckert: Thanks a lot.
Working within the rain didn’t cease Megan Eckert’s constant tempo.
