In recent days, Belgian Karel Sabbe has been world news; along with two others, he managed to complete the extreme Barkley Marathons – where for the past seven years there have been no finishers and in 35 years only 15 runners crossed the line. But fans, of course, have known for some time already that Sabbe is a major figure within the world of ultrarunning.
Among other things, Sabbe broke the world record for Backyard Running, in which you run a lap of over 6.6 kilometers every hour, just as long as you can’t keep it up: Sabbe got to over 500 kilometers. In 2021, he broke the Fastest Known Time on the Via Alpina as well, a 2,650-kilometer route, which, despite the 150,000 altimeters, he completed within thirty days. That means Sabbe ran an average of two marathons a day, including 5,000 altimeters. The documentary below shows the story of this spectacular adventure:
