Australian ultrarunner Phil Gore has completed one of the more extraordinary endurance challenges of the year, covering more than 1,000 kilometres while running once every hour for six days and eight hours.
The Western Australian firefighter completed 152 consecutive 6.71km laps as part of Project 168, an attempt to keep going for an entire week under the basic rules of a backyard ultra.
By the time Gore finally stopped on Saturday, August 29th, he had covered 1,019.92km.
Perhaps even harder to comprehend was how he fitted recovery into the challenge. There were no eight hour sleeps waiting at the end of a long day. Every new hour brought another 6.71km lap, leaving Gore to eat, change clothes, receive treatment and sleep in whatever minutes remained before the clock started again.
At night, that meant deliberately running faster to buy himself short periods of sleep.
Gore would complete some overnight laps in around 40 minutes, giving himself enough time to settle down for a brief nap before getting back up and heading out again.
At other points, food had to be treated with much the same practicality.
There was no conventional fuelling plan capable of neatly covering six days of almost continuous running. Gore ate a mixture of foods throughout the challenge, ranging from sweets and custard to meat pies and curry.
One particularly effective option turned out to be considerably less sophisticated.
A McDonald's cheeseburger worked.
One Lap Became 152
Project 168 began at 8am local time on Sunday, August 23rd, at Alfred Skeet Reserve in Forrestdale, Western Australia.
The concept took its inspiration from backyard ultra racing. Competitors normally complete a 6.71km lap every hour, returning in time to begin the next one at the top of the following hour.
The process continues until only one runner remains.
Gore removed the competition and set himself a different finish line: seven days.
Completing all 168 hours would have brought him to approximately 1,127km.
He already knew the territory better than most. Gore completed 119 laps at Dead Cow Gully in 2025, setting the recognised backyard ultra world record, and later won the 2025 Big's Backyard Ultra World Championship.
This time, however, there was nobody else whose withdrawal could bring proceedings to an end.
The only opponent was the clock.
And for more than six days, Gore kept answering it.
Less Than Two Minutes to Turn Around
The gradual deterioration can be seen particularly clearly in Gore's final completed lap.
His 152nd 6.71km took 58 minutes and one second.
That left him just one minute and 59 seconds before lap 153 was due to begin.
After more than 1,000km and without a proper night's sleep since the previous weekend, Gore still went out again.
He could not complete that lap within the required hour and Project 168 was over.
The final total stood at 152 completed laps, 1,019.92km and six days and eight hours of running to an hourly deadline.
It was 16 laps short of Gore's original target, but 33 beyond the 119 laps he completed when setting his recognised backyard ultra world record.
There is an important distinction, however. The 152 lap effort does not replace that record.
Backyard ultra records are produced in competition, with the eventual winner required to outlast another runner before completing the final lap alone. Project 168 was deliberately a solo challenge, meaning Gore's 152 laps cannot be recognised as a new backyard ultra world record.
Instead, he wanted to put a new number out there for other endurance runners to chase.
That number is now 152.
More Than a Running Challenge
There was another purpose behind the week.
Project 168 raised money for Telethon, which supports children and families in Western Australia, with the fundraising total climbing beyond A$250,000 during the challenge.
Gore is a father of four as well as a career firefighter and one of the world's leading backyard ultra competitors.
For all the enormous numbers attached to Project 168, though, perhaps the strangest part is how small his world became.
One lap. Something to eat. A few minutes sitting down. Occasionally 15 minutes of sleep.
Then stand up and do it again.
For 152 hours.
Photo Credit: William Buck
