Race Director Report: I'm Still Standing Sydney LOS

The inaugural I’m Still Standing Sydney, Last One Standing ultra event was held on Saturday 16 March 2024 at Heffron Park, Maroubra and wow - what an incredible weekend of running!

This unique race format involves runners completing a 6.706km course on the hour, every hour, until there is only one runner left. It provides a unique opportunity for runners to challenge themselves, both physically and mentally, to see how far they can go and for how long. It also brings the running community together and we certainly witnessed this on the weekend. The positive vibes, energy, banter and camaraderie was next level and we couldn’t be prouder of every single runner, support crew, volunteer, partners and spectators that were there and made it happen.

It was inspiring to watch our runners complete yard after yard, hour after hour, pushing their limits and challenging themselves mentally and physically. Every one of them should be incredibly proud of what they achieved and you can check out the full list of runners and yards completed here. 

We had 100 runners on the start line and only 12 had previously experienced a backyard ultra so this race format was new for most of them. Not only was the race format new, but for 27 of them, the furthest distance you had previously run was 42km or under and during the event, 22 of these runners surpassed this distance and became ultra runners! How cool is that? 

We are also blown away that 62 of our runners achieved a distance personal best - absolutely incredible and a true testament to the strength, determination, grit and resilience that all of our runners displayed during the event. 

As we know, a backyard ultra is a unique race format, especially given that everyone is a ‘DNF’ (did not finish) except for the last one standing. We are incredibly proud and were inspired throughout by all of our runners and the number of yards they completed. The final results were:

• Our last one standing was Jon Berry with 36 yards, representing a distance of 241.4km. 
• Our assist was Baden Reynolds with 35 yards, representing a distance of 234.7km.
• A special shout out too to our last female standing, Savanna Lawson, with 24 yards, representing a distance of 160.9km.
• And finally, we were thrilled to witness three more of our runners surpass the 200km distance with Mitch McInnes running 32 yards (214.6km), and Peter Kaldor and Thomas Gilanyi both completing 30 yards (201.1km).
  
  

Race Director Lisa Sherman and her husband Grant, are already looking forward to next year’s event and planning has begun.