Sarah Perry runs 316 miles, becomes last woman standing in Belgium Backyard Ultra

Sarah Perry did not just grind out a long race in Belgium. She covered 316 miles, or 509 kilometers, over 76 laps and finished 10th overall at Legends Backyard Ultra, becoming the last woman standing in a field that started with 104 runners from 16 countries.

For CrossFit readers, the value here is not the mileage itself. It is what Perry’s effort says about crossover endurance: the ability to keep repeating hard work, recover fast enough to do it again, and stay sharp when sleep deprivation and accumulated fatigue start chewing through the field. Legends is brutally simple, with athletes running a 4.167-mile loop every hour, on the hour, until only one remains. Perry averaged about 48 minutes and 46 seconds per loop, leaving just enough time for fueling, recovery, and a reset before the next start.

The attrition showed how unforgiving that format is. By the end of the first day, 57 of the 104 starters had already dropped out. At 24 hours, the race had reached 100 miles and only 47 runners were still in it. Perry kept going from a tent setup that included sleep, fueling, and occasional massage treatment, with her partner Luke handling support as the race stretched past three days in north-east Belgium, where the event began on April 25.

Irene Kinnegim was the next-best woman with 37 laps, a wide gap that underscored how far Perry pushed the front of the women’s race. INOV8 said Perry’s 76 laps were the joint-fourth best women’s result in backyard-ultra history. That matters because it places this performance in the same conversation as elite, all-time durability, not just a strong day out.

Perry’s standard already sits high. In 2025 at Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship in Tennessee, she set the women’s world record with 95 laps at Bell Buckle, becoming one of the defining names in the discipline. This run fell short of the 100-lap mark she and her sponsor had targeted, but it still reinforced the same point: Perry is not just a specialist in suffering, she is a rare aerobic engine who can survive when the clock, the trail, and the body all start working against her.

Backyard Ultra was created by Laz Lake, the Barkley Marathons architect, and the format has spread to races in 85 countries. That global reach explains why Perry’s Belgium result lands beyond ultrarunning. It is a clean test of repeatability, resilience, and recovery, three traits any serious CrossFit athlete recognizes immediately.