Bigs Backyard Ultra World Championships did not disappoint. The United States won but the biggest story is what the top athletes from Belgium did: Merijn Geerts and Ivo Steyaert ran 124 yards, beating the previous world record by 5 yards. These athletes ran 516 miles over 5 days with almost no sleep.

Some of the other Belgian runners required Geerts’ birthday cake to continue and were so sleep-deprived that one thought he was at work and was managing one of the crew members. Another had to be told there was an international agreement to run on the hour every hour when he couldn’t remember why he was running.

Backyard ultra’s new golden child, Mark Dowdle, finished as the top American.

Madalina Florea takes 2nd in the finale, good enough to win the series overall. Happening Saturday night in US time zones is the men’s final in Korea. Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco will be fighting an uphill battle to 3-peat, currently 3rd place behind Philemon Kiriago and his teammate Patrick Kipngeno in the series standings.

Learn more about the series or check out our finale preview (or check if our analysis proved correct if you see this after the races).

The bill remains to be seen whether it will pass the House, but if it does, it will impact how long athletes can stay in college, how much revenue is shared with athletes, schools’ ability to cut sports or roster spots, how many times an athlete can transfer, and place a harder line on professional athletes competing in NCAAs.

The biggest impact may be in officially banning older athletes coming from overseas, who have made a major impact in track and xc especially during the NIL era. Read more here.

BYU women beat NC st without top runner Hedengren at Pre-Nats. Hannah Gapes wins individually for NC st.

At the Chicago Marathon, Clayton Young somehow runs through hamstring tear for the 2nd-best time by an American man ever in the event, in 2:05:23. Meanwhile, the famed treadmill-runner, Vincent Mauri takes 10th, 1:22 back from Young. Another American, Charles Hicks, was only 12 seconds behind Young.

Also at the Chicago Marathon, Galen Rupp runs 2:06:55 at age 40, setting the American men’s masters marathon record (only 1:30 back from Clayton Young and 10 seconds behind Mauri).

Altra announces “Legacy Team”, a new pro team featuring 4 athletes all over 75-years-old.

Athing Mu-Nikolayev, Olympic 800m champion, announces pregnancy of her first child. This also explains her absence from the 2026 season, which had been previously unknown.

BYU runner, Addy Guymon, is hit by car while running to practice, suffering 7 fractures. We wish her the best in recovery.

More than half of Camas, Washington girls’ cross country team walks race in protest of their transgender teammate competing alongside them in the girls’ race.

Moab 240 rained out (literally), forcing evacuations. There were no finishers.

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