Viktoria Brown breaks Canadian 100-mile record

The Desert Solstice 24-hour and 100-mile Track Invitational took place in Phoenix, Ariz. this Saturday, and Viktoria Brown became the first Canadian woman to run 100 miles in under 15 hours, setting a new Canadian record in 14:57:13.

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Viktoria Brown breaks Canadian 48-hour and 72-hour records

Brown completed 404 laps (161.60km) in total in 15:24:45.8 before stopping due to an asthma attack. Despite this, she still managed to break the previous Canadian women’s 100-mile record, held by Michelle LeDuc of Russell, Ont., in 15:19:45. “It was all very very strange because at no point did I feel great, yet I could just keep going at unexpected paces,” says Brown. “Every point in the race from the beginning I kept thinking “this doesn’t feel as easy as it should at this point in the race”, yet I never blew up.”

After about 13-and-a-half hours of running Brown’s asthma began to flare up, but she knew she was on pace to break 15 hours, so she pushed on anyway. Once she reached the 100-mile mark, she took a break to try and get her breathing under control, and managed to get through two more laps before finally calling it quits.

Ultimately, Brown finished as the sixth woman and 13th overall. Marisa Lizak of California was the top woman, running 564 laps for a total of 225.60km in 23:59:41.

Arizona’s Nick Coury was the top overall finisher, completing 696 laps for a total of 173.015 miles (278.55 km) in 23:59:53 and breaking the previous U.S. record (172.457 miles) set by Michael Morton in 2012; his achievement put him at #7 in the world and #19 in overall performances. Arlen Glick, who won the Javelina Jundred in November, was the fifth male finisher (eighth overall) for a total of 518 laps (207.20km). Camille Herron, who was the top female finisher and course record-holder at the Javelina Jundred, was the seventh-place runner behind Brown (16th overall), and ran 403 laps for 161.20km.

Below is Aravaipa Running’s video of the event. (Watch Coury pass the 24-hour mark at 13 minutes, 48 seconds into the film.)

For full results from the weekend, click here.