An Interview with Megan Eckert on Her 6-Day World Record at the 2025 Six Days of France – iRunFar

When American Megan Eckert set a brand new girls’s six-day world report at the Six Days of France on May 4, 2025, she didn’t simply eek out just a few extra miles than earlier report holder Camille Herron, she ran greater than 40 miles farther than any lady earlier than, setting a brand new commonplace of 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers).

This is Eckert’s second world report after she set a brand new girls’s yard extremely report at the Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra with a distance of 362 miles, or 87 yards (laps) in 2024. She’s a dominant pressure in multiday lap racing, with general wins at the 2024 Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour, Saguaro Showdown Backyard Ultra, and Six Days in the Dome. She talked about her journey into working and racing and her first world report in an in-depth iRunFar profile earlier this 12 months.

Now, only a few months later, she’s a double world report holder. In a cellphone interview 4 days after the occasion, Eckert talks about how she got here to enroll in the Six Days of France, her private objectives for the race, her pacing and fueling technique, and a few of the highs and lows of the occasion.

You can learn extra about her run in our information article about her world report.

[Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.]

iRunFar: Hi Megan, how are you?

Megan Eckert: I’m drained, of course. Days of journey are actually tough. That was my first journey over to Europe, so on the manner again, it was exhausting. But yeah, apart from that, I’m good. I don’t really feel too poorly contemplating. Just jetlagged.

iRunFar: Congratulations on your new world report. I really feel prefer it’s been a pair of months since we final talked, after you set your final world report at Big’s [Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra]. How does it really feel to be a two-time world report holder?

Eckert: We’re solely what, 4 days post-race, and I don’t assume it’s actually sunk in but that I set the world report. It’s a fairly distinctive, superb expertise. I really feel honored. There are usually not many individuals who get to set a world report and even get the alternative to. Even simply to have that chance is unimaginable.

iRunFar: So, after we talked, I feel it was in December 2024, you had been speaking about doing the Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour after which going again to Big Dog’s’s Backyard Ultra for probably one other crack at that world report. When did the six-day world championships come on your radar?

Eckert: My first six-day run was in June of final 12 months. I did Six Days in the Dome in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I ended up there as a result of I had met Joe Fejes at a race, and he informed me all about six-day races and mentioned, “I feel you is perhaps good at them.” And so that sort of caught in the again of my head. When registration got here up for Six Days in the Dome, I mentioned, Why not give it a shot? Go for six days. And I had a extremely good first expertise. I actually love the six-day format. I like the challenges that encompass it, and the minute I bought off the observe at the Dome, I used to be already pondering, What’s my subsequent one going to be? And it may’t be a 12 months from now. I need to do one other one. I can’t bodily do one other one now, however I need to do one other one. And that’s how Six Days of France ended up being the occasion that I picked.

Consistent pacing and an eye fixed on working greater than 600 miles noticed Megan Eckert far exceed the prior girls’s six-day world report.

iRunFar: Did you select it as a result of it was the world championships?

Eckert: No. I selected it as a result of I had heard excellent issues about the location and the course itself. It’s a really distinctive half of France, form of tucked not fairly in the mountains but, however there’s an exquisite river that flows via the campground [where the race took place]. There’s loads of assist at that race. It’s only a very nice location. It was extra, If I’m going to run for six days, it’d as nicely be in an exquisite place.

iRunFar: Coming into the race, did you are feeling totally recovered from the Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour?

Eckert:  I did really feel totally recovered from Snowdrop. I had chosen to stroll my 55 hours at Snowdrop simply to have a reset. I didn’t must race that one. I feel it’s necessary to have A races after which races that you simply simply go and goof off and have a very good time. And so Snowdrop I made that my “have a very good time, goof off, speak to folks, get pleasure from the expertise” and never race, and I feel that basically benefited me going into this race, the place I hadn’t had a bunch of races the place I pushed proper in a row going into this.

iRunFar: You took Six Days of France out loads slower than the world report tempo. Did you’ve got the world report in thoughts if you went into this? And was your pacing intentional to take it out a bit of bit slower than what Camille Herron has executed?

Eckert: Yes, most positively. I had the world report in thoughts going into this, and to be completely trustworthy, I had 600 miles going via my thoughts going into this. That was the final objective, world report or not, I wished to get to 600. So going out gradual was intentional. I’m not a quick runner. I don’t have a observe background.  I don’t have a half-marathon background. I did two marathons after which dove into ultrarunning and path working, so my background shouldn’t be pace. I needed to play to my very own strengths, and pacing is one of these issues that I’m very, excellent at. I really feel like I’m able to keep a slower tempo for an extended interval of time.

iRunFar: And what was the pacing plan for the six days, simply in phrases of sleep, taking breaks, and to eat?

Eckert: Sleep was about each 12 hours. It diversified relying on how fatigued I used to be at the time and what mileage I additionally wanted to go for the subsequent block.

iRunFar: Did you’ve got a go-to snack that was good for the complete time?

Eckert: I imply, this stuff are “eat as a lot as you possibly can so you possibly can gasoline your physique to maintain going.” And, I’m a really gradual eater. So, my husband, who’s my crew chief, was simply, “Shove meals in your mouth, get going. You’ve bought to go.” And I’m sitting there nibbling on rice desserts. Everything I began with, I used to be capable of eat all through the race. I used to be very fortunate that I didn’t have to vary my vitamin. So, I had bowls of gummy bears. I had barbecue potato chips. I had pasta, eggs. And for all of these races, my turkey and pickle sandwiches that I used at Big’s. I used them once more right here. It at all times works.

iRunFar: Were you working principally primarily based on really feel, or did you’ve got a set distance you wished to cowl each six hours? Was your crew telling you you should go quicker, you should go slower, or had been you simply working?

Eckert: It was a mixture of each as a result of it’s such an extended interval of time and the climate situations diversified a lot. The first day it poured down rain. There had been puddles on the course and so we had been having to go off the observe a bit of bit into the mud simply on the outdoors edge and are available again in as a result of the puddles had been three inches deep in spots. So on these days when it’s like that, it’s not value it to hit mileage. It’s simply persevering with to maneuver ahead. And the identical with the scorching afternoons. There had been afternoons that had been in the higher 70s Fahrenheit, the solar was totally beating down on us, and people mileages didn’t matter. And then there have been instances the place situations had been good, and I picked it up, and I had a plan for these. So it’s a stability between enjoying the course, the situations, and what your physique is feeling all at the identical time.

iRunFar: Do you are feeling such as you had been the one making selections, or did your crew principally inform you what to do?

Eckert: Occasionally, I’d exit for six to 12 hours, after which I’d come again and be like, “Hey, how did that one go?” And they might give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. But in these, I discover that I don’t need to push too arduous, and I do know what too arduous appears to be like like for me since you need to go the complete 144 hours. So no matter I used to be in a position to try this felt comfy bodily and emotionally was okay for that block.

Megan Eckert grew to become the first lady to run greater than 600 miles in six days.

iRunFar: And then you definitely smashed the world report by 40-some-odd miles. Was there some extent, since you had been beneath world report tempo for lots of it, if you knew that you simply had been going to get the world report?

Eckert: I didn’t know till I had it. And the solely cause I say that’s as a result of of my expertise at Big’s the place I went out on that evening lap, and I’m like, I could make all of it evening. And then all of a sudden, my calves seized up and I used to be hobbling half a mile in quarter-hour or one thing, so I do know these issues can occur so shortly. They might occur half a mile earlier than and stop you from reaching your objectives. So, I didn’t know I had it till I truly bought there.

iRunFar: You had been by no means capable of calm down and cruise?

Eckert: I knew if I stayed relaxed then the objective was extra achievable than if I pressured over hitting it. I consider in setting these mini objectives all through. So my PR was 526 miles in my earlier six-day effort, in order that was the large one which hit that earlier objective. Then I used to be capable of knock off these little issues alongside the manner, these little accomplishments that had been significant to me and perhaps no person else cared, however they meant one thing to me.

iRunFar: Did you’ve got any explicit highs and lows both bodily or mentally all through the six days? Moments you’ll at all times keep in mind or moments you hope to neglect perpetually?

Eckert: The warmth on the last afternoon, it simply felt like any individual had turned the furnace up. Because the physique will get so drained, it has such a tough time regulating temperatures towards the finish. It was arduous to push via that. Then, the first evening after we went in for our first sleep, I wouldn’t name this a low, it was form of one of these issues the place I used to be like, No, this may not go in keeping with plan.

They have us in these little cabins, and we’ve all our clothes arrange and the meals arrange and whatnot. You go in, you sleep, you return out on course. This was our first time attempting to navigate the cabin state of affairs of get meals in you, go down for a bit, get some sleep, get your sneakers on, get again on the market. And my crew chief and I hadn’t practiced this, and we had been simply bumping into one another on this cabin attempting to get able to go down, or attempting to get able to exit, and saying, “We’re going to have to determine one thing higher as a result of we’re losing precious time right here attempting to navigate this cabin.” Which truly is form of humorous, how horrible that first sleep was. I imply, we actually had been shouldering one another. And the crew chief is my husband, so we will snigger about it.

iRunFar: I keep in mind you telling me that if you did — I feel it was your first marathon in 2016 — that it rained and was depressing weatherwise, and also you completely cherished it. So when it began to rain on the final eight hours of this race, had been you excited for rain or had been you simply able to be executed?

Eckert: I used to be very excited for the rain till I spotted I didn’t have sufficient clothes on, and I bought very chilly and got here onto the porch. My temperature had plummeted, and I wanted to get dried off and alter garments and so on. Once I bought the clothes regulated, I didn’t thoughts the rain one bit.

iRunFar: I like the way you excel below troublesome situations.

Eckert: It’s half of the problem. I appreciated this one being open air as a result of there have been further challenges, too, past simply working for six days. There was no telling what the climate would throw at us or what we had. There had been these little issues right here and there, issues that we needed to navigate.

iRunFar: Thank you a lot for taking the time to speak. Your world report was large, and it was so thrilling to look at.

Eckert: Thank you a lot.

Running in the rain didn’t cease Megan Eckert’s constant tempo.