Now he’s one of the preeminent ultrarunners in the world. He began running in 2012 at the age of 31 to get back in shape. Sorokin, 40, was a competitive kayaker when he was younger, but when his paddling career ended, alcohol, cigarettes, junk food, and weight gain followed. “It’s a synergy between the physical and mental states of your body and your mind,” Sorokin said of the effort, citing the importance of both physical and mental preparation for ultradistance events. That included a three-week high-altitude stint in Iten, Kenya, located an elevation of 7,900 feet. And he said he’d been running about 185 miles per week during the three-month training block leading up to the event. He wore Nike Zoom Alphafly Next% shoes during the race. “When I started, I knew I had the capacity to run fast for 12 hours, but it still surprised me that I was able to run that fast.” (Photo: Tomer Feder/SportPhotography)Įvery hour during the Spartanion, Sorokin drank a half-liter of fluids (a mix of water, electrolyte drinks, and Coke) and consumed about 400 calories from a variety of gels, chips, cookies, and candy. “I ran a bit faster than I thought I would for 100 miles,” Sorokin said on Sunday over a Zoom call. Whereas mountain ultrarunning has grown exponentially in recent years, ultrarunning on repetitive loop courses is a niche discipline that doesn’t get much exposure outside of the 50K, 100K, and 24-hour International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) world-championship events. But Sorokin ran the equivalent of 35 straight 5Ks, or more than four consecutive marathons. For perspective, Sorokin’s average pace equates to a 5K time of 20:18 and a marathon time of 2:51:10. He kept things up with a sub-6:55 pace as he reached the 100-mile split before eventually slowing to 7:10 and then 7:15 over the final miles, for a total average pace of 6:32. For the first 65 miles, Sorokin held a pace that ranged between 6:13 and 6:25 per mile. Sorokin’s performance also set the record for the greatest distance ever run in 12 hours-110.23 miles, besting his own previous world record of 105.82 miles (warranting a pace of 6:48), which he set at the same event in England last spring.įor the new record, Sorokin completed 122 laps on a 0.91-mile loop course. His time of 10:51:39 smashed his standing 100-mile world record of 11:14:56, set last April. For far fewer, it’s the pace they can maintain for an entire marathon.īut on January 6, at the Spartanion 12-hour race in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lithuanian Aleksandr “Sania” Sorokin maintained a 6:31 pace for 100 miles, en route to shattering two of his own eye-popping ultradistance world records. For some, a 6:30 mile is the target pace for a 5K. Running a mile in six and a half minutes is a challenging benchmark, one that takes considerable fitness and a strong or even all-out effort for many.
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