In partnership with

This week I had hoped to bring you a newsletter about what it’s like to run in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, where I’ve been working all week. But things don’t always work out the way you plan!

So instead, this is a newsletter in two parts - what it’s like not to run in Port Moresby, plus the world record being broken at the Backyard World Team Championships overnight.

I knew before I set off that Moresby can be an unsafe place. The Australian Government advises travellers to New Guinea to “exercise a high degree of caution due to high levels of crime, tribal violence and civil unrest”.

This message was reinforced for me at every turn. When I told people I was heading to Moresby the almost universal come back was “stay safe”. One of my running mates, who was born in Port Moresby and regularly comes back doing humanitarian work, texted me to say: “Don’t do anything silly there. Definitely don’t go out at night on your own.”

Still, against that advice I knew people who’d come to the city and managed to get a number of runs in. A number of them had suggested the marina, alongside the Royal Papua Yacht Club at the harbour, as a safe venue to get a reasonable-length loop in.

So before I left, I was pretty confident I’d be able to find somewhere to at least get 5-10k into my legs.

Then came our security briefing on arrival at our (very nice) hotel. You know they mean business when the briefing starts with instructions on how to use your GPS tracker, which comes with built-in distress alarm.

A press of this button scrambles a team from Direct Ordinance Group Ltd (which sounds to me like something out of the A-Team) who ensure “fast uplift and exit”.

At the end of the briefing, our security adviser Steane asked if there were any questions. “Where can I go for a run?” I asked. There was a pregnant pause, then the dreaded word: “Treadmill.”

My experience running on a treadmill in the well-appointed gym of a Sheraton Hotel is not the sort of compelling content I’d like to offer, but as I say, things don’t always go to plan.

As it happens, I only managed a brisk 10-minute walk on the treadmill anyway, because the tendonitis in my foot has been giving me trouble all week. I aggravated it playing a veterans football tournament last weekend - more proof two of my three favourite pastimes don’t mix. Thank goodness drinking independent beer doesn’t clash with either.

Even if I had been fit, the air quality here has been horrendous. Massive bushfires in Indonesia have blanketed a number of its neighbours in smoke haze. Weather conditions over the past week or so mean its Port Moresby’s turn to suffer.

It’s gotten so bad the authorities here have been recommending people limit the time they spend outdoors. I don’t feel like it would have stopped me running, but I say that as someone who’s barely been outside a building in four days so I don’t really know how debilitating it might be.

Belgian pair break new ground

In other, more spectacular news, Phil Gore has been dethroned as the official backyard ultra world record holder after Belgians Ivo Steyaert and Merijn Geerts both completed 124 yards as part of the team world championships.

Gore set the previous world record of 119 at Dead Cow Gully in 2025. Since then, he’s run 152 loops as part of his Project 168 charity efforts, but that wasn’t a world record because while he followed BYU rules, he ran the race solo.

Overnight, Steyaert and Geerts shook hands at the end of loop 124 and decided to share the spoils. The number 124 is significant because it took them past the mark set by Russian Dmitry Klimov at the Biotropika event in Russia earlier this year.

Klimov won that event with 123 loops, ahead of a pair of Russians who also went past Gore’s then record - Dmitry Sheremet (122) and Ivan Zaborsky (121). But those achievements weren’t ratified because competitors were paced by non-racers, violating the “no outside assistance” rule that applies in backyard ultras.

So that event was effectively null and void. Which set the stage for the Steyaert and Geerts.

It’s unusual for a race to end with no winner, but not unprecedented. In fact the Belgians did the same thing in 2024 when Steyaert, Meerts and Frank Gielen all put their feet up after 110 loops, breaking the then world record, and in 2022 when, you guessed it, Steyaert and Meerts stopped at 101 loops - becoming the first people to break the 100 loop mark.

Needless to say, it’s an astonishing achievement. They ran 831k across five days and four hours, keeping up that 6.7k per hour every hour on the hour rhythm. For the last 37 hours of this epic effort it was just to two of them because Belgium’s third-best performer on the day, Bert Verbist, dropped after 86 loops.

How does it work?

This event was conceived and is run by the father of the backyard format Lazarus Lake, aka Gary Cantrell. It’s a brilliant mix of team and individual endeavour. It follows the classic backyard ultra formula - every runner completes a 6.7k loop on the hour every hour and keeps doing so for as long as possible.

Each team is made up of 15 runners, who qualify by running in sanctioned events during the year. Laz keeps a record of this and the top 15 from each country are invited to take part in what are called satellite events.

This year 67 teams started and each ran on its home course. They all started when the clock ticked over to 7:00am on Saturday, 17 October in Bell Buckle Tennessee - which was 11pm Saturday night at the Australian event in Kembla Grange south of Sydney.

Why Bell Buckle? That’s where Laz lives and it’s home to the original BYU course which is, funnily enough, in his backyard. It’s the mothership, the other 66 around the world are satellites.

Each of those 67 events runs like a self-contained event, except there are only 15 elite level competitors. Like any other event, the winner is the last person to complete a lap, the last one standing. That person becomes national champion. That’s another quirk - for the third championship in a row Belgium does not have a winner, and therefore no national champion.

In the teams classification, it’s the total number of loops completed by all 15 team members that counts - effectively one point for every loop. This means it’s important for as many runners as possible to go as deep as possible in the event. Which is exactly what Team Australia did.

Australia finished second in the event. Dan Camac became Australian champion after completing his 87th loop. Ben Nicholls got through 86 loops, but couldn’t complete the 87th in time, so became the assist.

Remarkably, when Camac was able to put his feet up, runners from five other nations were still competing, but one by one the UK (90 loops), France (101), Japan (105) and the US (107) crowned their champions leaving just the two Belgians.

The US won the teams event with 1,120 yards. Australia - despite not having a runner in the top 10 as individuals, came second with 1,069. The Belgians were third despite the fact Steyaert and Geerts finished way out in front of everyone else.

You have to imagine Australia would have done even better had a fit Phil Gore been part of the team. Gore is recovering from leg surgery after his superhuman effort at Project 168.

There is good news on that front though - Phil’s back running again. He’s not running far, and he’s travelling at a pace even I could match. But it’s a start. It’s great to see him back.

You’ll notice that run was along the beach in Wollongong. Phil may have been forced out of the Australian team, but the GOAT was still there to cheer them on.

He reacted with trademark good grace when the Belgians reached 119 loops, posting on Instagram: “Proud to be sharing the World Record with these two legends for just one hour as they head out on yard 120.”

I suspect Gore just regards 124 as a new challenge to chase down. And I can’t wait to see him do it!

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around the country.