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“Who are you? You’re Phil fucking Gore! Now get out there and run!” Crew chief Gemma Gore didn’t have much time with husband Phil at the end of loop 152 at Project 168, so she chose to be blunt.

Probably appropriate - he’d made the 60-minute cut-off with less than two minutes to spare and was clearly in a world of hurt. Of course, that didn’t stop the backyard ultra GOAT from setting off on his 153rd loop, but it proved to be one too many.

After more than six days running around a lake in Forrestdale, Perth, during which he clocked up more than 1,000k, Gore couldn’t go on. It was hard to watch. He lurched around the course like a zombie, unable to bend his left leg, right shoulder dropping and left arm swinging wildly to compensate with every step.

Finally, about 600m in, he lay face down by the side of the path. And with that, the most phenomenal feat of endurance sport I’ve ever seen came to an end. At least it did for Phil.

His aim had been to run 6.7k every hour for 168 hours - a full week. When he couldn’t go on, his crew and supporters took up the challenge, rounded out the final 16 hours and in doing so helped Project 168 raise more than $284,000 for Telethon, supporting kids living with illness, disability and disadvantage across Western Australia.

Who is Phil Gore and what is Project 168?

Phil Gore is an unassuming Perth firefighter who has become the undisputed global king of backyard ultra marathon running. He holds the world record - 119 loops - and he’s the current world champion.

He’s run 16 backyard ultras and won 14 of them. Which is frankly ridiculous.

Project 168 was cooked up by Gore and wife Gemma to test what might be possible. When Gore set the world record at Dead Cow Gully in 2024, he looked astonishingly fresh as he completed his 119th loop.

But in backyard ultra events, the race ends when only one runner is able to complete a loop. So while Gore could have kept running, there was no-one else who could foot it with him.

In contrast, Project 168 was an entirely solo affair. Phil had his crew and plenty of supporters - including those mounting a live video stream following the action. But he was the only “competitor” in the event. Running alone meant he could keep moving until he either hit the target or found his limit.

The concept was simple. At 8am Perth time on Sunday 23 August, Phil set off to run a 6.7k loop around Forrestdale Lake, starting and finishing at the Armadale Football Club. While this wasn’t an official backyard ultra race, it mimicked the backyard ultra format.

That meant Phil had an hour to complete each loop. If he ran the loop in fewer than 60 minutes, the balance could be spent eating, drinking, sleeping and being looked after by his support crew.

In order to keep running, he had to be back in the starting corral ready to begin the next loop as the clock ticked around to the top of the hour. That he managed to do this 152 times beggars belief.

Even Gore wasn’t sure he could do it. He knew there was a chance his limit was somewhere between 120 and 168 loops. And, as they loaded him into a car to bring him back to base after his body had refused to complete loop 153, he said: “Oh well, I found the limit.”

International support

The backyard ultra format is relatively new in ultra running, but like running in general it’s absolutely booming with new events popping up all over the place. Because of this, and because he is the best in the business, Gore is reasonably well known.

But as Project 168 progressed and Gore clocked up more and more impressive stats, he threw a massive international spotlight on the sport.

This was in no small part due to the efforts of a very small team that mounted live streaming coverage of the event around the clock on YouTube. This allowed people from all over the world to follow Gore’s progress and to share their thoughts via the live chat - and they did.

Best of all, many of them also supported the cause. Phil and Gemma set $168,000 as a fundraising target for the event - which made sense. They had no idea whether that was attainable, but blew through it thanks, in part, to donations from all corners of the globe.

Telethon is an annual institution in Western Australia, and team Gore said they chose to raise money for it because they’d grown up with it. A variety of different “Telethon kids” joined Phil on a number of his 152 loops.

Other people paid to join Phil for a loop in person and others pledged to run a “virtual loop” with him, wherever they happened to be in the world.

Logistics

Planning is the absolute key to Gore’s success, and this is where his gun support team, led by Gemma and nutritionist Gaby Villa, come to the fore. Team Gore operates off a master spreadsheet that sets out expectations for each loop.

Key among these is pace. Gore has three speeds - fast (green), medium (yellow) and slow (red). On each lap, Gore wears an armband corresponding to the lap speed. This means, even if he’s sleep deprived and becomes slightly disorientated out on course, he has a visual reference to remind him how fast he should be running.

Another key part of the plan is nutrition. Gore seems to eat at least something at the end of every loop, and from time to time he eats a meal. Given he ran for the best part of a week, constant refilling of the fuel tanks was vital.

Villa says the mantra whe shares with her athletes is: “Fuel with purpose.” Gore certaintly did that. He ate an astonishing array of different foods - custard, fresh fruit, burritos, maple gels, toasties, pies and what looked like milo flakes cereal to name a few. Villa says Gore has a very tolerant stomach, and there’s your proof!

His nutrition plan included these targets: 40g of carbs per loop, 5g of protein, 200-250 calories and 500mg of sodium. As the days passed, Gore actually started eating more than what was in the plan. Having said that, by the very end he was struggling to keep anything down.

From top to bottom, Project 168 was pulled together by Phil, Gemma and their small team of volunteers. It was only six weeks ago they approached Telethon proposing to run the project as a fundraiser.

This meant rather than the slick, television-style live stream we now associate with the biggest trail runs in the world, Project 168 was a much more modest affair - but no less impressive in its way.

Run by PK from Backyard Ultra Live and Patto from Backyard Ultra Podcast, it was strangely compelling viewing. Despite being run on a shoestring budget, they managed multiple cameras, including some on-course footage following Phil.

The available kit grew during the course of the week too. What started as a one-mic affair, requiring the hosts and guests to pass a desk mic around between them, morphed into a more sophisticated set-up featuring headsets and basic mixing desk.

There was crowd involvement via the live chat and guests were interviewed live in Perth and via video from around the world.

As always, the Trail Snails were prominent contributors and their merch was in evidence around the Project 168 set-up. The Snails gave backyard ultras the “fragrant fifth” concept and Gore was once again an enthusiastic exponent, donning a Snails shirt and hat before dousing himself in eau de cologne and heading out for loop 5.

This year they added a little spice sleuthing stolen Sunkist, spawning Sunkist shoeys, one of a range of bizarre tactics the streamers used to seek donations over the six-day event.

Unsurprisingly, Gore took a few days off after Project 168. But we won’t have long to see him in action again. In October, he’ll be running for Team Australia at Red’s Backyard Ultra at Kembla Grange, part of the 2026 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships.

You wouldn’t bet against him leading Australia to a win there, would you?

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.