When American Megan Eckert set a new women’s six-day world record at the Six Days of France on May 4, 2025, she didn’t just eek out a few more miles than previous record holder Camille Herron, she ran more than 40 miles farther than any woman before, setting a new standard of 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers).
This is Eckert’s second world record after she set a new women’s backyard ultra record at the Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra with a distance of 362 miles, or 87 yards (laps) in 2024. She’s a dominant force in multiday lap racing, with overall wins at the 2024 Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour, Saguaro Showdown Backyard Ultra, and Six Days in the Dome. She talked about her journey into running and racing and her first world record in an in-depth iRunFar profile earlier this year.
Now, just a few months later, she’s a double world record holder. In a phone interview four days after the event, Eckert talks about how she came to sign up for the Six Days of France, her personal goals for the race, her pacing and fueling strategy, and some of the highs and lows of the event.
You can read more about her run in our news article about her world record as well as check out our interview with Ivan Zaborsky who set a men’s six-day world record at the same event.
After breaking the women’s six-day world record at the 2025 Six Days of France race, Megan Eckert went on to run another 43 miles. All photos courtesy of Mount to Coast.
[Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.]
iRunFar: Hi Megan, how are you?
Megan Eckert: I’m tired, of course. Days of travel are really rough. That was my first trip over to Europe, so on the way back, it was exhausting. But yeah, other than that, I’m good. I don’t feel too poorly considering. Just jetlagged.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your new world record. I feel like it’s been a couple of months since we last talked, after you set your last world record at Big’s [Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra]. How does it feel to be a two-time world record holder?
Eckert: We’re only what, four days post-race, and I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that I set the world record. It’s a pretty unique, amazing experience. I feel honored. There are not many people who get to set a world record or even get the opportunity to. Even just to have that opportunity is incredible.
iRunFar: So, when we talked, I think it was in December 2024, you were talking about doing the Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour and then going back to Big Dog’s’s Backyard Ultra for potentially another crack at that world record. When did the six-day world championships come on your radar?
Eckert: My first six-day run was in June of last year. I did Six Days in the Dome in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I ended up there because I had met Joe Fejes at a race, and he told me all about six-day races and said, “I think you might be good at them.” And so that kind of stuck in the back of my head. When registration came up for Six Days in the Dome, I said, Why not give it a shot? Go for six days. And I had a really good first experience. I really love the six-day format. I like the challenges that surround it, and the minute I got off the track at the Dome, I was already thinking, What’s my next one going to be? And it can’t be a year from now. I want to do another one. I can’t physically do another one now, but I want to do another one. And that’s how Six Days of France ended up being the event that I picked.
Consistent pacing and an eye on running more than 600 miles saw Megan Eckert far exceed the prior women’s six-day world record.
iRunFar: Did you choose it because it was the world championships?
Eckert: No. I chose it because I had heard very good things about the location and the course itself. It’s a very unique part of France, kind of tucked not quite in the mountains yet, but there’s a beautiful river that flows through the campground [where the race took place]. There’s a lot of support at that race. It’s just a really nice location. It was more, If I’m going to run for six days, it might as well be in a beautiful place.
iRunFar: Coming into the race, did you feel fully recovered from the Snowdrop Ultra 55 Hour?
Eckert: I did feel fully recovered from Snowdrop. I had chosen to walk my 55 hours at Snowdrop just to have a reset. I didn’t need to race that one. I think it’s important to have A races and then races that you just go and goof off and have a good time. And so Snowdrop I made that my “have a good time, goof off, talk to people, enjoy the experience” and not race, and I think that really benefited me going into this race, where I hadn’t had a bunch of races where I pushed right in a row going into this.
iRunFar: You took Six Days of France out a lot slower than the world record pace. Did you have the world record in mind when you went into this? And was your pacing intentional to take it out a little bit slower than what Camille Herron has done?
Eckert: Yes, most definitely. I had the world record in mind going into this, and to be perfectly honest, I had 600 miles going through my mind going into this. That was the ultimate goal, world record or not, I wanted to get to 600. So going out slow was intentional. I am not a fast runner. I don’t have a track background. I don’t have a half-marathon background. I did two marathons and then dove into ultrarunning and trail running, so my background is not speed. I had to play to my own strengths, and pacing is one of those things that I am very, very good at. I feel like I am able to maintain a slower pace for a longer period of time.
iRunFar: And what was the pacing plan for the six days, just in terms of sleep, taking breaks, and eating?
Eckert: Sleep was about every 12 hours. It varied depending on how fatigued I was at the time and what mileage I also needed to go for the next block.
iRunFar: Did you have a go-to snack that was good for the whole time?
Eckert: I mean, these things are “eat as much as you can so you can fuel your body to keep going.” And, I’m a very slow eater. So, my husband, who is my crew chief, was just, “Shove food in your mouth, get going. You’ve got to go.” And I’m sitting there nibbling on rice cakes. Everything I started with, I was able to eat throughout the race. I was very lucky that I didn’t have to change my nutrition. 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 again here. It always works.
iRunFar: Were you running mostly based on feel, or did you have a set distance you wanted to cover every six hours? Was your crew telling you you need to go faster, you need to go slower, or were you just running?
Eckert: It was a combination of both because it’s such a long period of time and the weather conditions varied so much. The first day it poured down rain. There were puddles on the course and so we were having to go off the track a little bit into the mud just on the outside edge and come back in because the puddles were three inches deep in spots. So on those days when it’s like that, it’s not worth it to hit mileage. It’s just continuing to move forward. And the same with the hot afternoons. There were afternoons that were in the upper 70s Fahrenheit, the sun was fully beating down on us, and those mileages didn’t matter. And then there were times where conditions were just right, and I picked it up, and I had a plan for those. So it’s a balance between playing the course, the conditions, and what your body is feeling all at the same time.
iRunFar: Do you feel like you were the one making decisions, or did your crew basically tell you what to do?
Eckert: Occasionally, I would go out for six to 12 hours, and then I would come back and be like, “Hey, how did that one go?” And they would give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. But in these, I find that I don’t want to push too hard, and I know what too hard looks like for me because you want to go the whole 144 hours. So whatever I was able to do that felt comfortable physically and emotionally was okay for that block.
Megan Eckert became the first woman to run more than 600 miles in six days.
iRunFar: And then you smashed the world record by 40-some-odd miles. Was there a point, because you were below world record pace for a lot of it, when you knew that you were going to get the world record?
Eckert: I didn’t know until I had it. And the only reason I say that is because of my experience at Big’s where I went out on that night lap, and I’m like, I can make it all night. And then all of a sudden, my calves seized up and I was hobbling half a mile in 15 minutes or something, so I know those things can happen so quickly. They could happen half a mile before and prevent you from achieving your goals. So, I didn’t know I had it until I actually got there.
iRunFar: You were never able to relax and cruise?
Eckert: I knew if I stayed relaxed then the goal was more achievable than if I stressed over hitting it. I believe in setting these mini goals throughout. So my PR was 526 miles in my previous six-day effort, so that was the big one that hit that previous goal. Then I was able to knock off these little things along the way, these little accomplishments that were meaningful to me and maybe nobody else cared, but they meant something to me.
iRunFar: Did you have any particular highs and lows either physically or mentally throughout the six days? Moments you’ll always remember or moments you hope to forget forever?
Eckert: The heat on the final afternoon, it just felt like somebody had turned the furnace up. Because the body gets so tired, it has such a hard time regulating temperatures toward the end. It was hard to push through that. Then, the first night when we went in for our first sleep, I wouldn’t call this a low, it was kind of one of those things where I was like, No, this might not go according to plan.
They have us in these little cabins, and we have all our clothing set up and the food set up and whatnot. You go in, you sleep, you go back out on course. This was our first time trying to navigate the cabin situation of get food in you, go down for a bit, get some sleep, get your shoes on, get back out there. And my crew chief and I hadn’t practiced this, and we were just bumping into each other in this cabin trying to get ready to go down, or trying to get ready to go out, and saying, “We’re going to have to figure out something better because we’re wasting valuable time here trying to navigate this cabin.” Which actually is kind of funny, how horrible that first sleep was. I mean, we literally were shouldering each other. And the crew chief is my husband, so we can laugh about it.
iRunFar: I remember you telling me that when you did — I think it was your first marathon in 2016 — that it rained and was miserable weatherwise, and you absolutely loved it. So when it started to rain on the last eight hours of this race, were you excited for rain or were you just ready to be done?
Eckert: I was very excited for the rain until I realized I did not have enough clothing on, and I got very cold and came onto the porch. My temperature had plummeted, and I needed to get dried off and change clothes and so on. Once I got the clothing regulated, I did not mind the rain one bit.
iRunFar: I love how you excel under difficult conditions.
Eckert: It’s part of the challenge. I appreciated this one being outdoors because there were additional challenges, too, beyond just running for six days. There was no telling what the weather would throw at us or what we had. There were these little things here and there, things that we had to navigate.
iRunFar: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk. Your world record was huge, and it was so exciting to watch.
Eckert: Thank you so much.
Running in the rain didn’t stop Megan Eckert’s consistent pace.
