Charlie Lawrence chases a 6-hour 100km.
On Saturday, December 20th, at the Desert Solstice event in Arizona, American Charlie Lawrence will aim to run a fast 100km. Fast, as in hoping to dip under the American record, or even the existing ratified World Record, and if all goes extremely well, dip under the 6-hour barrier, in a bone fide record for the first time.
His credentials are sound having set a World Record for 50 miles of 4 hours 48 minutes 21 seconds at the Tunnel Hill event in Illinois in November 2023, and representing USA at the IAU World 100km Championships in India, December 2024.
He also boasts a 50km best of 2:49:02 set earlier in 2025 at the US Championships at the Mad City race in Wisconsin.
He can also boast a marathon PB of 2:16:10, a half marathon of 1:04:14 and a 10km Pb of 30:18:15 on the track.
He has trailed it well on his Instagram feed, and there has been a lot of chatter around the event amongst the ultra community.
The current ratified World Men’s Record is held by the Lithuanian Aleksandr Sorokin with 6 hours 5 minutes and 35 seconds set in Vilnius, Lithuania on 23rd May 2023.
The current US Men’s 100km record is held by Jom Walmsley with 6 hours 9 minutes and 26 seconds set at Sacremento in the HOKA-supported event, on January 23rd, 2021.
Charlie will be making his attempt on the Camelback High School Track
in Phoenix, Arizona. The event is primarily a 24-hour track race with accurate splits being taken at 100km and 100 miles for record and ranking purposes.
If he is serious about going for a sub 6 hour time, he will probably need to be achieving a 50km split of a little under 3 hours and average pacing of around 5 min 50 sec per mile/3 min 30 seconds per km, give or take a few seconds! Lawrence himself competed in the event recording
Of course, most ultra running aficionados will be aware that a Sub-6-hour 100km was allegedly set by Sibusiso Khubeka in the Adidas Chasing 100 event at the Nardo Ring in Italy in August 2025.His time was ecorded at 5:59:20.
Lawrence himself competed in the event recording a reported 6:03:47 just ahead of Aleksandr Sorokin in 6:04:10.
It made for great headlines, which the world’s running press lapped up with glee.
For those still naive enough to think that the world record and the first sub-6-hour 100km was set in the Adidas chasing 100 promotional event in August, think again. That event seemed to have several of the key criteria for bone-fide record setting not factored into the event, whether through ignorance or by design, only the organisers will be able to tell us, and we are here if you want to reach out, Adidas!
The event seemed to be focussed on testing and developing new next generation super shoes and technical apparel as much as giving the athltes an opportunity to set any fast toimes or records.
The prototype shoes used by all the athletes were rumoured and tacitly aknowleged by some observers to have a stack height of 60 mm,way over the World Athletics maximum allowed stack height of 40 mm. That alone should set alarm bells ringing for claims of WORLD RECORD.
How the course was measured also remains a mystery.
Anything less than an officially accredited measurement certificate will throw into question just how far the runners actually ran.
For bone-fide record attempts, an accurately measured course by an internationally graded World Athletics, accredited course measurer using the acknowledged, calibrated bicycle or Jones counter measurement is crucial. This is the method used by World Athletics for all major city marathons and Championships and even by all national federations to ensure your local 5k or 10k race is accurate!
Note that the lack of any official measurement doesn’t mean they didn’t run 100km. They may even have run more !!
Again, we are open to the organisers enlightening us on this, or if any of the runners wish to share downloaded Strava data or similar, as a guide, that they want to make public.
Did I also mention the need for a permit from the National Federation, in this case, FIDAL.
Or the appointment of a suitably qualified race referee by the federation, to ensure all the necessary rules regarding pacing, feed stations, shoe stack height, and the all-important timing of the event. IE, Two independent systems, one of which can be a traditional handheld stopwatch to corroborate the electronic chip timing one assumes was in place?
Then there is the little matter of providing accredited drug testing for any bone-fide world record to be acknowledged.
If the Adidas event had any positives, it was that it showed that when all event logistics are in place, and there is a competitive field to bring out the best in people, fast 100km times are certainly possible.
Anyway, moving on, the good news is that Charlie Lawrence is running his record attempt this weekend at the Desert Solstice event in Arizona. Organised by the experienced Aravaipa Rinning team, the event is well-established and has a history of bona fide records being targeted, achieved, and then ratified by USA Track and Field and the International Association of Ultrarunners.
We wish Charlie and all the other competitors at Desert Solstice a great race.
If you want some serious dot or screen-watching on Saturday, here is the link again. The race starts at 8am in Arizona, 3pm UK time .
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Adrian Tarit Stott.
The author is a former GB 24-hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions. He has also been involved in organising ultra-distance races for over 30 years. Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Running Advisory Group (URAG) and the Mountain and Trail Advisory Group. He also contributes as part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams. A freelance writer in his spare time, he contributes articles and reports to several websites and magazines including Athletics Weekly and Irunfar.
