Charlie Lawrence misses the World 100km Record by 95 seconds.
Runs 4th fastest 100km time.
American Ultra runner Charlie Lawrence, ran the 4th fastest came agonizingly close to setting a new world record for the 100km distance at Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, December 20th, but still ran the 4th fastest 100km time.
He stopped the clock at 6 hours 7 minutes and 10 seconds, just 95 seconds slower than the current record of 6:05:35 set by Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin in May 2023
He had the consolation of setting a new American National and North American area record, beating the 6:09:26 run by Jim Walmsley, at Sacramento in January, 2021.
If confirmed, it will be the 4th fastest time on the World All-Time 100km rankings. Only Sorokin, on two occasions, and the Japanese runner Jumpei Yamaguchi, the current IAU World 100km Champion, have run faster. (See the list of all-time performances below.
Running in a small field of 15 runners at the Desert Solstice track invitational 24-hour race, Lawrence had his eyes set on just completing 250 laps of the 400-metre track, as fast as possible.
He set his stall out early, passing through 10km in 35:06 and 20km in 1:10:05, a sub-6-hour schedule, which was reported to be his “A” goal.
Halfway was reached in 2:56:59, averaging around 3 minutes 33 seconds per km / 5 Minutes 54 seconds per mile.
He reached 75km in 4:30:59, still looking strong. He was now falling just behind a 6-hour schedule, but Sorokin’s world record was still in sight.
Although raising the pace slightly in the last 10km, he was to fall agonizingly short.
In post-race conversations on the Aravaipa Running live video feed at the race, Lawrence was heard commenting that he had a hip issue from early on and that he was hurting “so bad.”
He had obviously set his goals high, but 6:07:10 can hardly be classed as a failure, for in effect, despite all criteria being in place for a record, he was basically running a personal time trial against the clock.
There is no doubt he will have learned from the experience, and it will be interesting to see what he can achieve in a competitive 100km race or how he would fare against the top Africans and others at the Comrades Marathon, which appears to be also on his radar for the future.
NOTE: Charlie ran in the Adidas Chasing 100 event in Italy last August, running a reported 6:03:47, just ahead of Aleksandr Sorokin, who reportedly ran 6:04:10. The times recorded there are not ratifiable, as all conditions and criteria for record-setting were not in place. See my previous blog.
You can read an updated blog on the fastest evr 100km races HERE
Also a report from Irunfar on the Chasing 100 event HERE
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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.
