After 10 hours and 83 miles of running the Phantasm-24 challenge, Kilian Jornet was stopped his attempt at the 24-hour run due to health concerns.
Jornet had been targeting this record attempt—completing as many laps as possible around a 400-meter track in Måndalen, Norway for 24 consecutive hours—for nearly a year and had set a fast pace in the early stages of the race on November 27 from competitors.
“I was feeling pretty good, with the normal ups-and-downs of a long race like this,” Jornet said. “My body felt good, my legs felt good and then, suddenly, I felt two intense pains in my chest and started to get very dizzy and very exhausted. The medical people came to me and checked me out and said it was best to go to the hospital.”
Jornet ran the first 10km averaging 6:52 miles and finished the first 26.4 miles in 3:02:23. Halfway through the 338th lap around the track, 10 hours and 20 minutes into the run, was when Jornet removed himself from the race.
After being released from the hospital, Jornet said, “I wish the race went differently, but it’s still fun to explore different things and new projects.”
When Jornet presented his goal of running for 24 hours on a track at the beginning of the year, Salomon put together the Phantasm-24 Challenge with his team.
“I want to thank Salomon and Suunto for supporting this project of mine and everyone who helped organize the event, from the track volunteers to the community in Måndalen and all of the people at the track club,” Jornet said.
Due to COVID-19-related precautions, the 24-hour race included only athletes living in Norway. In addition to Jornet, five Norwegians with top ultra-distance records started the race. Three of the six completed the 24-hour challenge.
Harald Bjerke ran 144.1 miles, or 580 laps, around the track to win to race.
