Mark Dowdle Makes History At Last Soul Ultra Backyard Marathon By Running 392 Miles In 94 Straight Hours

Mark Dowdle is solidifying himself as the King of Backyard Ultra Marathons. Dowdle won the 2026 BPN Go One More (G1M) Last Man Standing ultra-marathon in Texas back in April after running 73 loops for a total of 306 miles, beating out Kendall Fallas. And this morning he made history by winning Kim Gottwald’s ‘Last Soul Ultra’ backyard ultra marathon in Germany.

Coming into the Last Soul Ultra, Mark Dowdle’s PR was the 73 loops he ran at the BPN G1M. He also came *this close* to missing the Last Soul Ultra due to flight delays and had to hop on a private chartered flight to make the race and arrived at the start line just 15 minutes before it began…

Think about that for a moment. This former Illinois born D1 football player turned endurance athlete flew to Germany for his first time and arrived to the race just 15 minutes before locking in to run one 4.17-mile loop, every hour on the hour, until he was the last man standing, and he did it all having never been to Germany before and having virtually no clue where he was. This was an ultra marathon performance for the ages.

Mark Dowdle Makes History At Last Soul Ultra Marathon In Germany

Mark Dowdle is the last man standing at the 2026 Last Soul Ultra. 95 loops. 637.1 kilometers. 395.87 miles. pic.twitter.com/bgDTa13IMk

— Cass Anderson (@casspa) August 18, 2026

For those who are not familiar withe the Backyard Ultra Marathon format it is very different than a point-to-point race or a looped track with a defined start and finish time. In Backyard Ultras like the Last Soul Ultra, runners all step up to the start line every hour on the hour and run one full loop. Each loop is 4.17 miles.

They have 60 minutes to run those 4.17 miles and make it back to the start line. If they finish with time to rest before the next hour/loop begins, they can sit down, use the bathroom, take in some food, sleep if they are able to, etc. But when the next hour begins they are off on the new loop.

If they do not complete the 4.17 mile loop in the 60 minutes they ring the bell and they’re out. If they want to quit at any point they ring the bell and they’re out. For this year’s trophy, Mark Dowdle was handed a string of coins that every runner gave up after tapping out. A commemorative ‘soul’ of sorts that he collected after becoming the last man standing.

Some runners sign up for Backyard Ultras to go personal best distances because there’s not the same pressure of running 26 consecutive miles at top speed. 4.17 miles in an hour is ‘party pace’ as Andy Glaze would call it, and Glaze was at this race but didn’t make it to night 2.

This goes on and one until there is one person left. Which could, in theory, go on for a week if someone is capable of lasting that long without sleep. Australia’s Phil Gore holds the world record for the most Backyard Ultra Loops at 119 (495.8 miles) when he won the Dead Cow Gully event in Queensland, Australia in June of last year.

Last Soul Ultra Makes German History

I should mention, this race began back on Friday. Mark Dowdle was the last man standing this morning. When I fell asleep last night it was down to just Mark Dowdle and ‘Ello’ aka ‘Mellow Ello’ as they were calling him on the stream.

There were two 24/7 live streams on YouTube throughout the race. One was in German on race director Kim Gottwald’s YouTube channel and I watched that from Friday through Sunday afternoon on mute before I came across a TikTok clip of a stream in German and went to YouTube and searched ‘Last Soul Ultra Stream English’ only to discover the ‘International Stream’ as it was being called and that there was an English-language stream the entire time. Major fail on my part.

What I found really interesting was Mark Dowdle and the other runners were tuned into the live streams themselves. They were reading the chat comments to get hyped up. Mark Dowdle was responding to questions and comments on the stream as he’d run past cameras set up throughout the course. It was legitimately hyping him up. He set his personal record in Loop 74 and shared this video for everyone watching the stream:

After winning, Dowdle hopped on the International Stream and discussed how he didn’t lock into the stream until after Day 2 because he didn’t want it to be too distracting. Dowdle says the first 24 hours of a backyard ultra marathon are, for him, the absolute hardest portion of the race because you are re-wiring your brain to the task at hand.

Once settled in after 24 hours, he says it is simply a matter of repeating what you’ve already done. You have run the loop 24 times in 24 hours already and now it is time to do it again and again and again.

When the 2026 Last Soul Ultra began I was wholly confident it would come down to Harvey Louis versus Mark Dowdle for the crown. Harvey’s personal record in backyard ultras is 108 loops at the Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra in October 2023 for a total of 450 miles. Harvey is a legend in the ultra marathon running community and a vegan (!!!) but he just ran the Badwater 135, the toughest 135 mile race on earth, and that might have led to him tapping out after 46 loops.

Dowdle Kept Fans Updated

Only in ultra marathons can someone like Mark Dowdle hop on Instagram throughout the entire race and post Reels from the course while running 391.98 miles. Because throughout the night, while there were drones filming and cameras set up throughout the course and commentators on the live streams going strong, this is what it looked like… Night vision drones:

That moment above was actually a controversial moment in the race at some point in the late 80s loops. It was unclear what happened. One of them pretended to tie their shoe to allow the other to keep going and then psyched them out and sped up to get close. One guy threw his hands up in confusion. Someone might have tripped on the ground. One guy then appeared to throw up in the bushes. During all of this the chat on YouTube was going nuts. In the end, they ran for another 8 hours while I was sleeping…

I managed to wake up 2 minutes before Mark Dowdle was named the 2026 Last Soul Ultra winner. Some takeaways from his speech following the win was how impressed he was by the German runners and how stubborn they are with extreme resolve to never quit. Also how he’d been in Germany now for 4 days and had only seen a 4.17 mile loop on repeat and had no idea what was happening in the rest of the country. He also seemed so fresh on the stream after winning that I’m fairly certain Dowdle was ready to run 500 miles if it went that far.

For his part, ‘Ello’ finished second in back-to-back years. I hope he finds that next gear and is able to win next year. Finishing 2nd in a race like this in back to back years can do funny things to your mind. He has proven himself to be one of the best Backyard Ultra Marathon racers on earth and now he just has to find that next gear.

What’s Next?

Mark Dowdle’s next big Backyard Ultra Marathon is the one and only Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra Last Man Standing in October. That will take place in Bell Buckle, Tennessee and begin on October 17th.

Hopefully he is able to find some time to sleep in the next few days. Getting his body to relax after going full bore since Friday will be one of the toughest tasks yet. He did catch a few minutes of sleep here or there but really hasn’t slept since Friday. I hope he can catch some sleep and then see some of Germany outside of the loop as his wife and best friend have also been there with him as his support crew the entire time.

Congratulations are also in order to everyone that competed! Now, I’m thinking about signing up for the Endure Better Backyard Ultra here in Florida in February. It is being put on by Everyday Ultra and all of the aid station help is included. I just need to convince my better half to let me go run for 24 hours (that’s all I’ll make it) and skip some gala. Who’s signing up with me?

Mark Dowdle is also available for speaking engagements. As a man who has pushed his body and mind to the ends of the earth and back and tested what human beings are truly capable of, he just might be the motivational speaker you are looking for. You can visit his website, Mark-Dowdle.com, for information on that.