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John Stocker hadn\u2019t slept in three-and-a-half days when he finally crossed the finish line after running more than 337 miles in an ultramarathon event in Suffolk, stopping only at brief intervals for food and rest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the 123 people who started the race in Knettishall Heath on 5 June, he was the last person still running 81 hours later on Tuesday evening, and had to summon all of his physical and mental strength to get around the last lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour tiredness just takes over. And then I clipped my toe and went down on the concrete. I laid there thinking I wasn\u2019t going to be getting back up,\u201d the 41-year-old personal trainer said, as he recovered at home in Bicester. \u201cBut the whole reason I do these ultras is to show my kids that they should try to achieve as much as they can, and not be told by anyone that they can\u2019t do something. That\u2019s what kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultrarunning has soared in popularity, with a report in May<\/a> showing a 345% increase in participation globally over the past 10 years and thousands of events taking place annually. Meanwhile, participation in 5Ks has declined since 2015, and participation in marathons has levelled off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The term broadly refers to any race over the length of a marathon, and can come in many shapes and forms \u2013 including the six-day, 251km Marathon des Sables<\/a> across the Sahara, and the Spine Race<\/a> across the Pennine hills covering 431km\u201cIt has been an explosion. When I came to ultrarunning about 14 years ago, I did a Google search and found about 60 races. Now we estimate there\u2019s probably about 10,000,\u201d said Steve Diedrich, the founder of the website Run Ultra. \u201cThe pandemic put people into two categories: the people who sat on the couch and the people who got off the couch. And those who got off the couch have pushed themselves further and become ultrarunners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adharanand Finn<\/a>, the author of The Rise of the Ultra Runners, said: \u201cGenerally as running has got more popular and more people have done marathons there\u2019s a natural inflation. To tell people you\u2019ve run a marathon is maybe not as impressive as it once was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese races are so epic and so huge, people are so impressed and it\u2019s easy to get sucked in by that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UK has a long history of ultrarunning in the form of fell races, but races specifically labelled as ultras are on the increase. The \u201cback yard challenge\u201d races, which originated in the US, are particularly gruelling; at the Suffolk event participants had to run a 4.167-mile (7km) route every hour until they could no longer carry on. If runners complete their lap early they can take a short break to sleep, eat and use the toilet before heading back to the start line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s like Groundhog Day. Because you get back to the tent and you\u2019ve got a few minutes and then all of a sudden it\u2019s your next loop, it starts all over again,\u201d said Stocker. \u201cI still have nightmares now of them blowing the whistle over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with his fellow runner Matthew Blackburn, he beat the world record for the event previously held by Karel Sabbe, a Belgian dentist who ran 312.5 miles (502km) in 75 hours in October. Now the pair will head to Tennessee to take part in the back yard ultra world championships and compete against the best in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The races are not without risk. The ultrarunning community is still reeling from the deaths of 21 runners<\/a> in an ultramarathon event in China last month after high winds and freezing rain hit the course. The country has suspended all long-distance races<\/a> and an investigation into the tragedy is being carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough the history of ultraracing there have been issues with floods, cold exposure, heat exposure, a range of everything depending on the location,\u201d but deaths are very rare, said Diedrich. In its 35-year history, two people have died taking part in the Marathon Des Sables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have to have some sort of a safety net, because you\u2019re asking people to push to the absolute limit of their exhaustion,\u201d said Lindley Chambers, the owner of Challenge Running<\/a>, which organised last week\u2019s Suffolk back yard ultra. He said the route was carefully mapped out to avoid risk of injury and staff were on hand to aid runners at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou need to be sensible, and manage the risks as best you can,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then on the other side, the runners want it to feel like an adventure, they want to feel like they\u2019re challenged. They don\u2019t want you to hold their hand all the way round.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n as you\u2019re joining us today from India, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian\u2019s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. 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