Guillaume de Lustrac sets a backward marathon world record

From a lost bet to a world record

It all started on an otherwise ordinary evening in December. Guillaume de Lustrac, who comes from the Yvelines department and now works as a carbon consultant and speaker, had just finished the Valencia Marathon in 2:33. That evening, he and his friend Duncan Perrillat (French Marathon Champion) started looking into some of the more unusual world records out there. The ultra-endurance specialist had already taken on numerous challenges, including completing a triple Ironman between Annecy and Périgueux. Early that year, Duncan put the challenge to his followers on Instagram: if the post reached more than 1,000 comments, Guillaume would have to run a marathon backwards. The story was even shared by Fabien Claude, a member of the French biathlon team. From that point on, there was no turning back: the Isère native could start training.

Four months of training to break the world record

Until the first day of his preparation, Guillaume de Lustrac had never run backwards. There are, in fact, specialists in the discipline known as retrorunning. Before the Yvelines native’s attempt, the backward marathon world record was held by German runner Markus Jürgens in 3:38. Unlike Guillaume, he was already used to this unusual effort.

In several interviews with the press before his world-record attempt, the long-distance enthusiast said he was “starting from zero, running 500 m, then 1 km, then 2 km… until he was stringing together one- to two-hour runs”. He trained in the Vercors, with his fiancée Constance accompanying him on his sessions. She was there to guide and support him. During his biggest training weeks, his mileage climbed to 100 km. Guillaume trained exclusively backwards. Alternating between forward and backward running caused him pain. Although the 30-year-old runner attracted a few laughs during his training runs, his backward running practice intrigued plenty of walkers and runners.

3:25 of effort and a new record

To give themselves the best possible chance, Guillaume and his team decided to target a race with a fast, rolling course. They also needed an event with a relatively small field to reduce the risk of falls. The Marathon de la Drôme, held in Saint-Paul-lès-Romans, ticked both boxes.

To take the German’s world record off the books, Guillaume had to run faster than 5:11 per kilometre, or just under 12 km/h. His friends ran alongside him to help him hold his line. Duncan, who had launched the project, even hosted an Instagram live. Out on the course, the future world record-holder was encouraged by the other runners. Some joined him to help guide him, while others pulled out their phones to capture the moment.

After a fast start on 3:27 pace, the group settled into 4:50 per kilometre. Over the final kilometres, the Isère native was hit by intense pain in his hips and toes. His sizeable cushion allowed him to cross the finish line in 3:25:24 and break the backward marathon world record. Guillaume de Lustrac also produced the remarkable performance of finishing 19th overall at the Marathon de la Drôme. Mission accomplished for a runner who had dreamed of one day appearing in the Guinness World Records.