On September 5, 2024, in the Hungarian resort town of Balatonfüred, more than 100 athletes will set off to compete in the EMU 6-Day, presented by Mount to Coast. The race, which doubles as the GOMU 6-Day World Championships, is now in its second year under GOMU; the Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners was set up in 2021 to promote multi-day running globally, to hold GOMU World Championship multi-day races, and to recognize multi-day records that the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) does not. Rather than being the governing body of ultrarunning (which is World Athletics), GOMU was created in to take over the maintenance of records for the many standard multi-day distances that IAU does not recognize, or has abandoned.
GOMU was the brainchild of legendary Canadian ultrarunner Trishul Cherns. “I wanted to bring the best in the world together to compete at the highest level possible. There were no World Championships in multi-day races and we wanted to change that,” he says.
By partnering with existing races such as the EMU 6-Day in Hungary, GOMU has quickly grown its profile while drawing the best athletes to the races that matter. At this year’s race, 27 nations/regions are represented, from Argentina to Japan, and with significant cohorts from Hungary and Germany. These athletes will compete to see who can run the furthest over the course of 144hrs around a flat 900m loop on the north shore of Lake Balaton.
Viktoria Brown is Vice President of GOMU as well as being a Mount to Coast-supported athlete. She will be among the athletes lining up to race in September and she expects fireworks:
“I feel like there is a multi-day revolution just starting,” she says. “We put on the most successful 48-hour race ever and I'm quite certain that we will see something similar at the GOMU 6-Day World Championship in Hungary, which Mount to Coast is sponsoring. We will see performances there that the 6-day community haven't seen in a long time because we are bringing together the best men and women and they are really pushing each other.”
For Cherns, the idea of becoming World Champion has raised the profile of the race and is likely to raise the level throughout the field: “Everybody wants to be a World Champion,” he says, “whether it's an age group or just overall Champion. The highest-level world standard is 600 miles and there's a few guys gunning for that and you know, even some of the women are starting to think that as well – can I do a hundred miles a day for 6 days?”
6-day racing has a rich history, from the pedestrian races held in New York in the 1870s to the exploits of Yiannis Kouros through the 80s, 90s and 00s, when he repeatedly set world records for the 6-Day, finishing up with a record of 644 miles. Can anyone get close to that record in 2024?
As Viktoria Brown says, “I think with that many competitive athletes, you will see a close race and you will see people pushing each other in the last three days – it's the last three that matter.”
We’ll be on the ground in Hungary to report – stay tuned for coverage.
Words by Andy Waterman
Discover more about Trishul Cherns, Viktoria Brown, GOMU, and the 6-Day World Championships by tuning into the full podcast.