After the hallucinatory Barkley Marathons, running prodigy Karel Sabbe (33) is just waiting for the dental practice again. “There isn’t really support for such a niche sport here.”
“Just one more formality,” jokes Gary ‘Laz’ Cantrell, founder of the sardonic Barkley Marathons, at the finish line. Karel Sabbe, barely 7 minutes before the end time stumbled in with the winged words “lay down with me”, just gets his fingers on the offered button of the device. The audio message that follows causes hilarity: ‘That was easy.’
Nothing is easy about the mysterious ultra running competition in a barren part of Tennessee. Not the essay you have to write to join the 40 contestants. Not the 160 kilometers and 18,000 altimeters that are reeled through the woods with a map and compass. Not the 60-hour time limit, which barely allows for a micro-sleep.
Previously, only 15 ultra runners had completed the race in 36 editions. Sabbe narrowly joined the list in his third participation, together with Aurélien Sanchez and John Kelly.
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Outside Magazine already knew it five years ago: Sabbe is ‘an instant legend’. Nevertheless, the 33-year-old Belgian will soon be pulling teeth again in his dental practice in Ronse. “There is simply no real support for such a niche sport in a small country,” says his wife Emma Vandoorne. There is no competition format, no live images, just (a lot of) online enthusiasm and the battle against itself.
It appeals to the imagination all the more, especially because it seems as if Sabbe accidentally rolled into the world of ultra sports about ten years ago. Not through a marathon and the hunger for more, as often. No, discovered the passion almost casually during an adventurous triathlon in New Zealand, and then a trek that he completed in one instead of four days.
The aptitude for walking has always been there, says Vandoorne. “Even in secondary school he excelled in competitions, without training for it.” He got the sense of adventure from home, although the mountains are always confrontational for those who go on the road with Sabbe. “No one can keep up with him. Height meters, they don’t bother him.”
When he has to sit for hours in small rooms with unnatural light during his studies, tinkering with practice dentures, walking turns out to be an escape route. The way is reminiscent of a joke about whales: slow, but far. During his record attempts, he often averages no more than seven kilometers per hour – on rough terrain, of course.
Record attempt one is the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016. Sabbe wants to set the FKT or Fastest Known Time there, a separate discipline in ultra running that you can compare to the King Of the Mountain (KOM) on the running and cycling app Strava. Only the segment here is 4,184 kilometers long, through desert and mountains. Together with his regular companion Joren Biebuyck – physiotherapist, brother-in-law and fixer – he dives somewhat impulsively into that adventure and still pits 22 hours off the best time.
It’s not always pretty. Sabbe has to go through all pain thresholds, gets a sunstroke and will have no feeling in his feet for four months due to an infection. In later projects, such as an FKT on the Appalachian Trail (2018) and the Via Alpina (2021), the preparation is more professional. Even more: last year, during the Barkley Marathons, Sabbe experienced hallucinations – a woman and child he wanted to ask for directions turned out to be a garbage can.
It is the question that often returns: is it safe? Even more than a physical challenge, such an extreme ultrarun is a system attack: the constant energy intake – up to more than 10,000 calories per day – puts a strain on the gastrointestinal system, and fatigue in the muscles turns into fatigue in the brain. At the end you spend “20 minutes on the simplest calculation”, says Sabbe.
His answer? As long as there is no pain that indicates an injury, he will continue. That injury is not there (for now). And above all: he never feels better than when he walks in nature. “When he comes home after four hours of walking, he is full of ideas,” says Vandoorne.
Although she still finds it difficult to put herself in the shoes of the lonely agony. Not even Joren Biebuyck, as he said earlier in this newspaper: “I see a lot, but it is difficult for me to understand the solitary suffering.”
Container Cup
The wheels never stop. Vandoorne does not want to call it maniac, because he is good at disconnecting between projects. “Very dedicated.” The preparation for the Barkley Marathons does not only take place in his playground, the Kluisbos, but also with his nose in Excel tables and race reports from other runners.
The next three challenges are already in mind, although only the next one is announced. This summer, Sabbe normally returns to the Pacific Crest Trail for a “second sit.” Enjoying it a bit more this time is the main message, the FKT – which he lost two years ago – is the main side issue. Something like that tickles every top athlete.
You can really call Sabbe that. Of the nearly one hundred top athletes in TV competition The Container Cup he shows off in ninth place, and not by playing good golf. In the cycling test he went as fast as Remco Evenepoel and Victor Campenaerts – his VO2max (maximum oxygen uptake capacity) is also close to that of the better cyclists. Vandoorne: “He is secretly proud that he can compete with those professional athletes.”
