Some of the competitors of Legends Trail make it to the end: the finisher % of the race has been between 30 and 40 % during the last years (I don’t have access to the exact numbers).
The race saw a total of 195 finishers in all past editions (only considering the kids run distance; 2020 is the year with LT500 happening at the same time so not that representative with regards to finisher statistics). 12 different nations have made it into the finisher stats – Belgium naturally leads the pack with 56.4 %, followed by the Netherlands with 26.2 %. GER and FRA are around 5 % and the rest are more like the exotic finisher countries.
The % of women finishing the LT is at total around 9 % but increasing over the last years.
The average time of the LT250 winners is 48.01 h ranging from 43.03 h in 2018 to 57.35 h in 2016. Since 2019 its rather stable between 46 and 50 h. The average finish time of all runners is 60.08 h – seeing a slight increase from 2020 onwards – more towards 62ish hours.
The % of runners who enjoyed the 3rd sunrise (8 AM Legends Monday – 62 h race time) jumped from almost nothing to 50 % in 2019 and increased to somewhat around 70 % average in 2022/2023. 2020 seems to be an outlier and should not be overrated due to the above mentioned reason (LT500 happening). 2020 also happened to see the worse weather out of 2020-2023 so this may contribute to that high number as well. Overall the difficulty seems to increase over the years at least judging by the percentages of finishers with finisher times over 62 hours. Or we just neglect our training.
But what about this third day – what is Day 3 like? First of all its actually race day 4 but no one seems to care about those first 6 LT Friday hours. Day 3 is a very special one. During my three attempts I always made it into Day 3 due to lack of abilities so I got some impressions. What makes the moments around sunrise #3 and the hours til the final cutoff unique is that almost all runners who made it that far have a very high chance to actually finish the Legends Trail. So its still a battle vs. cutoff but the odds are finally a considerable bit better compared to the chances during the first 62 hours. The runners share a dream which is almost real – the one golden moment of crossing the line and getting the beer feels very close and for the first time in the race like a somewhat realistic outcome.
To be absolutely clear – almost no runner left is without more or less serious problems. Pain is omnipresent, every single step needs an unmanageable amount of effort and with 3-5 km/h those last kilometres stretch to eternity.
If you look into those eyes – you can literally see the emptiness, you can see the horror of the past days and some just stare into an invisible nothingness. No one is able to hold long discussions, all ability to switch between languages is finally gone, some even seem to have lost all ability to talk. From an outside perspective it may seem like a nonsense and slow-motion march to an uncertain and unreachable destination. Willingness, remote-controlled.
And yet – within each and every runner there is this fire which is slowly gaining strength. You may find them standing and crying as the emotions slowly return to the destroyed bodies. You may see them standing and staring with an odd smile on their face because they finally allow themselves to believe. You may see them marching next to each other in grim silences but they are getting invisibly pulled by that end which is finally in reach.
I remember quite well meeting some LT safety team members 10k before the LT 2023 finish line with a camera interviewing people. I mean what should I tell them? The amount of thankfulness, the amount of relieve and the amount of emotions – there are no words for that. I think they understood.
Despite the unmanageable amount of discomfort of Day 3 and those final 4-6 hours of Legends Trail – to me those are the most rewarding and satisfying moments possible. They are the reason I am starting that race.
