Loop 11: all three come back, 46:30 from bib 11

Loop 11 is in: all three runners still in the race came back inside the hour, and eleven yards is 73.8 km.

Bib 11 was quickest, in 46:30, with 13 min 30 sec to spare. Bib 18 followed in 50:23 and bib 17 in 52:25, who had 7 min 35 sec to spare. No one went out in loop 11. Bib 8 had already stopped at the loop 11 corral, so 43 are out and three are in the race, all on 11 yards: bibs 11, 17 and 18.

What the splits say. Bib 11 has now run 8 hours 33 minutes of the 11, averaging 46:37 a loop, about 13 minutes of rest an hour. His last three loops have crept up by a few seconds each, 45:07, 46:12 and 46:30, but his last five still average 46:04 against 47:35 for his first five. Bib 18 keeps the same rhythm: his last three loops are 50:55, 50:25 and 50:23, each a touch quicker than the one before. Bib 17 is the one giving up time. His first five loops averaged 47:26 and his last five 51:57, so over the last five he is giving bib 11 close to six minutes a loop.

The context. This is a last-one-standing race with no finish line: it ends when one runner is left, and the winner has to complete one more yard than the last runner to stop. The Ahmedabad chapter record is 18 yards, set by Amit Bhattacharjee in 2025, so the three left are 7 yards short of it. The best of this season so far is 25 yards, at Pune. Together the whole field has run 341 yards, 2,287 km.