Battling physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation and the mental challenge of running through three consecutive nights, the 41-year-old finished third among Australia’s 15 competitors.
Held from October 17 at Kembla Grange in NSW, the championships saw about 900 runners from 67 nations competing simultaneously in their respective countries, with the Australian event kicking off at 11pm to coincide with 7am in the United States.
Unlike traditional marathons, backyard ultras have no set finishing distance or time limit.
Competitors must complete a 6.706km loop every hour, on the hour, until only one runner remains.
“It’s quite an intricate, complicated form of racing,” Dube said.
“It’s definitely a mental battle and obviously very much a physical battle as well.”
Representing Australia in the championships for the second time, Dube set a personal best of 78 loops and finished third among the Australian runners, behind Dan Camac, 87 loops, and Ben Nicholls, 86 loops.
In total, Australia ran 1069 loops, second to the US with 1,120 loops.
Dube said managing energy was crucial to survival.
“It’s very much a balancing act because if you run too fast, then you’re really burning too much energy to maintain it for a long period of time,” he said.
“Some runners prefer to run really slow, so they’re conserving a lot of energy, but that then means they don’t get a lot of rest breaks.”
Dube aimed to complete each lap with about 15 minutes to spare, using precious downtime to sleep.
“Once I complete it, I’ll go straight into my tent and try to sleep until about four minutes before the top of the hour,” he said.
“I’ll use those four minutes to get food, water, medical supplies and be ready for the next hour.”
Support crews prepare food, organise rest areas, provide massages and pain relief so Dube can focus on running and sleeping.
“Sleep deprivation is obviously a killer,” he said.
A former marathon runner, Dube discovered backyard ultras in 2021 through word of mouth and was drawn to the sport’s emphasis on resilience and problem-solving rather than speed.
He has since won Shepparton’s GV Last Man Standing event four consecutive times.
Training begins four months before competition, with Dube gradually increasing his weekly running from 70km to more than 200km.
It’s a demanding commitment for the dairy manufacturing shift worker and father-of-three who now calls South Gippsland home.
Dube encourages newcomers to try the sport.
“You don’t have to be a superstar runner,” he said.
“You can just come in and do two or three loops and you’ll get just as many cheers at the finish line as the winner.”
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