{"id":915155,"date":"2026-10-03T22:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915155\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:44:18","slug":"telethon-ultra-marathon-hero-phil-gore-rushed-to-hospital-after-pushing-body-to-the-limit-for-was-sick-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915155\/","title":{"rendered":"Telethon ultra-marathon hero Phil Gore rushed to hospital after pushing body to the limit for WA\u2019s sick kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perth ultra-marathon champion Phil Gore almost killed himself for the kids of Telethon after pushing his body through an agonising six days of continuous running that left him in hospital needing emergency surgery.<\/p>\n

Determined to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for sick children across WA through his Project 168 challenge \u2014 an attempt to run a 6.7km lap every single hour for 168 consecutive hours \u2014 Gore refused to stop even as his body began to break down.<\/p>\n

By the time he reached his 152nd hour, the sheer physical toll caught up with him on the course, forcing him to scramble against the clock in absolute agony.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s a bit of a blur. I don\u2019t remember anything being wrong until lap 152,\u201d Gore said.<\/p>\n

He remembered reaching the halfway mark in just over 30 minutes, but the second half of the course proved brutal.<\/p>\n

\"MrCamera IconMr Gore said he doesn\u2019t remember anything being wrong until lap 152. Credit: William Buck<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half of the course was a lot easier than the second half, so the second half had hills and trail and I was already fatigued from the first half anyway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I kind of thought that I wasn\u2019t going to finish that lap. But I didn\u2019t just stop there and then. I\u2019m like, I\u2019ve got to keep pushing. I got to keep trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messaging ahead to his crew saying \u201cjust be prepared just in case,\u201d Gore refused to throw in the towel, somehow finishing the lap with just two minutes to spare.<\/p>\n

With only 120 seconds to rest, he stood back up for lap 153.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a lot of confidence that I was going to finish lap 153, but I just thought I\u2019ve got to try. I\u2019ve got to start and see how far I can get,\u201d Gore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich ultimately wasn\u2019t very far. It was about just over a kilometre when mathematically there was no way I was going to finish the lap in time and the pain in my leg had just got too great that I couldn\u2019t really take too many more steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just collapsed on the side of the road and got scooped up and put back in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhilCamera IconPhil Gore in hospital. Credit: Phil Gore\/Supplied<\/p>\n

What Gore initially dismissed as a sore muscle quickly spiralled into a medical nightmare once he got home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night, sleep was shocking, like I was in a lot of pain, you know, waking up in sweats, and I just thought, \u2018oh, that\u2019s normal\u2019,\u201d Gore said.<\/p>\n

But after five straight nights of waking up in cold sweats, the pain escalated to a breaking point nearly a week after the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain in my leg had gotten significantly worse. I\u2019ve called the physio and he recommended that I go to the emergency . . . in triage, the nurse asked me like, what level of pain am I in? And I normally have a very high pain tolerance. But I was like, \u2018yes, this is a 10\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After a frustrating ordeal being transferred between hospitals \u2014 where he was sent home after the injury was misdiagnosed as a simple haematoma \u2014 Gore trusted his gut and sought out a sports doctor for a second opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a good gut feeling about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When the specialist attempted to drain the swelling, expecting blood, he instead found pus from a dangerous, hidden infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going, \u2018OK, this isn\u2019t good, we\u2019ve got to send you to ER\u2019,\u201d Gore said.<\/p>\n

Rushed straight to Fiona Stanley Hospital, surgeons cut his leg open in emergency surgery to drain 500 millilitres of fluid, inserting a drainage tube to collect another 70 millilitres over the following days to save his leg.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe scar on Mr Gore\u2019s leg. Credit: Carwyn Monck\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Despite suffering through severe fever, multiple hospital admissions and emergency surgery to pull off the feat, Gore has absolutely zero regrets about putting his body on the line for Telethon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets about the event,\u201d Gore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to push myself to my limit. If I\u2019d got to 168 and stopped, I wouldn\u2019t have found what that limit is. So, yeah, I found my limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

His incredible sacrifice paid off in a massive way for WA families, with Project 168 raising more than $291,000 \u2014 a total expected to top $300,000 before the Telethon weekend ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 300,000 has just been made up of people putting in $5 or $10,\u201d Gore said, noting that donations flooded in from every continent on Earth as people watched his live stream.<\/p>\n

\"ForCamera IconFor Gore, the ultimate reward came on the track when he got to run alongside the children directly benefiting from the fundraising.\u00a0 Credit: Carwyn Monck\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

For Gore, the ultimate reward came on the track when he got to run alongside the children directly benefiting from the fundraising.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelethon actually got involved in coming down to the event and bringing kids down who have directly benefited from Telethon, so to be able to run with these kids . . . you can see it right there, like who it\u2019s helping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now facing a slow and cautious recovery that has forced him to pull out of upcoming major races like the Backyard Satellite Championship, Gore is taking the enforced rest in stride by catching up on movies.<\/p>\n

Though he will need to consult with sports doctors before attempting such extreme distances again, his spirit remains completely unbroken, and he is already eyeing a return to official backyard ultras next year to see if he can push past his 152-lap benchmark once his leg fully heals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth ultra-marathon champion Phil Gore almost killed himself for the kids of Telethon after pushing his body through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,46,501,41,39,42,40,45],"class_list":["post-915155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-telethon","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}