The scale was global, the ambition truly great and the party one to remember, as more than 35,000 people in 32 countries took part in the inaugural Wings for Life World Run in pursuit of a cure for spinal cord injury.
Antonia Elliot ran an impressive 31.39km to take out the fastest female in New Zealand, whilst Braden Currie did 45.38km, an extraordinary effort by the Coast 2 Coast champion, coming 29th overall in the world.
Lemawork Ketema of Ethiopia won a knife-edge men's race, completing 78.57km before being hauled in by the Catcher Car in the race with no fixed finish line.
Elise Selvikvåg Molvik of Norway covered 54.79km in Stavanger to take global honours in the women's race.
The unique format meant the leaders in the final races still running - in Austria, Britain, Italy and Peru - were left trying to stay just ahead of the car and hoping to nose ahead of their rivals around the world.
Paul Martelletti (a Kiwi living in London) finally bowed out of the Silverstone race after 69.37km, before sinking down into the long grass in exhaustion.
That left Ukraine's Evgeni Glyva and Ketema of Ethiopia running together in Donautal, Austria, Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy in Verona and Remigio Huaman Quispe in Lima.
Calcaterra, three-time ultramarathon world champion, was next to go at 72.99km before Ketema edged out Glyva in a terrific elbow-to-elbow tussle.
After that, the Peruvian was out on his own in Lima, slightly behind in terms of distance, but still just ahead of the catcher car.
He was eventually caught just around 90 metres behind the distance already covered by Ketema, who was confirmed as the winner a few minutes later.
The prize for each of the global winners is a round-the-world trip taking in Salzburg, Istanbul, Auckland, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Sydney, Fiji, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, and featuring a series of money-can't-buy experiences.
The Wings for Life Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for spinal cord injury and 100 percent of the money from entry fees and donations will be put towards funding research projects around the globe.
The 35,397 participants came from 164 countries and they ran across 13 time zones. Some races were run through the night, others in the middle of the day.
In all of them, fun runners took the start line along with serious endurance athletes, celebrities and race ambassadors.