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.
