Bucket List · Bucket list route
The Backyard Ultra
Every runner starts a 4.167 mile loop at the top of each hour. Finish it and you wait for the next hour. Fail to start, or fail to finish inside the hour, and you are out. The race ends when one runner completes a loop that nobody else does. Everyone else, including everyone who ran ninety hours, gets a DNF.
- Loop
- 4.167 mi100 miles in 24 loops
- Interval
- Every hour, on the hour
- Winners
- One, or none
- World record
- Well past 100 hours
- Big's
- Bell Buckle, Tennessee
- Format creator
- Lazarus Lake
Lazarus Lake invented the format and it is diabolically elegant. 4.167 miles per hour equals exactly 100 miles per day. There's no distance goal, no finish line, and no way to win except by outlasting every other person there. The psychological structure, that you can quit at any moment and quitting is always allowed, is the entire event.
Backyards have spread everywhere, which makes this the single most accessible entry on this page: there is almost certainly one within driving distance of you, and entry is usually cheap and open. At the top of the pyramid sits Big Dog's Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, which alternates between an individual world championship and a team world championship.
How to get in
- Open entryRun a local backyard
Hundreds exist worldwide. Most have open registration and modest fields. This is where everybody starts, and finishing 24 hours at a local backyard is a genuine hundred mile finish.
- Time qualifierThe ticket ladder to Big's
Winning a Bronze Ticket event earns a start in a Silver Ticket event. Winning a Silver Ticket event earns a place on your national backyard team for the team world championship. Athletes can also qualify as at-large selections based on the best performances in their nation over the previous two years. Qualifying windows run roughly August to August.
How the format actually works
- Run the loop in 50 to 52 minutes early on. That leaves eight to ten minutes per hour to eat, change, and sit. Running faster buys more rest and costs more energy; there is a personal optimum and finding it is the skill.
- Eat every single loop. The structure gives you a feeding opportunity every hour. Use every one.
- Have a chair, a crew, and a system. Same spot, same order, every hour. Decision-making is the first thing to go.
- The night loops are where people quit. Not because of legs, because of the pointlessness. Have a reason to start the next loop that isn't logic.
- The three-minute whistle is real. Missing the corral start is the most common elimination and it is entirely avoidable.
Questions runners actually ask
What is a backyard ultra?
A last-runner-standing race where everyone starts a 4.167 mile loop at the top of every hour. Finish inside the hour and you continue. The race ends when one runner completes a loop nobody else does, and that runner is the only official finisher.
How do I qualify for Big's Backyard Ultra?
Winning a Bronze Ticket event earns a start at a Silver Ticket event, and winning a Silver Ticket event secures a place on your national backyard team. Athletes can also be selected at-large based on the best national performances over the previous two years.
Is 24 loops a 100 mile finish?
Yes. Twenty-four loops of 4.167 miles is exactly 100 miles in exactly 24 hours, which is why the format is such a good structure for a first hundred.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Need the races in between? The hard part of a bucket list year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.