By Peter Johnston
Earlier this year (May 2024) I finally entered a relatively new race format for the first time. The ‘Backyard Ultra’ is the brainchild of Lazarus Lake (of Barkley Marathons fame), where competitors make their way around a 4.167 mile course every hour, on the hour. The challenge is that there is no fixed end point as the winner is simply the last competitor standing and who has completed one more loop (yard) than anyone else. To understand the format better, there’s an interesting BBC article on it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/56720358
I’d fancied trying this format for a while and in May took part in the inaugural Mapledurham Backyard Ultra near Reading. I completed 30 ‘yards’ (125 miles over 30 hours) which was more fun than it sounds, but it was tough!
Unbeknownst to me at that point is that 30 yards is a pretty decent performance and it actually ended up qualifying me for Team Ireland in the 2024 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships. This is where 15 competitors from each country complete a Backyard Ultra in their own country, doing so simultaneously with all the other countries that are completing (63 in total this year). This takes place every other year, with the winners from each country going to the Individual World Championships the following year.
To get the chance to represent my country has been one of the most exciting things to ever happen to me! I was never sporty as a child and only took up running in my 30s, so representing my country was not something I’d ever even dreamt of, given that it was so unrealistic! Nonetheless, on Saturday 19thOctober 2024, I lined up with my 14 team-mates at Florence Court near Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, ready to work together to complete as many yards as possible (each yard completed gets a point for the team).
On paper, we were never a winning team, but it was a strong group who had all qualified with at least 28 yards, so there was a depth that would help us do well overall. Unfortunately, we knew that Storm Ashley was hovering and might be a problem, but we still set off at 1pm on our first yard.
The first few yards were relatively easy as we trotted round between 40 and 50 minutes each time, getting to know each other and enjoying a fairly pleasant autumn day. In between yards, we would be supported by ‘crew’, which for me was my wife who was making sure everything was ready at camp. These ‘rest’ periods were time to change clothes, eat, drink and maybe just sit down for a bit to conserve energy.
By 7pm, moving towards marathon distance, the headtorches had to come out as we entered the lengthy period of darkness (given the time of year). It was around this time that I started to suffer with some fairly unpleasant stomach cramps, which by midnight were coming close to taking me out of the race as I was arriving back each yard with only a few minutes to spare. Thankfully, some of the camp crew found various remedies to keep me going and by 1pm (50 miles in) I was back to completing my yards in around 50 minutes, giving myself enough time to rest again.
Then, at around 3am, we got our first taste of the wrath of Storm Ashley, with 40-50mph winds coming in followed by torrential rain which started to flood the course. The yard at 5am included the sudden appearance of a number of sections where we waded through about a foot of water!
Sadly, this was the pre-cursor to the almost inevitable news, as we stood on the line at 6am, that we would not be able to continue past 9am as the main brunt of the storm was due later in the day with 70+mph winds forecast. Despite this, most of the team wanted to continue – no-one had dropped out at this stage and we had risen as high as 6th in the world rankings at one point in the night (teams who were on maximum points were split by the average yard time for the team). Everyone completed the 18th yard and nine of us completed all three final yards before we had to stop, getting us to a total of 20 yards (83 miles and 20 hours) – annoyingly, at a point when it was a glorious autumn morning, with the sun shining and it being calm!
Ultimately, the right decision was made as the storm did hit,as forecast, in the afternoon, and a run around the course the following morning revealed why it would have been madness to continue, even if we had been allowed to do so!
For me, I wasn’t that disappointed at the outcome as I was there to represent my country with pride and had no designs on winning – just to do my best – which is exactly what I did under the circumstances. Working with the rest of the team was a great experience and I learnt a lot more about the format which I hope to put to good use very soon as, only a few hours after we had to stop, the news came in from Lazarus Lake himself that those of us who went to the ‘end’ would be allowed to continue at a later date to ‘run-off’ until we have a team winner to send to the Individual Championships next year! The hope is that this will happen in February 2025, so I will be part of Team Ireland once again very soon!
I’d really recommend the Backyard Ultra to anyone. You could just do one loop, or set a personal target e.g. furthest distance ever run. Speed makes no difference in this format, it purely about endurance and will-power, but also great camaraderie as everyone tries to go as far as they can – it’s honestly a lot more fun than it sounds!!