For those new to Backyard Ultra’s the concept and format is simple.
Run a 4.167 loop on the hour every hour until there is only one person left who can finish a loop (also known as a Yard) which nobody else can finish within the hour. 1 winner and everybody is DNF (Did not Finish). It’s a harsh format that takes no account for age, sex, disability or any other factor. It’s raw and simple and open to all and certainly not fair, nor is it supposed to be.
You could be the in the last two and not finish a yard in time and be forgotten with nothing to show for it and the winner takes all the glory! But that’s what drives the last runners on, there is no second place it’s glory or failure.
4.167 mile every hour equals 100 miles over 24 hours and 200 over 48 hours and so on, you get the picture. It sounds easy and it is…
…until it isn’t. For more info on the backyard format and world races visit the official website https://backyardultra.com/ or our own Suffolk Backyard Pages for race info.
Every two years the best 15 ranked Backyard Runners from each country that hosts Backyard races enter a team into the World Team Championships and races against all the other world teams in real time via the magic of live timing and live stream feeds.
Team members qualify for the National (UK) team by running their best performance from August 15th 2022 – August 15th 2024 over a two year cycle. With the World Team event being held in third week of October at the end of that 2 year cycle. In the in between years on a similar 2 year cycle from 2023-2025 runners qualify for the Individual World championships at Big’s Backyard in Tennessee in the USA. All the top World Team Champs winners plus the best “At-Large” runners with top performances go head to head in person to see who is the best. Sort of a backyard Olympics.
So this year was a World Team Championships and we had our list of the best 15 performances by UK runners. The winner of this race gets a guaranteed place in the individual Champs next year.
The top 3 are what is known as Silver Ticket race winners and get a guaranteed spot on the team regardless of number of yards done and the remainder in the blue zone are the next 12 best performances.
The grey area is the alternates who are on standby for those in the top 15 who may not be able to attend. Matt Blackburn and Andy Day were both doing Spartathlon a few weeks before so unfortunately would not be fit for it and had to decline the invitation. That left us our final 15 with Luke Carter and Julie Bethune making it onto the team.
63 countries worldwide were planning to run, competition was going to be tough. We came 13th overall in 2022 with 486 points with the winner Matt Blackburn scoring 47 Yards.
We wanted to do better in terms of placing, number of yards and winning yardage. We had a better team on paper with higher qualifying scores than previously, in 2022 you needed 31 yards to get onto the team, in 2024 it was 38.
However some of the international teams had members who had done over 100 yards, Australia, USA and Belgium in particular and some of the teams had their 15th ranked runners with 60+ yards, that was almost unbelievable!
We would have to pull our socks and much more up as high as possible.
We were one of the few teams with 3 female runners on the team, all there on pure merit and showing the growth in women’s numbers and performance over recent years in the UK. The Icelandic team was a majority of Women with 8 women and 7 men.
So there we were all standing in a field at High Lodge in Thetford Forest which is our new venue for our regular backyards with a new faster and wider course which proved to be flatter with only one hill to worry about. It’s entirely on trails through beautiful forest land. Not a single road crossing or gate to worry about and no mud.
A scenic route through
forested land
The venue is fantastic and offers much more in facilities than our previous venue, larger camping area, better trails, activities for families and food and drink vendors and plenty of parking.
The team started to arrive from 8am and registration and briefing was at 11:30am. Unfortunately it was not a great forecast with high winds and rain predicted all weekend. The race was due to start at 1pm which was 7am on the USA course, where everyone around the world took their start time from.
Bang on 1pm we were off and running, literally!
Now these are the best of the best in the UK and all capable of 30+ yards so you can imagine its going to take a while before anyone drops out, especially when they are working as a team and encouraging each other along.
We headed into the 1st night with everyone looking great.
With everyone through the 1st night and into the morning we had our 1st surprise drop out, Luke Carter came back on Lap 20 which was unexpected as he has a PB of 38 and clearly was just not having his best day.
The 63 teams were split into 3 smaller races just for fun, Large Champs for teams where everyone had done at least 24 yards, Medium where some of the team had done over 24 yards and small teams where nobody had previously done over 24 yards, These last teams were mostly smaller countries or ones that were new to the format.
Team Ireland had an unfortunate issue where they had to stop the race due to the UK storms. They were out of the champs but will get to run their event later to find their winner. We were lucky and the predicted weather was not as bad as expected. Only 1 gazebo was threatened with destruction and we managed to save it and prevent its demise.
Many of the smaller teams had already lost most of their runners by this stage but as expected all the teams in the Large group with us were still running with all 15 runners or like us had only lost 1.
Then we seemed to have a team wobble when we got into the 30’s and into the low 40’s, We lost a runner almost every yard which was unexpected.
Mike Raffan 32 Yards, A knee injury we had been taping up meant he could not run. Well below his best of 42 yards.
Richard Thompson 33 Yards, gave his best but it was not his day. A little below his best of 44 Yards.
Karen Nichol 36 Yards, She was having some tummy issues and not having her best day. A little below her best of 40 yards.
Ian Bethune 37 Yards, Again not having his best day and equalling his best previous performance.
Andrew Jackson 37 Yards, previously had a PB of 47 yards and it was a blow to see him go at this point.
John Stocker 38 Yards, John when fit and well is a force to be reckoned with as we know with PB of 81 and a previous world record holder and Big’s competitor, but he has had a few niggles and injuries over the last couple of years and came into this with a shoulder issue and unfortunately it affected his running despite us taping it up as best we could.
Damien Elsdon 40 Yards, We could ask no more as he exceeded his PB by one yard.
Andy Imms 41 Yards, another PB this time by 2 yards.
It was a shame to see 8 go in just 9 yards but that is the cruelty of the Backyard format, it’s easy till it isn’t and it’s hard to predict what people will do. You do not get time to recover or treat an injury properly, I fixed a few blisters between laps and sometimes I barely had time to fix one foot or toe and do the others on the next lap. It may take you 2 laps to change both shoes if you have a couple of slow ones, it is oppressive and relentless. The sound of whistles at 3, 2 and 1 minute to go haunt you and the whistle to go signals another slow lap towards your demise of DNF or if the gods are with you the glory of victory.
This left us with the final 6.
These six headed toward the epic 200 mile in 48 hour distance with stoic resolve all now heading into PB territory.
All reached the 200 mile 48 hour distance which meant we went from 2 previous British runners to ever do this distance in a Backyard (Matt Blackburn and John Stocker) to a total of 8 including these 6! That is a pretty impressive stat and again shows how the races have grown and the standards improved.
Julie Bethune did not want go out on lap 49 but we bullied her into it as we know she would think back on it later and be annoyed she was listed as a RTC (refuse to continue) rather than the more honourable DNC ( did not complete). However along the loop she decided to take a nap on a bench and was awoken by two lovely ladies who brought her back to the start. 48 loops is a massive PB and she is already signed up for our summer race and wants to do more.
Down to 5 now, but only for one lap. Chris Spurling went out on Lap 50 but came back after a short while having nothing left in the tank.
At this point we were heading into the top 10 for team rankings but with only 4 now in the running there were many teams catching us who had more team members than us left. Amazingly Belgium had all 15 still running and the top 6 teams had only lost 1 or 2 people and as it’s 1 point for each yard done by each person they were racking up points ahead of us.
Thomas Hugon did not make it back in time on lap 50 and for a second Backyard it’s a pretty impressive result. His only other Backyard was the Highlander backyard in Scotland and he won that with 42. He has more in him once he masters the format. One to watch.
That leaves us the last 3 standing, all looking strong of mind if not of body!
Sarah had an ITB niggle and we had given her some deep heat and a massage gun to help her keep it from getting worse.
Alex had looked second hand from about lap 10 and always started stiff and clumsy looking but always kept going and was a new man by the end of the lap to just repeat again and again!
Wayne had been sick for much of the first half of the event with stomach issues and ilness but seemed to be holding it together. His feet were destroyed but he had switched to a manic looking Cleese-esq powerwalk to try to help alleviate the pain. It could be anyone’s at this point or nobody’s, the wheels had not fallen off anyone yet but they were far from round anymore!
Wayne hung on for 3 more laps and started yard 54 but did not make it 100 yards before he turned around and walked back head down. Considering how ill he had been earlier in the race it was an unbelievable performance and 45 yards was his previous best so this was a massive performance indeed.
Now down to two, a duel of epic proportions or a battle of survival. Only the runners really know how they feel and what they have left in the tank. They were both finishing yards in the late 50’s now with the odd burst of speed to try to snatch an extra minute or two of sleep or visit the toilet!
Eating by the start line became the norm to try to snatch precious seconds resting or off their feet.
The next 5 hours rolled by with both of them looking strong and not looking like they had any additional issues or weakness to show. We thought we would be there all through the night into the next day.
They both stepped out onto yard 59 and I went to bed in the van to snatch another 15 mins sleep as I had done all through both previous night so I could function…
… then it happened. Alex’s wife came and said he had messaged her and said he was done on the course and could not go another step. He had given everything and had no more to give, he could not even walk back to camp. I went out in the van to collect him. He was so frazzled that when I pulled up beside him he tried to use my van wing mirror as a door handle to get in!
Sarah returned to camp on time in just under 53 minutes and waited for Alex to appear. He did not and the whistles were blown to start lap 60 and Sarah was the winner.
Wins at Backyards always feel like an anticlimax and with both giving so much it inevitably means one person loses and one person wins and takes all the glory. Neither could have done the distance without the other but to the victor go the spoils I supposed and we offered a second place or any additional prizes/trophies that drive to win may be less and people would settle for a placing. It has to be all or nothing to push people to their best though this can feel harsh at times. They did both get a brand new Headtorch as a Last Male and Female Prize donated by Fenix Lighting. (Remember we have a discount code at the bottom of this page and on the website for 15% off)
I came back a few minutes later with Alex in a distinctly discombobulated state and congratulations and commiserations were voiced, Coins handed out and everyone went to bed for much needed rest!
It was really over after 59 hours and 245 miles.
Meanwhile the Belgians and others were still smashing out miles with most of their teams, the Belgians still had 8 running! There were still 10 teams running which is amazing considering Sarah had just done 245 miles in 59 hours on minimal rest.
There is no mercy
in big’s backyard
There is no good try
There is no almost
There is only success or failure
How did we do as a team vs 2022?
- We came 13th overall which is on the face of it the same ranking as last time, however it was really a massive improvement for the team in many ways compared to 2022.
- 13th out of 63 teams compared to 13th from 37 teams.
- 629 points (total yards run by the team) vs 486 in 2022
- 3 Women on the team vs 0 women in 2022 (though Sarah was invited in 2022 but work commitments prevented her attending) – This is about equal to the percentage of Women taking part in UK Backyards. (Currently 22.9% for next years SBYU) – These performances will only serve to increase participation.
- An increase in total winning distance to 59 yards from 47 yards in 2022
- 6 Runners over 200 miles/48 yards vs no runners over 48 hours in 2022 (only 8 runners from the UK have ever been over 48 hours, including these 6)
I think we did rather well, Rome was not built in a day and by the time we get to the 2026 Team Champs I can see those numbers getting even better. We are one of the top teams in the world.
Full and final team results are available on the Timing Monkey results page https://www.timingmonkey.co.uk/results/BYUWorldsGBR24/
Full team rankings – For the full spreadsheet click the link – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vQeFQKht6ubs8DY-hihRnYTq0e3kNI0tMfdooG47qUkJ_Pg3TQMer2_2K5PQxyFvf4P4KcgaE1RQL0M/pubhtml
A few thank-you’s
- The runners for coming and giving it your best and showcasing what talent we have in UK backyards.
- My amazing team of Marshals and event crew – You guys did all the heavy lifting
- High Lodge Thetford for the use of the site – It’s going to be amazing in 2025
- Film My Run for the Live Stream and various used race images
- Timing Monkey for the impeccable timing – Really top drawer as always.
- Our Sponsors – see below
If you fancy giving the backyard format a go we have 2 events next Summer open for entries.
The Suffolk Backyard Ultra June 7th 2025 – This is one of the largest BYU races in the world and will have up to 500 participants, it’s on the same course as this Champs race and will have free camping/food vendors/activities onsite for families and visitors and Live Streaming by a new Media team. It will also have the most competitive field in the UK with over half of this UK team already booked and Last years winner Lukasz (with 88 yards) and the UK race record holder from France (Claire Bannwarth) and two time Spine winner also racing. We expect big numbers at this event, maybe even close to that 100 yard mark?
Thetford Backyard Ultra – Same race just later in the Summer, September 13th – For those who can’t make the SBYU or want to do a more low key version with smaller numbers. Same setup but likely to be much less than the 500 expected at SBYU. We are also considering adding some other distances races on the same weekend including a Junior/Kids Backyard version. More of a festival feel planned at the late summer event.
We hope to see you at one of these races soon.
Oh and who won the Backyard Team World Champs?
Lindley
RD
Congratulations! Well done. Huge accomplishment.