Running in Circles
by Doug Stewart
This week saw Big’s Backyard Ultra taking place, an ultramarathon in which competitors start a new loop of 4.167 miles on the hour, every hour. You are not allowed to start the loop early, you must wait, and only start on the hour. And if you are not in the starting area at the beginning of the next lap, you are disqualified. The lap distance is calculated so that in 24 hours you run 100 miles.
Harvey Lewis (left) and Ihor Verys (right) late in the race at the 2023 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra. Photo: Mike Trimpe - c/o of irunfar.com
The Backyard Ultra format was created in 2011 by Lazurus Lake (one of the founders of the Barkley Marathons) and was named after his dog, Big. It is now an invitational event where winners of backyard ultras from around the world get invited to compete. A kind of unofficial world championships.
The winner is the last man or woman standing, that runs one lap more than the last person to drop out. For example, if after 24 laps there were two runners remaining, and both stopped after the 25th lap, there is no winner. If one fails to finish the 25th lap in the allowed one hour time, there is a winner. However, if both finish lap 25 but one runner stops (does not show up in the start pen at the beginning of the next lap) – the other runner must complete one more lap within the hour to win. If they fail to do this, there is no winner.
The increase in winning distances run is incredible. In 2011, the first year, it was 18 laps, followed by 28, 35 and then 49 (although, in the year two people completed 49 laps, no one completed 50, so there was no winner). By 2017, the winning distance was 59 laps, then 68 in 2018. 2021 saw 85 laps to win, with a slight decrease to 76 in 2022.
In other backyard events, the record was set at 101 laps in 2022 (jointly set by two Belgian runners – again no winner), before it was increased to 102 laps in 2023 at a backyard ultra in Australia.
At this year’s Big’s Backyard event, 8 runners completed 96 laps = 400 miles. Like in all areas of ultra running, the depth and level of competition is improving. The average lap time for these runners after 96 laps ranged from 46 minutes to 53 minutes. So, they were taking between 14 and 7 minutes to rest and reset before the next lap.
At lap 97, one runner dropped, leaving 7 on lap 98, then over the next 10 laps the runners dropped leaving Harvey Lewis, the 2021 winner, to run the 108th lap by himself and win the 2023 edition and setting a new World Record. That is 450 miles/724km in 108 hours (of which he was on the course for 94 hours and 16 minutes – an average lap time of 52 minutes and 22 seconds).
It is worth noting that for these records to be set, it takes at least 2 runners pushing the eventual winner, so in earlier editions, the distance ran was influenced by the runner that stopped one lap prior.
How many more laps could Harvey have done this year if another runner had completed 108?