Ep 37 - Kev’s Ultimate Guide To The Backyard Ultra In Half A Yard

Kev is currently running the Suffolk Backyard Ultra. (Saturday 1st June) The UK’s biggest and most competitive Backyard Ultra. By way of an introduction to this Ultra running niche  Kev gives you his ultimate guide in half a yard…you will get what that is by the end.

Kev is also asking for a small donation to his favourite charity Freetobekids. All you have to do is pledge a small amount of money per ‘Yard’, lap or hour by way of sponsorship. Please make your pledge by contacting Kev via any of the links below. Many thanks and enjoy.

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https://backyardultra.com/home-old/

https://challenge-running.com/suffolk-back-yard-ultra/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Hello all and welcome to episode 37 of AidStation. Of course, this is Kev once again. I hope you're well and your racing season is flying along. I'm recording this on Wednesday 29th of May, three days before the start of my next race, the Suffolk Backyard Ultra. My first Backyard Ultra. You will have been able to have listened to this episode today, which is Saturday the 1st of June, my race day. I thought it would add some interest to the very boring watch that is Backyard if I gave you some insight into the format itself. The problem is that it's likely to lead to a very boring next hour. If you're not already into geeky stats and backyard ultra running history. So you have been warned I might see you at the end or maybe I won't. It's a bit like the race itself, survival of the most moronic. For those that don't know what a backyard ultra is, I will describe the format and its young history. For those that do know what it is, it's going to be really annoying, because during my research obsession on the event, I've had to read and listen to this description at least twenty five times. Anyway, difficult to do this without the history and the rules of the race. So the only place to start is with Mr Gary Cantrell. Alias Lazarus Lake or Laz. Yep, same sadist that drepped up the Barclays Marathons. Apparently devised it while in college while looking to find out the ultimate test of running endurance that he could stage locally. However, he didn't get off the ground until 2011, when he eventually launched the event in his own 160 acre backyard. The main aim was to establish a format where there was only one winner, the last person still racing. All the other athletes or competitors being DNFs did not finish. This, as the main purpose of Mr Cantrell's format, to me is the key element. And I'm going to return to this later, because I have a small issue with some of the results. This is a small issue in a very small niche of Backyard Ultra, which is a very small part of the very small ultra running community. So not that controversial, but it might keep you listening. Let's get to the start and with the first event at Big Dog's Backyard Ultra or Biggs. The event is named after Laz's dog, who is called Big. Of course it is. It's Laz. The main device that Laz used was the benchmark ultra running achievement of 100 miles in 24 hours. This meant that he had a very precise course measuring 4.167 miles per lap to be completed each hour. So 24 times 4.167 miles equals 100 miles per day. This has to be repeated on the hour every hour until there is one person left running. All life's processes such as eating, drinking, passing waste and sleeping have to be done within this hour as well. So you can stop but the clock doesn't. To incorporate all of the above you have to move faster or do it on the run. Passing waste on the run is not recommended, and while I can attest to sleeping while running being possible, it's also going to end up very messy if you do. So you have to judge how fast you run each yard, hour, lap to allow time for your basic life skills. It's a simple race format with simple rules for competitors. One, you must be in the starting corral, which is a marked box big enough to hold everyone at the start, before the start of each hour, and you must leave the corral within 30 seconds after the starting signal on the hour. You must complete each yard or hour or lap inside one hour. If you do not achieve these two things, you're a DNF. For you cannot receive any support on the course. If you do, you're disqualified. You can only receive support in the designated crew support areas. Other than that, local rules may differ from race to race, like no hiking poles. As far as the competitor is concerned, that is it. As for the kit, the only compulsory bit of kit you need is a head torch, which you will be told to put on before dusk hour. If you have no intention of running in darkness, you won't need a head torch. As for clothing, well that's up to you. To ensure that you're able to stay safe and warm for an hour at a time in whatever the forecast conditions are. The reason I like the idea of this format is because I can without any guilt promote it to mid tobacco pack ultrarunners. Basically, this event format levels the playing field somewhat for you and I. As every hour on the hour we are at the head of the race. Now tell me another event where you can achieve this. If you can run at 14.5 minutes a mile, for 4.167 miles you can complete one yard. As the average walking pace is around 3 miles per hour, it's easy to see that you don't have to run all the way every lap. If you repeat this six times it's highly likely you have reached further than ever before. If you can repeat it for 12 hours you will have reached another great milestone, and if you can keep going for 24 hours you will have run a hundred miles in a day, which is a great achievement for any runner. I've not provided the metric equivalents as I'm too old and British and las being an American used the measuring system we gave them in the first place, plus the fact it would have broken the eloquent flow of my delivery. I digress. Of course, if you want to get serious about racing and winning a backyard, you have to go very, very long. As stated by Hannah Hall in Aid Station episode seventeen, which was about Lizzie Gatherer's first backyard attempt, that first twenty four hours is just a long warm up or a long run to the starting line. And to go very very long you have to have someone to go very very long with you. This is an important person called the assist. The assist is the last person to DNF. Now you see how carefully I worded that. They were not second. They, along with everyone else in the field, lost to the winner. But they were the last to lose to the winner, and as such are still a DNF. It's just that they were the one who pushed the winner all the way until they reached their own maximum. All assists do a great job and have a great race, and there are a few notable assists I would mention as I go through the episode. Right, let's have a look at the recent progress of the Backyard World Records. The backyard format started to get really noticed when Maggie Gushrall won the World Championships in 2019 with 60 yards or hours. Incidentally, I noticed the press kept reporting outright against her win. Very odd. That is the only way you can win a backyard is outright. Of course it's because she's female, but they don't write this when male wins the race. More on this later. More press came the event's way when Courtney DeWalter of the USA won the US satellite championships with sixty eight yards, but that was topped by Belgium's Carl Seebe, who ran 75 yards at Biggs World Championships in 2020. Carl is also a Barclays marathon finisher. Then in Suffolk in June 2021, John Stocker moved the record out to 81 yards, and in October of 2022, Mergin Geertz took it out to 90 yards at the Backyard Masters event held in Germany. Apologies to Mergin for my pronunciation. The next stage in the world record's progress is disputable in my opinion, and here's why I think this is. The aforementioned Mr Geertz, along with fellow Belgian Ivo Steart, broke the hundred yard barrier with 101 yards each in Belgium's Satellites Championships, but then both decided to drop out together. This made them both DNFs. Now tell me who else has ever set a world record while not finishing a race? Also, the whole point of the race is that there is only one finisher, or there's no finishers at all. Now I don't want to take anything away from what is an amazing feat of athletic endurance running, but I'm not sure how this distance got recognised as a world record. Anyway, I'll come back to this anomaly in the record keeping later. First, let's get through the world record. Belgium's double act record was wiped out by Australian Phil Gore, who ran 102 yards or 372 miles in 2022 at the Dead Cow Gully Race. This is a very significant milestone as it moved the record well into four day territory. Remember that 100 miles every day for four days continuously. That's quite a better running. I can't mention Phil Gore's record without mentioning the character that is Sam Harvey. Sam, a New Zealander, assisted Gore's record with 101 yards, but contributed so much more to my favourite ultrarunning film, and I have watched most of them. It's on YouTube and it's called Breaking Point, a Dead Cow Gully documentary. It's beautifully filmed and gives a great insight into what it takes to go very, very long in a backyard ultra, and I highly recommend that you look it up. Also, more on the controversial prize money element of that race a bit later, if you're still with me by then. Lastly and currently, we arrive at Harvey Lewis of the United States, the current world record holder with 108 yards, which is set at last year's World Championships. Harvey has a revered status in Backyard Ultra Arena, having won bigs the last twice, and has passed the four day mark in the backyards three times. I must also mention his amazing assist, Ehor Veras, a Canadian Ukrainian who of course covered 107 yards. That distance got Ehor into the Barclay Marathons this year, which he went on to complete as first finisher, which is an astounding performance as it was his first attempt at Barclay. This being the race that saw Jasmine Paris become the first female finisher ever. The British record progression is also interesting because not much notice was taken of backyards in the UK until John Stocker smashed the world record in Suffolk in June by seven hours, moving it out to 81 yards. John, an accomplished Ultra runner who has twice won the 250-mile Thames ring, was assisted by the 24 and 48 hour endurance specialist Matty Blackburn. John's 81 yards still stands as a UK record. According to the Backyard Ultra website, over 3,600 people have covered 24 hours or yards in the Backyard Ultra. But you have to have covered 81 yards or hours to get into the current all-time top 20. And only 8 people have ever covered more than 100 yards. So as you might expect, there is a big gap between those athletes achieving the longest times or distances and the masses who sit at or below 24 hours. But of course, everyone is going as far as they are able to and want to on that particular day at that particular time in their lives. Now just to finish at the sharp end, I will impart my opinion on where this is all going to end up. Pre-COVID commentary was around how amazing going 48 hours was. Two nights without sleep. This has brought a few of what I would call the long endurance specialist into the sport. These are the types that could be or are six-day races, a very rare breed of athlete who can really push themselves mentally and physically for days on end. I don't think we have seen some of one in the mould of Ianis Kioros, the great Greek six day ultrarunner from the nineties and early 2000s, have a go at the backyard format yet. Now I know that Kuros was a one off standout athlete at the time, but there will be someone soon who will make that six days possible. That is a hundred and forty-four yards or six hundred miles. So currently there is slack in there for another thirty six yards or a day and a half's running to be achieved. Of course it would have to be on a flat course in perfect running conditions, but those courses are already out there. Okay, as I said earlier, I have some alternative views on the format record setting and recording. It's clear from the all-time backyard world rankings that Laz is happy to record and recognise distances recorded by athletes who DNF. The only sport format that does as far as I can see. For me this goes against the premise that there is only one winner in each event and everyone else is non-counting as they did not finish. In my view, and to uphold the ethos of the ultimate challenge, the only counting distance for world national and course records should be those of the winner. Of course, all the other athletes can be given their yards or hours and distances as they will want them for personal achievement and provide future goals. I get that the recording of DNF performances is also important to the organisers. Obviously customers will want, expect, demand this service as part of their fee, and this should still happen, but a DNF is a DNF. This then leads me on to the gender discussion, as I believe it's related. There are some, mainly women out there, who believe that the format is unfair on women athletes, and that they should have their own recognised race within a race. It's quite clear from the outset that this is a last person standing foot race competition. As I read the rules of the format, that is any person by the way. It seems you can identify as whatever gender or non gender orientation you like as long as you identify as human. So any human, not under the influence of drugs or banned substances obviously, can enter and win a backyard ultra. Almost the moment the Barclay Mariston's finished, as is his wont, Laz set off on a three thousand mile hike across a big chunk of the USA. While on this walk, he was alerted to this topic on Facebook, and here is his response. I quote Periodically it has been expected to get some grief because backyard ultras must have a women's division. Everything in the world must have a women's division. It seems always to be women advocates who have no actual knowledge or experience of backyard ultras, men who fashion themselves as women's advocates based on the belief that women are inherently inferior to men in all things. I reject that belief. I am also disappointed that more women are not at Biggs this year. But the reality is that mostly reflects a smaller number of women want to spend two years qualifying for it. There are already disproportionate number of opportunities for women who want to compete than for men. Last year at Western States, two hundred and ninety six men ran and eighty three women. In the interests of equality, the top ten in each category were recognised. One for every eight women and one for every thirty men. I'm not criticizing, but pointing out that there is much greater opportunity for women than men in ultras across the board, while there are fewer women wanting to compete than there are men. I think Backyard presents a unique opportunity for athletes who are not the youngest, fastest or strongest, and this includes women. It includes Harvey Lewis with two World Championships over all comers. It includes Maggie Gusserall, the one world championship over all comers. It includes Jennifer Russo, a woman who has twice made it to the World Championships in her fifties because she has set out that goal. At fifty seven she set the mark for the longest backyard done by any woman. It includes already this year two women who have won silver tickets to make it to the US team, defending world champions by the way, against all comers. It includes my friend Fanny Jean, who has set her goal to make the Belgian team against all comers. For an athlete it is the pursuit that is the reward, not the prize. People who want to simply throw a lot of women in whether they have pursued this goal or not and call it equality are not advocates for women. They are perpetuating the belief that women are inferior to men in all things. They would have taken away the opportunity for women to have set big goals in the backyard and achieved them. I guess it's the easy way out. No one would criticize me or misquote me to make me out to be a demon. I could go along with the mob, but it's not the right thing to do. The backyard is a place for every runner to seek their limits, not a place to come up with ways to give out more rewards. I would not trade the joy I see in the faces of the women athletes who prove themselves and the world that they can play with anyone in the backyard for avoiding a little grief from the peanut gallery. I was taught that we should always do the right thing, whether it's popular or not. So I leave it all there with Laz. I think he's covered it. Let's get back to the sport. Worldwide there are sixty countries listed as having national champions, the strongest nations in depth being the USA, Australia, Japan and Belgium. Athletes in each country have the opportunity to gain a place in the World Championships, which are held biannually via their satellite champs, which are held in the October of each year preceding the World Championships or Big Dogs. These are national team events with each team comprising 15 runners. To get to the SAT champs you can qualify via what is known as a silver ticket event, which Suffolk is one of the four in the UK. The others being Rasselbok, which was held in April in Sherwood Forest, with the silver ticket at that event being Mike Raffan with 42 yards or hours. The Highlander which is staged in July at Blair Athol Castle in Pitlockery, Scotland, and finally the Pig on the Hill held in October on the Pen Lynn Peninsula in North Wales. Besides the four UK silver tickets, there is what is known as the At Large, and each nation has a separate one of these. This is a list of people who have covered the longest distances in backyard events registered with Laz's Backyard Ultra Organisation. So if the four UK silver ticket holders take up the places on the national team, then there remains eleven places made up from the highest ranking and order of the at large list. Currently eleventh place on the UK at large list stands at 38 yards. Of course, three more silver ticket events are to go, and all may change. Also, it may not. I say this because if you're really, really sad you delve into the stats on these events, and they show that Suffolk last year only eight competitors covered more than thirty seven yards, and of those eight, only half were British. So although the times and distances at the sharp end are huge, it's a very small proportion that are doing those distances. The improvement endurance ability of the competitors in the race format is best demonstrated by the qualifying standard needed to get into the 2023 World Championships. There were 75 places and the 75th competitor who came off the at large list at a qualifying distance of 73 laps. Of course, there are some competitors who qualified by winning their country's satellite championships with less distance. Covered in 73, but they still had to beat everyone else in their nation on that day. Well, days weighted much more than the physical as the mental side of these events. And I love that slow people with mental toughness have the same chance as fast people who don't. In fact, not sure why fast people would ever do the event. Now there are many quotes around the event format, and one of them from Laz is being the hardest yard is the one from the chair to the start line. My view on it is that someone is always moving the finish line away from you. It is a race with no known end. That is unless you set yourself a pre-race target. Now there is nothing wrong with aiming for your milestones. If you want to achieve your furthest time ever, say twelve hours, or longest distance, say a hundred miles, but these targets are both self-fulfilling and self-defeating if you intend to win. The field size is 271, and there I think there are 58 women and 113 men entered into the race. I am joining uh Paul Telford and his lovely wife Fran, who I met on the Dragonsback race. Paul has purchased a four-man tent, and I'm pitching up with them and a mate of Paul's, and that's very kind of them. They live actually near Ipswich in Suffolk, so uh they've got about an hour to go from the course, so it should be uh really useful for me to be able to go around with them and have a bit of a laugh with Mr. Telford. Let's have a look at the list of the main contenders at Suffolk. I'm gonna list them in order of their winning or DNF PBs. We start with three runners who have all gone 89 yards, which is pretty flippin' amazing for uh one race in the UK. Starting with last year's Suffolk winner Ariel Izaru from Spain, uh Catalonia and Spain, who achieved 82 yards and set a new course record there. This qualified him for bigs or the world championships, where he went on to improve his PB to 89 yards. Also on 89 yards is Keith Rossell of Ireland, who ran this distance at the Backyard Masters in Germany in 2022. The third athlete on 89 yards is J. V. Tolentino, a Filipino based in Ireland who ran this distance at Biggs last year. In outright fourth place is UK champion John Stocker, who achieved his PB of 81 yards when setting the world record in 2021 at Suffolk, as I've already said. I've ranked him outright fourth as he won the event and was also the world record holder at the time. You see what I mean about winners versus DNFs. Fourth ranking is Henrik Bouray, the assist from last year at Suffolk, and he's also returning. Hendrick's PB is eighty-one yards achieved during that assist. But I think he's got a lot more to give yet. Fifth is Matthew Blackburn, who ran 80 yards to assist John Stocker when setting that world record, which is now the British record. And sixth is the current Italian champion Antonio Di Mano, with 76 yards, again set at Biggs last year. Seventh is Lucas Vorbal, who some consider an unknown dark horse, having achieved 70 yards at his first backyard attempt in his homeland in Poland. However, according to the brilliant DUV Endurance Race Statistics site, he has won the Taipei 100K Ultra and the Connemara International Ultra in Ireland, and he's been racing since 2013. So he's clearly not that dark a horse and is clearly targeting the Suffolk field to go a long way. And finally ranking eight is Claire Banworth, who set the then French record of 61 yards again at Suffolk last year. Claire is a prolific ultra racer and has already covered over 1,500 miles in races this year, including finishing fifth overall for the second time at the spine race this year. She has already achieved forty three yards at a backyard in France in March this year. Pah over raced, I hear you say. Don't bank on it. Claire will be the most consistent runner with her lap times, taking between fifty-two and fifty-seven minutes every lap. She has the most disciplined ultra racing strategy of them all. So how do I think it'll go? Well I think that the race will be won somewhere in the nineties hours or yard region. I don't think the hundred mile mark or world record will be reached. This said, if a pair do get to the hundred mark, they will definitely have a crack at the 109 yards that would set a new world record. I think the pair that sound like a couple of solicitors, Stockle and Blackburn, will pair up to take the race to the rest. I wouldn't mind betting that they've already been discussing it. I also think that Mac Blackburn's friendship with Henrik Borray that developed at Suffolk last year when Matt crewed for Hendrick will be interesting. Matt and Henrik are relatively young guys who could push each other a very long way, and as I said, Hendrik has more to deliver. Sticking my neck out I'm going with Henrik to reverse the result from last year over Arriel, and for a reason I have not touched on yet, Henrik was disqualified on lap sixty one at Biggs last year, as he forgot his timing chip when he started the loop. I think he will want to redeem himself and be very determined to put that behind himself. As for me, I have two whys. One is to go as far as I possibly can and get timed out, finding the limit of my endurance. I will not DNF in the chair. I entered this race almost a year ago with the sole aim of finding my limit, and that remains my goal. My second why is to raise money for my favourite charity free to be kids, who improve the lives of very troubled inner city children in London. And they do this by getting the children out into nature. I'm asking people to sponsor the old fashioned way. Buy the yard or the hour or the lap. This means you get to have a guess at how far you think I can go, which adds a lot of fun and interest into the dot watching process while also providing great motivation for me. If you pledge, say ten pence per hour and I did fifty hours, it would cost you a fiver. That's all. It's simple. Please just drop me a pledge and once I've finished I will then ask you to pay your donation based on what I've achieved to my Enthuse fundraising page. To send me a pledge, use any of these contact places for me. Email Kevin Muntfifty Seven at gmail.com, that's all one word. Kevin Muntfifty seven at gmail.com Look me up on Facebook, just look for Kevin Munt. There aren't many of us, and certainly there's only one who runs as far as I do. Also Instagram at KevPix57. That's kevpicksfifty seven or one word, or aid station Ultra all one word. I've got two accounts on there. I will leave these contacts in the podcast show show notes below so that you can look them up there as well. So that completes my complete comprehensive guide to the Backyard Ultra format. So you can now check out the Timing Monkey website or Challenge Ultra's web page for the Suffolk Backyard Ultra to see how we're all getting on, because we are literally all running round at the moment. And Timing Monkey will give you the live timings. Now if you found this at all interesting, you should check out the only podcast I could find dedicated to Backyard Ultrarunning. Weirdly, it's called Backyard Ultrarunning Podcast or BYU, and it's hosted by an Aussies called Pato. The Aussies seem to be mad about this racing format, and Pato has had on most of the top exponents of the format. Oh that reminds me, earlier this month the Dead Cal Gully event put up a prize winner's purse of$10,000 Australian dollars, which was won by Sam Harvey of New Zealand with 69 hours. As these events are normally very low key, as an example, Suffolk gave£250 to the winner, which was originally supposed to help with the travel to the world championships, I think. So it shows that the Dead Cal Gully organisers are really trying to attract the best in the sport and move it in the direction of professionalism. I make no further comment. I'll leave it there. Needless to say, I'll be back with a series of interviews and race commentaries from the Suffolk Backyard Ultra twenty twenty four. So until then, this is Kev saying thanks for listening. Please don't forget to pledge me something towards the Free to Feet Kids charity, and bye for now.