Big's Backyard Ultra Explained

Big's Backyard Ultra is the original backyard ultra, invented by Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell of Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Participants run a 4.167-mile loop every hour, and are eliminated if they fail to complete a loop in an hour. The path of the loop is on trails during the day and along a road after dark. The distance of each loop is equal to 100 divided by 24, so that a competitor runs 100 miles for a full day of competition. There is no predefined finish. The winner is the competitor who completes a loop that no other competitors complete. If no competitor outlasts every other competitor, there is no winner.^[1]

Past results

Year	Winner [2]	Laps	Assist	Notes
2011	Tim Englund	18	Dave Carver
2012	Joe Fejes	28	Marcy Beard
2013	Tim Englund	35	Keith Knipling
2014	(no winner)	49	Johan Steene / Jeremy Ebel	Both runners dropped out after 49 loops.
2015	(race not held)
2016	Babak Rastgoufard	29	Andy Pearson
2017	Guillaume Calmettes	59	Harvey Lewis
2018	Johan Steene[3]	68	Courtney Dauwalter
2019	Maggie Guterl[4]	60	William Hayward	First female winner.
2020	Courtney Dauwalter[5]	68	Harvey Lewis	U.S. winner.
2021	Harvey Lewis[6]	85	Chris Roberts
2022	Piotr Chadovich[7]	76	Harvey Lewis
2023	Harvey Lewis[8]	108	Ihor Verys	World record.[9]
2024	Scott Snell[10]	88	Megan Eckert	Female world record.[11]

See also

• Barkley Marathons

Notes and References

1. News: Justin . Goulding . Big Dog's Backyard Ultra: The toughest, weirdest race you've never heard of . . 21 April 2021 . 23 April 2021 .
2. Web site: Backyard Stats . March 28, 2020 .
3. Web site: Big's Backyard Ultra, 10/20/2018-10/25/2018 . 2022-06-27 . my.raceresult.com . en.
4. Web site: Big's Backyard Ultra, 10/19/2019-10/25/2019 . 2022-06-27 . my.raceresult.com . en.
5. Web site: Big's Backyard Ultra, 10/17/2020-10/23/2020 . 2022-06-27 . my.raceresult.com . en.
6. Web site: Potter. Alex. 2021-10-20. Harvey Lewis is the Last Person Standing at the 2021 Big Dog's Backyard Ultra. 2021-10-20. iRunFar.
7. Web site: Mock . Justin . This Week In Running: October 24, 2022 . irunfar.com . 25 October 2022 . October 24, 2022.
8. Web site: Big's Backyard Ultra, 10/21/2023-10/25/2023 . 2023-10-25 . my.raceresult.com . en.
9. Web site: Brady . Sarah . 2023-10-25 . 2023 Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Results: Harvey Lewis Wins After 108 Hours, 450 Miles of Running . 2023-10-26 . iRunFar . en.
10. Web site: Big's Backyard Ultra, 10/19/2024-10/22/2024 . 2024-11-14 . my.raceresult.com.
11. Web site: 2024-11-08 . Superstar Meg Eckert Crushes Ultra Running Race with World-Record . 2024-11-15 . Adventure On SI . en-US.