Amanda Nelson breaks own national backyard ultra record on her final Big’s lap
By completing her 57th loop at Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship, the Woodstock, Ont., athlete has run farther than any Canadian female in the race format's history
Ultrarunner Amanda Nelson has broken her own Canadian backyard ultra record after finishing her 57th and final lap at Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championship in Bell Buckle, Tenn.
The 35-year-old from Woodstock, Ont., completed the milestone loop just after 4:55 p.m. ET on Monday. She was one of 36 competitors still in the race as it entered its 57th hour. Ihor Verys is the sole Canadian still in the race. Quebec’s Eric Deshaies, the third Canadian who toed the start line at Big’s Saturday morning, tapped out after returning to the start on the 37th yard after running nearly 215 kilometres.
The backyard ultra format requires participants to start one 6.706-km “yard” (loop) every hour on the hour until all runners but one either voluntarily drop out or fail to complete a loop. (Backyard racing is designed so that theoretically, runners can complete the 100-mile distance in 24 hours.) Once all other competitors are out of the race, the remaining runner must complete one final lap, making any record attempt both a team effort and an individual one. (Then they are obliged to stop, and the race is over.)
In completing the 57th lap—a distance of 382.242—Nelson tops the 375.51 kilometre record she set over 56 hours at the Race of Champions-Backyard Masters in Rettert, Germany, in May.
“I just wanted to beat what I did last time,” she told Canadian Running after her record-setting run in Germany, where she topped her previous record of 55 yards. “I had to get to that 56 no matter what it took and I felt really fit and ready to do it.”
Nelson told Canadian Running last week that she thought the fact the Big’s has different “day” and “night” courses would work in her favour.
“Mentally, I think with the two different loops at Big’s, it will be something to look forward to. Every single backyard I’ve done has been the same loop. I feel like that will be helpful because in Germany, I just didn’t want to do that loop anymore. But if I had the option of doing a different loop when I was there, maybe I would have been able to convince myself to push through because it would be different soon.”
Nelson’s latest record adds to an impressive list of accomplishments in an ultra career that began only a few years ago. She holds the women’s 12-hour Canadian record (135.072 km), the 100-mile Canadian record (14:45:51) and the 24-hour Canadian record (248.985 km).
Thirty-three runners headed out for their 58th loop at 5 p.m. ET.
How to follow
For the official site, click here. There are several ways to follow the action, which began Saturday at 8 a.m. ET (7 a.m. local time): there’s a public Facebook group (click here), a livestream (click here, and keep watching past the preview), and you can follow Canadian Running on X (formerly Twitter)–click here.
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