Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships start Saturday in Tennessee
Three Canadians will compete at the race founded by Barkley Marathons race director Lazarus Lake
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backyard_ultra
Big’s Backyard Ultra Individual World Championships are set to begin Saturday, starting at 7 a.m. local time in Short Creek, Tenn. The much-anticipated event will have 50 national champions from around the world competing, plus 25 additional top backyard ultra racers from the past two years (totalling 75 runners). Three Canadians will be compete to be the last runner standing: Ihor Verys of Chilliwack, B.C., Eric Deshaies of Gatineau, Que., and Amanda Nelson of Woodstock, Ont.
The backyard ultra format, which can go on for days, 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. (This standard loop distance is specifically designed so that runners can complete 100 miles in 24 hours.) Any time remaining between finishing one yard and starting the next may be spent resting, eating, changing gear, etc., but all runners must start the next yard on time to remain in the race. Once all other competitors are out of the race, the last remaining runner must complete one final lap, making any record attempt a “team” effort as well as an individual one.
Repeatedly running a 6.706-km loop in under an hour may not sound particularly difficult, until you factor in the terrain–the Big’s course is on a hilly singletrack trail with 144 m of elevation gain, switching to a road course at night–and the astronomical number of laps (referred to as “yards”) accumulated by the leaders in this race format.
The world record for backyard ultras is 102 yards, or a jaw-dropping 684 km, set by Phil Gore of Australia on June 17 at the Dead Cow Gully Backyard Ultra in Queensland. The course record at Big’s is 85 yards (570 km), set by Ohio’s Harvey Lewis in 2021.
Meet the Canadian currently rocking Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships
The Canadians
Leading the pack is Verys, 28, who is the current Canadian national champion. Originally from Ukraine and now based in Chilliwack, B.C., Verys ran a backyard-ultra personal best of 67 loops, or just under 450 kilometres, while competing for Canada at the Backyard Ultra World Team Championships in Summerland, B.C., last October. In August, Verys shot to the top of the podium at the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache, Alta., finishing the 118K course in 12:36:11—just 16 minutes shy of the course record. Verys has been toppling podiums across the country, notably taking first place at Fat Dog 120 in the B.C. wilderness in 2022.
“Excitement and nervousness—I’m feeling a little bit of both,” Verys told Canadian Running when we reached him last week, adding that he was dealing with some injuries and had to cancel some races last month. “I’ve done a few long runs feeling OK, but I don’t know how it’s going to be, say, 24 hours in, because you can’t really train for that, right? Other than that, my body feels good. I think I’m ready. So long as the old injury doesn’t flare up, I think we’re all set.”
He adds that pacing is crucial in this format, and that he intends to alternate between running and hiking. “The whole point of this format is conserving energy as much as possible, so you can go further and further,” he says, pointing out that on such a technical course, records are unlikely, but not beyond the realm of possibility.
Deshaies, 50, a veteran ultrarunner from Gatineau, Que., racked up his personal best of 66 yards—just over 442 km—while giving Verys the crucial assist at last year’s Backyard Ultra World Team Championships. He was the last Canadian standing at the 2021 individual world championships in Tennessee, where he finished 50 yards (335 km). He’s earned top-10 finishes at races like Moab 240, Badwater 135 and The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler.
“I try to run sleep deprived, or on very tired legs,” Deshaies told us when asked how he trains for a backyard ultra, adding that he considers the backyard ultra, marathons and ultras he has raced this year as training for this event.
Nelson, 35, will be looking to build on a string of sensational performances, including at this year’s Persistence Backyard Ultra near London, Ont., where she completed 32 yards (just under 215 km) to successfully defend her championship (she ran 33 yards at the inaugural event in 2022). In May, she broke her Canadian women’s backyard ultra record by running 375.51 km over 56 hours at the Race of Champions-Backyard Masters in Rettert, Germany. Nelson holds the women’s 12-hour Canadian record (135.072 km), the 100-mile Canadian record (14:45:51) and the 24-hour Canadian soil record (227.33 km).
And while there are no gender or age categories in backyard ultra racing, Nelson holds the most yards of any Canadian woman, at 56. “I like how it doesn’t matter if you’re fast or slow, you all run together,” says Nelson, when asked about the differences between the backyard format and a conventional ultra. “You all have the same time limit. Some people might be elite, some people might not, but we can all compete, and the underdog could end up winning.”
How to follow
For the official site, click here. There are several ways to follow the action, which begins 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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