Then came Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra. Taking place in October, Dauwalter made headlines by covering a distance of 279 miles in three days. The brutal Tennessee-based event has one basic rule, as simple as it is punishing: The last one running wins. In a Sports Illustrated interview, Boone explained her sugar-fueled fitness routine: “I. Dec 31, 2019 This past weekend I had the great honor of running my 6th Big Dog's Backyard Ultra. Basic concept is a 4.16667 mile race every hour, and you must toe the line or be eliminated. The last runner standing is the winner and everyone else a DNF.
- Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated 2017
- Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Reviews
- Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Cover
- Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Free
The backyard ultra is a form of ultramarathon race where competitors must consecutively run the distance of 6706 meters (4.167 miles) in less than one hour. When each lap is completed, the remaining time within the hour is typically used to recover for the next hour's race.
Description[edit]
Exactly one hour after a backyard ultra's first starting time, the competitors run an additional 6706 meters with a one-hour window for completion. These distance loops are repeated hourly. The race ends when the last runner or runners either concede or fail to finish the distance within the allotted time frame.[1][2]
The distance the runners race each hour is set at miles or 6705.6 meters, which is then rounded up to 6706 meters. The total distance run by a competitor who completes 24 laps is exactly 100 miles. Backyard ultra races are usually held on a loop measuring 6706 meters, though in Sweden some have been held on a 400-meter track.[3]
If no competitor manages one more lap than the others, then all athletes receive a DNF and there is no winner. In Sweden, the fastest to complete the previous lap is deemed the winner.
The longest distance recorded by a competitor in a backyard ultra event is 68 laps or 283.335 miles by Johan Steene at Big's Backyard Ultra in October 2018.[4] The longest distance recorded by a female competitor in a backyard ultra event is 67 laps by Courtney Dauwalter at Big's Backyard Ultra in October 2018.[4]
Guillaume Calmettes has completed the most 200+ mile finishes at 3, while Peter Cromie holds the record for most 100+ mile finishes at 7 (4 at 100, 2 at 150 and 1 at 200)[5]
In May 2019, Katie Wright became the first woman to win a backyard ultra event.[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Sweden Runners - ÄBU 2017'. swedenrunners.se. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
- ^'Big Backyard Ultra - October 15, 2016'. ultrasignup.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
- ^'Ultrafestival - Team Ultrasweden LK - Friidrott - IdrottOnline Klubb'. ultrasweden.se. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
- ^ abPearson, Andy (October 31, 2018). 'Big's Backyard Ultra Gets Bigger and Bigger'. Trail Runner. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^'BYU Lists'. Google Docs. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
- ^'Running Doctor Scores World First For Women'. newsroom.co.nz. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
![Sports Sports](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125539476/894337036.jpg)
![Dog Dog](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125539476/733928559.jpg)
Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated 2017
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Backyard_ultra&oldid=922387602'
Courtesy of Sports Illustrated
A few months before the 2019 World Cup, Sports Illustrated producer and podcaster Jessica Smetana ’16 was brainstorming how she was going to spend the two hours she had with U.S. women’s national team player Julie Ertz.
As the showrunner for SI TV’s The Wilder Project, hosted by her colleague and friend, Charlotte Wilder, Smetana wanted to showcase the soccer star during her appearance without doing anything physical — couldn’t risk Ertz getting injured — or resorting to a typical sit-down interview. “Too boring,” Smetana says.
After some deliberation, they opted to visit an artisanal cheese shop in Chicago for a World Cup-themed taste test. France vs. USA: Cheese Edition. “It was such a fun day,” Smetana says.
For Smetana, who also co-hosts the Most Valuable Podcast, those kinds of days aren’t so rare. Her projects have included an in-depth ranking of the six-and-a-half Lids stores in the Mall of America and, this September, a feature on Notre Dame’s leprechaun corps.
“This is the original ‘backyard’ race . . . and the format is to create maximum torture for the runners.”
Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Reviews
Most recently, she traveled to Nashville to cover Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra marathon. I asked Smetana about that experience as part of a Q&A that will appear in the magazine’s winter issue. In the full interview, Smetana talks about her work, the recent round of layoffs at Sports Illustrated and life as a fan of both Notre Dame and Clemson (where she spent her freshman year).
Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Cover
In the meantime, here’s her take on Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra:
Jessica Smetana: So, this is the original “backyard” race. And this guy, his name is Gary Cantrell, but his alias is Lazarus Lake — like, he made up an alias for himself — he puts on multiple ultra marathons each year, and this one is in his actual backyard, and the format is to create maximum torture for the runners. The runners get an hour to run a four-mile loop and they have to finish the loop within an hour. So, if you run a really fast loop, you get 20 minutes of rest. If you run a slower loop, you get three minutes of rest. It goes on until the last runner standing basically. It looked terrible. The woman who won this year, Maggie [Guterl], ran 250 miles and didn’t sleep for two nights. It’s a really fascinating race format. . . . You can be the fastest person in the world but it doesn’t really matter because you need to have endurance, and you need to be mentally tough enough to keep running. So, basically, age and gender don’t matter at all. The second to last person to go out was [Will Hayward], a 51-year-old man from Hong Kong, and Maggie is a 39-year-old woman from Colorado. And there was a 59-year-old woman who lasted 24 hours, and there were 29-year-old people that were out before the 59-year-old people, it was really insane. It was really intense and fun to cover, and very different from what I’m used to. It’s so interesting to see — like if you saw these people in street clothes, they’re not 6-foot-6, 300-pound Zion Williamson, but they’re just as athletic. It’s just a different type of athleticism.
Big Dog's Backyard Ultra Sports Illustrated Free
Rachel O’Grady is a marketing analyst currently based in Atlanta.