God’s Own Backyard Ultra

A “backyard ultra” is a Last Person Standing ultra marathon format where runners complete a 4.167-mile loop (‘yard’) every hour, on the hour, until only one runner remains. The winner is the last runner to complete a lap, with all others having either stopped, or failed to finish a lap within the 60-minute time limit. The full rules are listed here. Key points include the hourly starts (i.e. no late starts allowed), completing each loop within the hour, and being unable to leave the course except for a toilet break. Runners cannot use artificial aids like running poles, and outside assistance is only allowed between loops. The format was created by Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell, also creator of the Barkley Marathons, in Tennessee. BYU has become increasingly popular and there are races all over the world. The current male and female world records are 119 yards (495.8 miles) held by Phil Gore (Australia) and 95 laps (395.8 miles) held by Sarah Perry (UK).

Leeds has its very own race, God’s Own Backyard Ultra, which is held twice a year, in May and November. Race HQ is at Hunter’s Greave Scout Centre near Kirkstall Forge station. There is a day and a night route: the day route uses the Leeds to Liverpool canal towpath before taking you into the woodland of Bramley Fall Park and back to Hunters Greave. The relentless night loop is along the canal on a tarmac path. Due to the very wet underfoot conditions the day route was changed slightly from the normal one, leaving out some fields and replacing them with road, this meant that on the day route there was about 2.5 miles on towpath and road and 1.5 miles  (very muddy and slippery) off-road. With the night route being all tarmac it made for a lot of impact on the feet, legs and joints.

Another runner from my club Ilkley Harriers, Alan Travis, had entered the race, and together with our crew we had managed to bag a table together in the marquee. It was crowded in there, though many runners had tents or gazebos it appeared the bad weather the night before had put some people off setting up camp, opting for the marquee instead. We were glad we had brought our stuff down the evening before to ‘reserve’ a spot. The trudge through the Leeds rush hour traffic had been worth it. Friday night had also been the only time where you could bring the car down all the way to race HQ, avoiding having to carry gear from the weekend’s official parking area at Kirkstall Forge station.

I had tried the BYU format once before, about 15 months ago, on a very hilly event in North Wales, the ‘Pig on the Hill’, where I soon found it was too difficult for me due to the elevation of the course as well as the uneven ground. Whilst I was managing to complete the yards in good time, I had to expend too much energy to do so, and I stopped after 6 yards (25 miles), having also had a nasty fall on the uneven terrain. I am pretty sure I broke one or two ribs, though I did not realise that at the time, but deduced it from the level of pain, and the time it took to heal afterwards! I thought I would find a flatter BYU more manageable, and I set out on Saturday morning with the conviction that I should be capable of at least getting to 24 hours (100 miles). After all, I have run much further when it comes to both distance and time. And whilst I have never run 100 miles in 24 hours I have managed 50 in 12 hours a few times on much more challenging terrain. I tried to not set myself a goal and just planned to go on until the body gave up and I could no longer complete the distance inside the hour. I did not consider it a realistic possibility that my mind would give up before my body. Well, it turned out my expectations were well off the mark!

84 runners started the event at 8 am. The torrential rain from the previous night had thankfully eased off, leaving us with a damp and drizzly grey day. The forecast predicted the rain to stop during the afternoon, this didn’t materialize, but all in all the weather was not too bad for mid-November. There would be 8 day loops to run first of all. On the whole I quite enjoyed these. The off-road section in the woods was very muddy and you had to be careful of tree roots hidden under the thick blanket of leaves, but it was still very runnable, and it provided a nice bit of variety. I chatted to a few local runners whom I knew already, including Andy Wilson who eventually was to be the assist (2nd placed runner) with 40 yards. I met Eleanor Gallon, who has run every single edition of the GOBYU and who would end up being the last woman standing with 34 yards completed. Eleanor then introduced me to Iain Bethune, Scottish ultra running and BYU legend, who would go on to win the event with 41 yards. (full results) I had already spotted Iain (he had won Pig on the Hill too so I had seen him before) and I tried to run/walk in a similar pattern to him, thinking I could do worse than follow the example from the master! If anyone is after any BYU tips there are plenty to find in Iain’s blog.

At 4pm we started the night loops which are on the canal towpath, basically a mile out and back in each direction, passing the camp at the 2 mile mark. To get from the path that runs along the camp onto the towpath there is a bit of a climb, at the western end this involved crossing a grassy field which was a complete quagmire and quite tricky to negotiate, especially on the way back down. After two loops of this we were all delighted to be told we would be going up on the road instead (by the Abbey Inn, for those familiar with the location). This made life a lot easier. There were two marshals out on bikes looking after us, by indicating the turns on the towpath at either end, and by following the last runner. There can be some odd characters hanging around the canal after dark so I was glad of this. Though the only one I encountered was a lone cyclist, without any lights or hi-viz gear, coming towards and through us runners complaining loudly of ‘f**king joggers jogging in the dark’. Considering we were all wearing headtorches and hence were very visible, and he was constituting the danger by being invisible, none of us could see what his problem was!

After only a couple of night loops I already felt doubts creeping in about me making it through the night. I love running in the dark, and I have done winter ultras with very long nights, so that in itself was not new to me. And I have run for hours in the dark without seeing anything, for instance in thick fog on the North York Moors. That was tough, but at least I knew I was travelling from A to B even though I could not see it. But now the sheer pointlessness of running yet not arriving anywhere was getting to me, which I had not expected. I was getting a bit tired, but was still running fine, yet the thought of having to run these loops until daybreak became almost unbearable. I took my headphones (bone-conducting so you can still hear what’s happening around you) out with me on the next yard and started to listen to some podcasts, this definitely helped. I told my friend Gill, who was crewing for me, not to put her tent up (which she had brought in case she wanted some sleep) as I wasn’t going to make it through the night. My mind was gradually caving in. The biggest problem was that my heart was not in it. I had not foreseen how hard I would find it to run around in loops without ‘getting anywhere’. All I desperately wanted to do was to go home and go to bed.

I had started with a cold on Wednesday night, and whilst it did not feel bad enough to can the race (though that might have been wise considering it got a lot worse after the event), I wasn’t at my best and the physical exertion made it worse I think. As the hours passed I started to feel less good with a roaring sore throat. Still, I think without the cold I might not have done any better, it just made the whole thing more unpleasant.

We were not running together, but after every yard I saw Alan in the marquee of course, on the other side of ‘our’ table. Alan and I felt pretty similar about the race as time went on. When I was on my 15^th yard I decided to either stop on my return to camp, or run one more if Alan was running a 16^th. 48 runners had already stopped by that point, so at least we were well in the ‘top half’. We decided to make it 16 and finish, or rather DNF (did not finish), to use the correct terminology, at midnight. We had run 66.67 miles. We gave in our timing chips, received a goody bag including our DNF mug, and had our picture taken next to the sign which is updated every yard with distance covered and number of runners left. I felt completely broken, much more so than after various much longer races that I have done. I was dizzy and sat pathetically waiting on a chair whilst Gill made two trips to the car with all my stuff, before driving me home. People who do the crewing are the real heroes!

Most people, regardless of their running ability, run yards of between around 49 and 52 minutes, which leaves around 10 minutes of ‘rest’ to eat, drink, go to the toilet and attend to other race admin. This means aiming for a pace of about 12:30 minutes per mile, which of course gives scope for walk breaks, saving energy. For quite a while, perhaps the first 12 hours, I found this pace easy to manage, however it did then start to become more difficult and I started to slip towards 13 minute miles. I think the stop/start nature of the race format is not something that suits me. Your legs start to stiffen up, and there is just enough time to get cold, despite me covering myself with a blanket every time I sat down. It then takes about a mile of running to warm up again. I also found it mentally stressful, you need to use the limited time between yards wisely and efficiently. For example I wanted to change my socks and attend to a toe which was hurting, but also needed the toilet, and there is not enough time to do both. So the socks had to wait another hour. In a normal ultra you would stop, attend to all your needs, and then not stop again for many hours. Some runners throw in a quicker yard if they know they want to for instance change their shoes, but I don’t really have the ability to go any quicker, not after several hours anyway. They say running ability is not a factor in a BYU, but I would challenge that, having tried it twice now. For someone who is a fast runner 12:30 miling must be much more of a doddle than it is for steadier runners like me.

Both Alan and I were crewed, Alan by his partner Sarah, and I by my friend Gill. And a fantastic job they did too! This type of event is quite hard to tackle without crew, though there are runners who do so. But if you fancy hot drinks or hot food (e.g porridge pots or pot noodle), which to me is pretty vital in winter, it would be almost impossible to get this prepared and eaten in the short time you have. Crew can also get e.g. spare clothes, head torches, new batteries ready for the next yard.

Whilst I have now definitely found out the BYU format is not for me, I would encourage anyone to have a go just to experience a different race format. The runners are all super friendly and the Leeds event is very well organised. You can find a list with all events in the UK and abroad here.

I am pleased that I managed to reach 16 yards, and it was great to share the experience/suffering with Alan, who also found it very hard. My disappointment is not so much that I did not reach 100 miles, after all I have covered that distance, and more, plenty of times before in other events. The true disappointment is that I have to conclude that the BYU format is not for me, much as I like it as a concept. I had really hoped and semi-expected to be good at it, and in that sense I fell significantly short of my own expectations. The experience has certainly increased my admiration for runners who can do this well. I think any type of event with multiple loops, especially without a defined end point, is just not for me. Back to ‘normal’ ultra events it is!