Big's Backyard Ultra
Ultramarathon in Bell Buckle, Tennessee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Big Dog's Backyard Ultra, often simply referred to as 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]
| Big's Backyard Ultra | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Trail racing |
| Date | October |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Locations | Bell Buckle, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Inaugurated | 2011 |
| Founder | Lazarus Lake |
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.[a] |
| 2015 | (race not held) | |||
| 2016 | Babak Rastgoufard | 29 | Andy Pearson | |
| 2017 | Guillaume Calmettes | 59 | Harvey Lewis | |
| 2018 | Johan Steene[4] | 68 | Courtney Dauwalter | |
| 2019 | Maggie Guterl[5] | 60 | William Hayward | First female winner. |
| 2020 | Courtney Dauwalter[6] | 68 | Harvey Lewis | U.S. winner.[b] |
| 2021 | Harvey Lewis[7] | 85 | Chris Roberts | |
| 2022 | Piotr Chadovich[8] | 76 | Harvey Lewis | |
| 2023 | Harvey Lewis[9] | 108 | Ihor Verys | World record.[10] |
| 2024 | Scott Snell[11] | 88 | Megan Eckert | Female world record.[12] |
| 2025 | Phil Gore[13] | 114 | Ivo Steyaert | Female world record.[14] |
- In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic precluded international competitors from travelling to Tennessee, so the race was replaced by satellite events in various countries. The world title winner was Karel Sabbe in Belgium, with 76 laps.[1]
