Backyard race rulebooks: what changes from race to race

A backyard’s rulebook has two layers. The first is the official rules of the format, the same everywhere: we go through them one by one in the backyard ultra rules, from the official handbook. The second is the rulebook each race publishes, and that is where the small print that changes your day lives: from which loop crew support is allowed and where, which headphones are allowed, what kit is mandatory, whether there is a minimum age or whether the race has a loop cap.

Here we go through what each backyard’s rulebook usually adds, with examples from Spanish races, and the variants that don’t follow all the official rules. If you don’t know the format yet, start with what a backyard ultra is.

What each race’s rulebook adds

Each race publishes its own rulebook, and that is where the small print that changes your day lives. We take as an example the one from the Provital Backyard Ultra Gran Canaria for its 2027 edition:

• From which loop crew support is allowed, and where. There, only from the 5th loop, only in the zona de vida (the crew area), with one accredited crew member per runner. On the course, it is banned in all cases.
• Headphones. Bone-conduction only, and never in the corral, in the zona de vida or during announcements by the organisers.
• Mandatory kit. Thermal blanket, head torch and a red rear light on night loops, a visible bib and a reusable cup. Without it, the organisers can prevent you from starting a loop.
• Cutting the course or missing checkpoints can cost you disqualification.
• Minimum age for the long event.

Other races switch courses when night falls, as Big’s itself does, alternating a trail course by day with a road course by night. In Spain it happens, for example, at Llagostera and Benabarre, which publish one track for the day and another for the night.

None of these details is universal, so the practical rule is just one: read your race’s rulebook before you set up camp, not the night before.

Variants that don’t follow all the rules

Races with a loop cap

Some races set a maximum number of loops, which clashes with rule 7. In Spain that is the case, for example, of the Backyard Baltasara, capped at 30 loops, and of Cayón, limited to 30 hours. If several runners reach the cap, the race is no longer decided by who is still standing, and each rulebook says how it is settled. In our backyard directory these races carry their own format label.

Backyard 24 and fixed distances

The official website itself provides for races with a defined end of up to 24 hours, named after their duration (a «Backyard 6» lasts six hours). In them there is no winner: each participant either finishes or does not. The rest of the rules apply in the same way, and if they are run alongside a backyard ultra, everyone starts together.

Pairs and teams

In the pairs or team event, the team’s standing adds up the loops of its members. Each race decides the details: whether everyone counts or only the best, and whether that standing is compatible with the individual one. We explain it in the backyard ultra in pairs.

The common minimum: the official rules in brief

Every race rulebook starts from these rules, which don’t change from one race to another:

• A 6.7056 km loop (4 miles and 880 feet), as a circuit or out and back.
• A start every hour on the hour from a corral that stays the same size for the whole race, with warnings at 3, 2 and 1 minute to go and no late starts.
• Inside the corral when the bell rings, or you are out.
• During the loop, no leaving the course except to use the toilet, no company, no personal assistance (common aid stations are fine) and no poles.
• Every loop, the last one included, within the hour.
• The winner is the last runner to complete a loop; if nobody completes one more than everyone else, there is no winner.
• No set end.

Each one in detail, with the cases the official handbook settles, is in the backyard ultra rules.

How to prepare with the rulebook in mind

Between the official rules and your race’s rulebook there are only a few rules, but each one turns into a decision: what pace to run so the loop closes with a margin, how many minutes you have left at camp and what you do with them before the 3-minute warning. To turn your pace into loop time and rest, use the pace calculator; and to avoid going out on a rules slip in your debut, go over the typical mistakes in a first backyard.