Backyard ultra rules: the official handbook, in full

The backyard ultra rules are those of the format’s official handbook: a loop of 6.7056 km that starts every hour on the hour from a corral, with warnings at 3, 2 and 1 minute to go. You have to be inside the corral when the bell rings and finish each loop in under an hour; during the loop nobody helps you or keeps you company, and poles are banned. The winner is the last runner to complete one more loop than anyone else, and the race has no fixed finish.

That handbook is the handbook published by Big’s Backyard Ultra, Lazarus Lake’s race. It sets out the official rules exactly as they are written and then explains them one by one, with examples: how the course is measured, how the corral works, what counts as aid, what happens to your result if you are disqualified, how tickets are earned and how a national team is selected for the World Championships. Here we cover all of it, in the same order.

If this is your first backyard, it will help to read what a backyard ultra is first. And what each race adds on its own account —from which loop there is aid, which headphones are allowed, what kit is compulsory— we cover in each backyard’s rulebook.

What a backyard is, according to the handbook

The handbook defines it as a new sport: it is neither running a set distance against the clock nor running a set time to cover distance. The aim is for each runner to cover the greatest distance possible for their level and experience. There is only one winner, the one who covers the most distance, but there can be many successes, and that winner does not reach their total without what everyone else contributes.

You run a fixed loop, always the same one, and you start a new one every hour on the hour for as long as you can keep going. Each loop is a yard. The time left over in the hour once you finish it is your only rest.

The basic numbers

• The loop measures 100/24 miles: 4.1666… miles, 6.7056 km. It can never be shorter; it can be longer if the terrain demands it.
• Each loop starts one hour after the previous one started, not after you finished.
• 24 loops are 100 miles (100.008, to be exact). That is why the loop measures what it does; you will find the conversions in what yards are.
• Warnings at 3, 2 and 1 minute to go before each bell.
• According to the handbook, most grassroots races are decided between 20 and 30 loops, and the best marks in the world go well past 100.

The vocabulary

• Yard: a loop, and the unit you are scored in.
• Corral: the marked start and finish area where you have to be when the bell rings.
• Bell: the signal, on the hour, that a new loop is starting.
• Last one standing: the winner, the only finisher.
• Assist: the runner or runners with the second-highest total, one loop fewer than the winner. There can be more than one.
• DNF (did not finish): the official result of everyone except the winner, however far they have run.

Why are 150 miles still a DNF? The handbook explains it plainly: it is the defining feature of the format, not a judgement on how you ran. A DNF can be an extraordinary distance and a national-level result. Its advice: chase distance and the assist, celebrate the loops you have put together and accept that, by design, only one person finishes.

The official backyard ultra rules

The handbook sets them out as published. These are they:

Course

• Loop or out and back.
• Must measure 100/24 miles (4.16666… miles), 6.7056 km.

Starting corral

• Sized to fit the whole field.
• Stays the same size throughout the race.
• Anyone who is not an active runner may not be in the corral from the three-whistle warning (3 minutes before the bell).
• Runners enter the corral under their own power and must be inside it when the bell rings.

Starts

• Each loop starts exactly one hour after the previous one.
• Warnings must be given with 3 whistles, 2 whistles and 1 whistle at 3, 2 and 1 minute to go.
• From 3 minutes out, the whistles must be the loudest thing in the camp.
• Everyone starts at the bell: no late starts.

Loops

• Except for toilet breaks, a runner may not leave the course until the loop is complete.
• No non-competitor may accompany a runner on the course, on foot or by any means (eliminated runners included).
• No personal aid during the loop: nothing may be given or handed to a runner, except between runners who are still in the race.
• Each loop must be completed in under an hour to count.
• Artificial aids are banned (poles included).
• The slower runner gives way.

Timing

• Recording each loop’s time is optional.

Winner and results

• The winner is the last person to complete a loop.
• The assist is the person or persons with the second-highest total.
• Everyone except the winner is recorded as DNF.
• Each participant’s result is published in loops completed.
• If nobody completes one more loop than the others, there is no winner, and everyone tied on the best total shares the assist.

No cap

• The race has no fixed finish.

Fixed time backyards

• A backyard with a fixed finishing time may be held, called a fixed time backyard.
• There is no winner: each participant either finishes or is a DNF.
• All the other rules apply.
• If it is held alongside a backyard ultra, all participants in both start at the same time.

The backyard ultra rules, one by one

The course

Every loop measures the same. The course can be a loop that comes back to the start, an out-and-back section (3.35 km to a turn and back, for example) or several smaller loops joined together. Where the course crosses the camp or a spectator area, there is a taped, marshalled lane so that nobody can hand you anything as you pass.

The distance is a minimum: a short course is not a backyard, and no record counts on it. A loop that the watch shows as “about 6.6 km” and that nobody has properly measured is not acceptable: GPS drifts under trees.

Many races use a more technical day loop and a simpler, better-lit night loop, often on tarmac or track. Both measure the full 6.7056 km, and since everyone runs both in the same proportion, neither gives an advantage.

The corral

It is marked on the ground with tape, paint or cones, so there is no argument about who was inside. Its size is fixed at the start and never reduced. To stay in the race you need two things, not one: to have crossed the finish line of the previous loop and to be completely inside the corral when the bell rings.

• One foot in and one foot out when the bell rings: out.
• Entering three seconds after the bell: out. The loops you completed count, but you do not continue.
• Being in the corral without having crossed the finish line of the previous loop: out. Being there is no substitute for completing.

From the 3-minute warning, only the runners starting that loop may be in the corral, so anyone who is with you leaves the corral before then. At the 1-minute warning, if you are starting, you are in place; if not, out of the way. A marshal checks who is inside at every bell.

Starts and the clock

This is what first-timers find hardest to grasp: the new loop starts one hour after the previous one started. Your rest is only what is left over: if you finish in 50 minutes, you have about 10; if you finish in 58, about 2. The clock does not wait.

• Bell at 09:00, you finish at 09:52: you rest for 8 minutes. The next bell is at 10:00, not at 10:52.
• Everyone starts together at the bell. If you need to tie a shoelace, cross the start line first and do it on the other side, not in the corral.
• Asking to start 30 seconds late to avoid the bottleneck: not allowed. At a big start it can take more than a minute for everyone to cross the line, and that is fine: starting at the bell means leaving when the group leaves, not hanging back on purpose to gain an advantage.

For the organisers, the handbook asks for a single master clock visible to everyone, ideally a large countdown to the next bell, set once from an accurate source and not touched during the race.

Leaving the course

Once you start the loop, you do not leave the route until you have completed it. The only exception is a toilet break, rejoining exactly where you left it.

• A toilet beside the course: yes.
• Popping over to your crew, parked halfway round the loop, for a bottle: no. That is leaving the course to receive aid.
• Cutting across to rejoin further on: no.

Who can be on the course

Nobody who is not competing can move with you around the loop: not friends, not family, not crew, not pacers, not eliminated runners, not anyone keeping you company on the run-in to the corral. Company counts as aid even if nobody intends it: it sets the pace, cuts the wind and keeps a tired runner moving.

Only essential officials are on the course —marshals, race management and medics, with limited accredited media—, at fixed points and helping nobody except in an emergency. The sweep vehicle or walker is always at least 100 m behind the last runner, clearly visible with lights, and may carry a defibrillator and first-aid kit; it never sets your pace, runs beside you, lights your way or passes you information.

Want to show first-timers the course? Only as an entered runner who starts from the first bell, and you can run just that loop and stop. Anyone who does not know the course can walk it before the first bell.

No personal aid on the loop

During the loop you eat, drink and sort out your kit on your own, with what you carried from the start line. Between loops, in camp, there are no restrictions. How to organise that support we cover in the crew at a backyard ultra.

The shared water point is allowed, with conditions:

• Only water or an electrolyte drink, where the weather or the race’s approval requires it.
• Self-service: you fill your own bottle. If a volunteer takes it, refills it and hands it back, that is aid on the course.
• Cups already poured and lined up on the table: no. A cup prepared for you is aid prepared for you.
• Jugs you pour from yourself: yes. They are refilled only between loops, when nobody is passing.

And one exception the handbook encourages: you can share what you are carrying with another runner, a gel or a sip, as long as one of the two of you took it from the start of that loop and it does not come from a crew or from spectators.

Spectators, cheering and photos

On a public course there are people who have nothing to do with the race, and that is no breach. What counts is physical aid and accompaniment:

• Cheering from a fixed spot: always fine.
• Information from the side —the time, how you are doing, even where a rival is—: not a breach, and nobody polices it.
• A brief chat: fine, as long as nobody hands you anything and nobody falls into step with you. At this point the handbook adds “without passing tactical information”, although in two other places it says that information is not a breach.
• Photos: stopping to take one yourself, fine; posing without contact, fine; holding someone else’s camera, no.
• High fives and hugs: they are not banned, but the handbook clearly discourages them, because contact suggests something was passed to you. Cheers on the loop; contact in camp.

If a stranger starts running with you, you are not disqualified for something you cannot control: tell them you cannot run together, do not use anything they give you and tell a marshal straight away. If the person accompanying you is connected to you or to the race, it is a disqualification, so the handbook advises explaining the rules beforehand to the people coming to watch you.

Toilets and bins. A toilet on the course that is open to everyone is used normally. Bins are for genuine rubbish, such as a gel wrapper; not for hiding kit to pick up later. Peeing outside a toilet is covered by the toilet-break exception, stepping off just as far as needed and rejoining at the same point, but many races ban it with a rule of their own, especially if there are toilets just after the start.

Completing the loop within the hour

Crossing at 59:59 counts. Crossing at 60:00 does not, and your race is over. No time carries over from one loop to the next. This also applies to the last one: the runner who goes out alone for the win has to finish it within the hour, like any other.

Kit: what is allowed and what is not

You cover the loop under your own power. The rules expressly name poles, however steep the course.

• Allowed: shoes, clothing and layers, hydration vest or pack, bottles, head torch and its spare, watch or GPS, gloves and cap, sunglasses, a phone for safety, a passive brace or medical support, and the wheelchair for wheelchair athletes.
• Not allowed: poles, any powered or propulsive device, a powered exoskeleton or brace, or anything that mechanically drives you forward.
• Visually impaired athletes: may run with a guide who follows all the rules, and guides can only be swapped if all the guides started from the first loop.
• Medication and substances: backyard follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances.

Phones and headphones are allowed by default, unless your race bans them. The handbook explains why: the phone is often safety kit (calling for help, reading a glucose monitor) and, once it is allowed, nobody can control what a call is about. A race that does not want phones bans them outright; there is no middle ground. And some make the phone or the head torch compulsory as safety kit. With headphones, the usual options are none, just one, or one leaving an ear free.

Passing

A faster runner who catches you has the right to pass, and you make room at the first safe spot. It matters most at the end, when the runner in front is fighting the clock. On trails, listen out for a call from behind.

Winner and results

To win, you complete one more loop than anyone else and stop: you cannot carry on to add more. The assist is the runner or runners with the second-highest total.

• Two start loop 61 and only one finishes it in time: that runner wins with 61 and does not start loop 62. The one on 60 is the assist.
• Three finish loop 90 and one finishes loop 91: the one on 91 wins, and the other two are assists.
• The last runner, out alone, comes back over the hour: there is no winner, everyone is a DNF and those with the best total share the assist.

When two are left, you only start the next loop if you completed the previous one and are in the corral when the bell rings. If one of the two does not make it back in time, the race ends at that bell and the other does not start a solo loop that is no longer needed. And if both started and one drops out halfway, whoever finishes that shared loop within the hour already has one more than the other: they have won. The solo loop is only needed when everyone else was already out at the bell.

How you end up out of the race, with every case, we explain in when you are eliminated in a backyard ultra.

No fixed finish

A true backyard has no finish line and no maximum. It cannot advertise “first to 24 loops” or “ends at 100 miles”. It lasts as long as it takes for one runner to be left: 20 hours, or more than five days at the top of the sport. A race that wants a fixed end uses the separate fixed time format.

Only one race on the course

There can only be one event on the course, and all those sharing it start together. A second race is not set off later on the same loop, and no runners are added once it has started. A fixed time backyard or a team backyard can share the course and the bells with the main race, only if it starts at the same time.

Timing, results and records

• What is recorded for each runner: first name, surname, date of birth, gender (M, F, NB or NA), the country they run for with its IOC code, and loops. Gender is only used to find and match your results across races, never for ranking. Country is declared before the race and is not changed afterwards.
• How timing is done: from a sheet of paper to a chip system, it makes no difference. What decides the race is being in the corral when the bell rings, not just crossing the finish line, so there is a corral check at every bell.
• Protecting a record: if a total could be a national or world record, the race documents it with the course measured and recorded, the raw timing data, video of the start and finish over the final hours and a corral check at every bell. The handbook frames it both ways: that record protects a good result as much as it tests a doubtful one.

The rhythm of each hour

Every hour has the same shape: the group is on the loop; you finish and rest and eat in camp with whatever time is left; at 3 minutes, the first whistle calls you; at 1 minute to go, only runners are in the corral; at the bell, you all start together. Settling into that rhythm, and protecting the rest at the end of each hour, is most of the race. To work out how much time you will have left at your pace, use the pace calculator.

Safety, medics and weather

• Medics: they can look at you, talk to you and assess you from the edge of the course without ending your race. If on the loop they touch you, treat you or give you something, you are out, and your result stays at your last valid loop. Between loops, in camp, normal medical care is no problem.
• Helping a fallen runner comes first, but it does not give you the loop back: if you go over the hour, you are out like anyone else. There is no compensation time, because a race cannot count a loop that was not run as run.
• Storms or dangerous weather: nobody blames an organiser for stopping because of lightning, but the format does not allow stopping and carrying on. There are only two outcomes: the race ends at the last completed loop, and that result stands, or a new race starts from loop 1 once the storm has passed. A race stopped at loop 35 ends with 35 or starts again from zero; it does not resume at 35 after a two-hour wait.
• Sleep: in races of one or more nights, lack of sleep affects judgement, coordination and mood, and the handbook warns that disorientation and even hallucinations are common deep into a long race. Your crew can watch for you no longer making sense when you speak, and medics can withdraw you on medical grounds if you have become a danger to yourself, even if you want to carry on.

For our part, one piece of advice: if you have any doubt about your health during the race, consult the event’s medical team.

Crew, corral and aid between loops

Your team entering the corral between loops is not banned, but the handbook does not recommend it: it opens the door to something being passed to you once the loop has started, and the cleanest approach is for all aid to be given in camp. Your kit bag can be in the corral; a jug with someone attending it, no. Someone from your team still being inside after the 1-minute warning is not, on its own, a disqualification: it is if the aid actually happens, for example, if you are handed something after the bell.

Photographers, broadcasting and spectators

• Photographers and cameras work from fixed points beside the course. Fixed means still while the runners go past; between one runner and the next they can move. They never run, walk or ride any vehicle alongside you, because accompanying is aiding. This applies to everyone, including a photographer you hire yourself or a friend: if they move with you around the loop, your result is at risk.
• Drones: allowed, high and wide, for the landscape and the group, without closely following a runner.
• Broadcasting: the championships are streamed by the Backyard Ultra Channel, Big’s official broadcaster. On the course the cameras are fixed and never follow a runner around the loop.
• Spectators: they can photograph, film and cheer from fixed or safe points, off the running lane and out of the corral from the 1-minute warning. Filming you is fine; running or walking beside you to film you is not.

The handbook also asks that communication treat every distance as an achievement and not a failure, naming the winner and the assist, and with the figures that draw the public: 100 miles at 24 loops, 200 at 48.

What happens if you are disqualified

The judges’ usual decisions can be summed up like this: inside the corral means fully inside; to continue you must have crossed the finish line and be in the corral; what comes in under 60:00 counts; being accompanied by someone connected to you or to the race is a disqualification; and on the loop, self-supply and the shared water are fine, but nobody giving you or filling anything for you.

• An individual breach —personal aid, accompaniment, cutting the course— falls on that runner, usually with disqualification, and does not invalidate everyone else.
• If you are disqualified, you keep the valid loops you completed. A one-off breach on loop 43 leaves your result at 42 loops, as a DNF.
• The result goes to zero if the breach was systematic, was repeated over several loops, could also have happened on earlier loops or calls your whole race into question, or if the course was short.
• A failure by the organisers —a short course, or widespread unchecked accompaniment and aid— puts the results and records of the whole race at risk.

Tickets: bronze, silver and gold

Races apply for their status through the Big’s Backyard Ultra website, and a winner who qualifies receives a winner’s coin. The number of tickets and which races award them are set each cycle and can change, so what counts is the designation in force in your country. For the runner, this is what matters. We also cover the whole system, with its history, in golden, silver and bronze tickets.

Bronze

It is the base tier, and the handbook calls it a mark of approval and trust: the results of a bronze race count towards the national standings and the at-large list for the cycle. To hold it, the race has to:

• be affiliated and listed as a recognised backyard through the Backyard Ultra Association;
• be run to all the rules and on a properly measured course;
• send in its results correctly and on time, within two weeks of the race date;
• send clean data for each runner (loops, first name and surnames correctly spelt, date of birth, gender and IOC country code);
• be held within the cycle window, or its results do not count for it.

In addition, a bronze race has already been held at least once, keeps its listing up to date, and the status is normally renewed every year. The winner of a bronze race is offered a reserved place at a silver race in their country, which must always be offered to them if they want it; whether it is free or discounted is up to the silver race’s organisers.

Silver

The winner of a silver race, if eligible, has an automatic place on the national team, with any number of loops: even if they win with fewer than 24 and even if others on the at-large list have more. Applications open just after each World Team Championship, every two years, and only a race that is already bronze can apply. Which races are silver, and how many, is decided by each country’s team manager, with a recommended maximum of five over the two years, so there is room left for the at-large list.

A silver race has to meet everything required for bronze and also be an open backyard, never fixed time; have the course measured with a wheel and recorded; enforce the corral firmly; have reliable timing; document the final hours; and check that the winner is eligible and declared their country before running.

The nationality trap: the silver is only awarded if the winner runs for the country organising the race. If someone running under another flag wins, the silver is void: that runner does not earn a place for their country and the ticket does not pass to the next runner either.

Gold

A gold ticket is winning the World Team Championship for your country. Every gold winner who reaches at least 24 loops has a place at Big’s, the individual World Championship. The winner of a silver race, in turn, has a guaranteed place on the team that runs that championship.

The road to the World Championships

Two-year cycles

Qualification works in two-year windows, and a result only counts for a cycle if the race falls within it. The one for the 2026 teams ran from 16 August 2024 to 15 August 2026; the next runs from 16 August 2026 to 15 August 2028.

The championship alternates:

• Even years: World Team Championship. Every country runs at the same time, each in its own satellite race, with the same rules and the same clock. Each country fields 15 runners, every loop by each of them is one point, and the sum is the country’s score: the highest total wins. In 2024, 63 countries took part and Belgium won, with three runners reaching 110 loops.
• Odd years: individual World Championship at Big’s, in Tennessee. The gold winners with 24 loops or more go in, and the remaining places come from the at-large list, built the same way as the team one but with its own two-year window: for 2027, from 16 August 2025 to 15 August 2027.

The at-large list

It is the ranking by your best individual total at any affiliated race within the window, counted for the country you represent. Races are not added together and you do not need to win. A bigger total that a dual national runs under another flag does not count for this country.

How a national team is selected, in order

1. Silver winners go in first, with any total. With the recommended maximum of five silver races per cycle, that is up to five places.
2. If a silver winner would also get in through the at-large list, they keep their silver place and the next runner on the list moves up, so no place is lost.
3. The at-large list fills the rest, at least ten places, from the best total down. Every at-large runner with 24 loops or more within the fifteen is entitled to their place and must be offered it; if they turn it down, it passes to the next runner.
4. If fewer than fifteen runners reach 24 loops, the captain completes the team at their discretion, including below 24, so that a small or new country is never left out.
5. Reserves: the next runners on the list, who must also have reached 24 loops. They are called up in order only if someone drops out or turns down their place, and they cannot be skipped.

Until the window closes, the published list only shows the silver winners and the at-large list down to 24 loops; the captain’s picks below 24 are confirmed afterwards. If a silver winner is also tied on the at-large list, they first take their silver place and the tie is resolved among the others. Country is declared before running, by nationality or residence (the organisers may ask for documentation, such as a passport), appears in the results and cannot be changed afterwards: anyone with dual nationality or residence chooses before running.

Tie-breaks

They only apply between runners with exactly the same number of loops for the same place, they never reorder different totals, and they are published before the cycle begins. In order:

1. A win beats an assist.
2. The older result: whoever achieved it first gets in.
3. The second-best total at another race in the cycle, at the cut-off for the team or the reserves.
4. More wins, and then more assists, in the cycle.

Each country’s team manager

Each country has a team manager, sometimes called the captain, who is the first point of contact for everything in their country: they coordinate the races, track the cycle’s qualifiers, decide which races are silver, select the fifteen and the reserves using the published tie-breaks, confirm each runner’s country and eligibility, call up the reserves, submit the team on time, resolve problems within the country before escalating them and organise the national team race.

Key dates of the 2026-2028 cycle

Who runs the sport

The handbook explains that the format is organising itself as its own governing body, and that issues go up a chain: first each country’s team manager, then an oversight group (the core and support teams, plus at least one experienced team manager per continent, still being formed) and, at the top, the core team, with Lazarus Lake as the founder of the format. There are support people for sponsorship, broadcasting and media, and timing and data.

Fixed time backyards

A fixed time backyard is the version with a fixed finishing time, for races that want a set end. There is no winner: if you complete every loop up to the limit, you finish; if not, you are a DNF. All the other rules apply, and the loops still count: if you complete 24 or more, where the race lasts long enough, they are recognised. The handbook recommends it as a first event or as a more accessible sister race.

• A race with a 12-hour limit: correct use. Everyone who completes 12 loops finishes, without a single winner.
• A 6-hour race on the same ground and with the same bells as an open backyard: allowed. Everyone starts at the same time; the fixed time race stops at its limit and the other carries on.

A race that advertises “finishes at 18:00 and whoever runs the most loops wins” is not a backyard ultra: it is closer to a fixed time one.

What you take to the race

The handbook fits into one idea: what you need on the loop leaves the corral with you, and everything else happens in camp. With that, and with your race’s rulebook read —the handbook sets the common minimum, and each event can add its own rules, such as banning phones or peeing outside a toilet—, all that is left is the hard part: heading out for one more loop. If you are going for your first, start with how to prepare your first backyard in 12 weeks.