This is the kit for the backyard: a 4.167-mile yard that starts at the top of every hour. Finish early and the rest of the hour is yours. Miss the bell and you are out. Nobody finishes. Everyone but one runner stops, and the last one standing has to run one more yard alone. It takes a ranch loop under a cinder cone north of Flagstaff and a farm in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, where Lazarus Lake started it.
The thesis is that the race happens between laps. Two shoes to rotate: an Altra Olympus 7 for dirt yards and a New Balance 1080 v15 for road nights and tired calves. Then the base: a NEMO Stargaze EVO-X that reclines, a Rumpl puffy with a clip, an Arc’teryx Atom for the cold yards, and a Stanley full of soup. Six labelled IRIS boxes and a Rite in the Rain lap log for the crew. A Black Diamond Distance 1500 with a spare battery and a Nitecore bank for the dark. On the wrist, a Suunto Race 2 that ships with a Backyard ultra app, and a $69 Casio Duro whose dive bezel becomes a rest timer.
Note.
Confirm current pricing at the retailer. Entry varies by race. Some backyards open registration, others qualify their fields, so check the race site. Babbitt’s runs on private ranch land that is open for the race only. Big’s is a private farm. Plan for cold after dark even in Arizona. If you are new to zero-drop shoes, build into them before race day. Crew rules differ by race. At Babbitt’s there is no personal aid during a loop.
iRunFar · Dec 10, 2025
Buy back the hour
“If you run a 40-minute lap, you get 20 minutes of rest. If you run a 59-minute lap, you only get 1 minute to rest.”
iRunFar — How Long Can You Last: A Pace Analysis of the 2025 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra (Zander Chase)
Zander Chase’s lap-by-lap read of the 2025 race explains the whole format. The top 25 runners averaged about 50:50 per yard, roughly 12-minute miles, slow on purpose. Speed is not the point. The minutes left over are what you spend on food, feet, and sleep. Phil Gore won with 114 yards, about 475 miles. Chase found his average lap ran about six minutes quicker than the rest of the top four, worth roughly 12 hours less moving time over 111 hours. In Chase’s words, that is time that “can be spent recovering, sleeping, and fueling.”
Sarah Perry ran 95 yards, 395.8 miles. Big’s splits each day into 11 trail yards and 13 road yards at night, so the shoe that is right at noon is not always right at 3 a.m.
Read iRunFar · Backyard pace analysis
From the field
Coach Martha Urwin’s backyard crew guide: “A good base will start with a comfy chair for you to rest in, preferably one which reclines, and an easy means of keeping you warm whilst you are there, such as an unzipped sleeping bag.”
On shoes, she says to “have at least 1 alternative shoe choice” and change “every few hours.” On light, she says to take a spare headtorch “so you can leave one on charge at camp.” On the night: “Don’t underestimate how cold you (and your crew) may get at night…”
Martha Urwin · Backyard crew and kit
Arizona · Babbitt Ranches / north of Flagstaff
Babbitt’s Backyard Ultra · SP Crater
“Runners will be given a 10’ by 10’ space near the start/finish.”
UltraSignup — Babbitt’s Backyard Ultra
The yard is a 4.167-mile loop of ranch dirt at about 5,600 feet, with roughly 150 feet of climb per lap, below SP Crater off Highway 89 at Tub Ranch Road. The race started in 2020. Whistles blow at three, two, and one minute. There is water on course, but no trekking poles and no personal aid during a loop. In 2026 the night loop, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., ran in reverse. It is a Bronze-level race, and the winner earns a spot at the Silver-level Tartarus Backyard. The field is capped at 100. ATRA retells the ranch story behind the crater’s name: CJ Babbitt thought it looked like a chamber pot. The ranch is private and open for the race only. The 2026 edition ran September 26, and the 2027 date is not posted yet.
UltraSignup · Babbitt’s ·
ATRA · Babbitt’s
Tennessee · Bell Buckle / Bedford County
Big’s Backyard Ultra · Lazarus Lake’s farm
“No one is more surprised than me at where that different race format has gone.”
Big’s Backyard Ultra — Lazarus Lake
This is the original backyard: a 6,706-meter yard every hour, trail by day and road by night. In odd years the farm hosts the individual race. Gore’s 114 yards came in 2025. In even years it is the World Team Championship. Each country stages its own satellite race, every start goes off at the same moment worldwide, and all 15 runners’ yards count toward the team score. Belgium set the record at 1,147 yards in 2024, and the 2026 edition started October 17. Runners earn their way in. The farm is private, so go as crew or follow along online.
Big’s Backyard Ultra ·
UltraRunning · Calendar
Smartwatch + Analog
Watch Desk
Two lanes for a race run on a clock. The Suunto Race 2 has a Backyard ultra app and enough battery for a long weekend. The Casio Duro is a $69 diver whose bezel becomes a rest timer the moment the whistle blows.
Smartwatch · backyard app + long battery
Suunto Race 2
1.5-inch, 2,000-nit AMOLED under sapphire, 100 m water resistance, offline maps, and the SuuntoPlus app store. The steel version weighs 76 g. Tom’s Guide lists up to 50 hours of dual-band GPS (55 with raise-to-wake) and up to 18 days in smartwatch mode. Photographed: Race 2 All Black.
Tom’s Guide’s Nick Harris-Fry: “about as good as battery life gets on an AMOLED watch.”
Tom’s Guide — Suunto Race 2 review · Sep 5, 2025
Why Race 2 here: SuuntoPlus includes a Backyard ultra sport app. In Suunto’s words, “runners will run 6.7km each hour. As long as they last.” It shows what is left of the yard and counts down the rest. Fifty hours of dual-band GPS covers most backyards, and past that the Nitecore comes out. Honest caveat from the same review: wrist heart rate is not perfect.
Analog · dive bezel / resin
Casio Duro
44.2 × 12.1 mm steel case, 200 m water resistance, screw-down crown, mineral crystal, and a 120-click unidirectional bezel with a lumed zero pip. Casio quartz module 2784 on an SR626 cell. Photographed: MDV106-1A.
Hodinkee’s Logan Baker: the bezel insert “handles its job with clear legibility when stopped to mark the time.”
Hodinkee — Casio Duro MDV106-1A · Aug 2, 2021
Why go analog in a backyard: Every yard starts at the top of the hour, so the minute hand is already the lap clock. Before you leave the corral, turn the zero pip to your target finish, say :50. The gap from the pip to the hour is the rest you are buying. iRunFar’s Zander Chase does the math: “If you run a 40-minute lap, you get 20 minutes of rest.” There is no cable, no button, and no menu to fight at hour 30. Hodinkee’s caveat: “It would be nice if the lume lasted a little longer.”
Pair them. The Race 2 keeps the record: every yard, every split, a file the crew can read. The Duro answers the question you ask every lap, which is how much rest you just bought. Turn the pip, read it, and sit down. The headlamp covers the dark, when the Duro’s lume runs low.
Some buy links are affiliate. We may earn a commission. The price you pay does not change. Gear stays on the kit only if it survives the job. Full disclosure → /disclosure
Altra
Olympus 7: zero drop, room for swelling feet, and cushion for the late yards.
altrarunning.comNEMO
Stargaze EVO-X, the reclining chair that turns a 10-by-10 into a base.
nemoequipment.comSuunto
Race 2, with a Backyard ultra app in SuuntoPlus.
suunto.com
iRunFar · Dec 2025
Buy back the hour
Zander Chase on the 2025 race. The top 25 averaged about 50:50 per yard, and the winner’s quicker laps bought roughly 12 hours of extra rest.
Treeline Review · Oct 2026
Olympus 7
Sam Schild finds the cushioning “wildly comfortable over long days.” The tradeoffs are weight and zero drop.
GearJunkie · Oct 2025
A wilderness throne
Karuna Eberl on the Stargaze EVO-X: a reclining seat for camp. The downsides are bulk and no footrest.
