Suffering from Big's Backyard Ultra Withdraw?

The feat at this years Big's Backyard Ultra (BBYU) was awesome. Are you suffering update withdraw? Well you are probably not alone! The epic battle the last 2 years out there on that farm has been very exciting for us ultra fans to follow along with every 45-59 mins refreshing and clicking our various feeds to follow along, wondering who made it, who dropped out, and who is left. The simple concept of endless loops where speed really doesn't matter has become a very addicting thing to follow especially when Laz puts on the main event each year at his farm where we all tune in and read his poetic hourly updates as the story unfolds.

2019 BBYU Champion Maggie Guterl who became Last Man Woman Human Standing after 60 loops, 60 hours, 250 miles
Photo: @do_your_impossible

I can not wait for my chance to run some loops…again. Come join me in April 2020 at The Game put on by Spectrum Trail Racing, for a chance at a golden ticket for the Last Human Standing on Earth (next October back in Tennessee).  Spectrum puts on great events. I ran with them the past 2 years in this format. Last year they were an affiliate for BBYU but we collectively didn’t run enough loops to be one of the golden tickets winners for the event. Check out my blog write up on it here for 2019 event.

The Game Backyard Ultra by Spectrum Trail Racing (2020-Apr-18 | Columbus, TX)

Spectrum’s Race Directors (Mallory & Jason Brooks) were on top of it now and got onto the golden ticket list for 2020. You can see the popularity of this format by the sheer number of golden ticket races and subsequent affiliates for next year’s Big’s event in Bell Buckle, Tennessee (see picture below). I foresee unless you have one of the coveted ultra-resume that gets you an invite or are a winner of one of these golden ticket entries you may not even have a chance to get to the event on Laz’s farm. I think the general lottery format may be drastically reduced if not gone all together. He has generally capped the event around 70-ish runners which I read somewhere has more to do with the size of the event and his yard, which makes complete sense.

Check out the google doc for all things BBYU: Backyard Stats (by Rich Cranswick) - you can also find this on the Big's Backyard Ultra Facebook Group Page which is where it is linked from. The visual below we be updated and show the progress for the 2020 BBYU entry process which actually began as of August of 2019. 

2020 BBYU golden ticket (yellow: 38) & affiliate races (red: 36). Updated as of 2019-10-21

So if you are suffering from withdraw, no worries, there is still a lot of backyard ultras to follow. Check in with the Facebook group as each of these races often update progress on here, and often Laz himself shouts out praise to the winner and the assist runners.

Thank you Gary "Laz" Cantrell for creating a captivating concept. 

I hope to see you on your farm one day and meet Big himself.