A DNF is a right of passage in ultrarunning. It’s also an honor bestowed upon all but one in the backyard ultra race format.
The victor, the last runner standing, walks away with the glory after usually days of completing the same 4.16667-mile loop (or “yard” as it’s known in backyard ultra terminology) over and over again.
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There’s only one other honor handed out in this kind of race: the assist, which is the second-place runner. As the rules dictate, the winner has to go one loop farther than anyone else in the field—and can only go one loop farther than anyone else, no matter how fresh they feel. This means that the distance that the winner goes is dependent on how far the assist goes.
The balance of teammate and competitor seems like a tightrope walk, but in the end, they all only ever have one thing in mind when the backyard only has two remaining. U.S. winner and 2018 assist Courtney Dauwalter puts it best: “Don’t ruin the game.”
For the 2020 Big’s Backyard Ultra—the original backyard race created by, unsurprisingly, Barkley Marathons creator Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell—the importance of the assist became extremely apparent in the international race. Because runners from outside the U.S. couldn’t race in-person, 21 countries had their own satellite backyard ultras going on at the same time, and the countries battled to see which could collectively run the most yards. Once a country had its winner and the assist dropped out, they couldn’t do any more yards.
We often hear from the champions, but with this exciting edition of Big’s, we wanted to hear more from the assists from around the world to get their perspective on their races and what it means to be an assist. They tell us about injuries, mental challenges, and even a runner hiding behind a tree and scaring her teammates to keep them awake and motivated through the nights.
Merijn Geerts, Team Belgium
Individual Place: 2nd overall
Yards Completed: 74 yards
Miles Completed: 308.33 miles
Team Finish: 1st
Winner: Karel Sabbe (75 yards)
Second out of 300 runners—and one of two runners to ever go beyond the 72-hour (three-day) barrier of backyard ultra lore—and all Geerts gets is a DNF.
That’s the game you play in the backyard, whether you’re the first to drop or the last. It’s a harsh reality, but that’s not the way Geerts views it. He may not be the new record holder that Sabbe is, but he sees his opportunity to go farther than any before him as blessing.
“Who knows how far Karel could’ve gone because he looked quite fresh to me,” Geerts told Runner’s World. “But without Karel in my race, I wouldn’t have made it 74, so it goes both ways. I didn’t know that I could do that. I needed him like he needed me. He’ll get a little more attention than me, but I don’t mind. I’m quite pleased with what I achieved, so there’s no regret. I would’ve loved winning, but I don’t mind being second with 74.”
His achievement will be discussed every time Sabbe’s is because it was Geerts’s performance that made it so. Though an Achilles’ injury left him limping for his final laps and barely able to walk as he attempted the 75th loop, he wouldn’t exchange his DNF for anything.
“I got the second-best place,” he said. “You could feel for Courtney because maybe she could’ve gone farther than I or Karel. We’ll never know, but I feel for her. But I also wouldn’t want to trade places because I would’ve had to stop earlier had I run somewhere else. I sure prefer this outcome.”
Anna Carlsson, Team Sweden
Individual Place: 9th
Loops Completed: 54
Miles Completed: 225.002
Team Finish: 4th
Winner: Torbjörn Gyllenbring (55 yards)
In her first Big’s Backyard Ultra in 2019, Anna Carlsson made it 37 laps. The world saw her again in April during the Nutrition - Weight Loss Courtesy of Tracey Outlaw third overall with 43 loops (nearly 180 miles), running her entire race on a frozen lake in Sweden.
This time around, she found herself in better conditions and with teammates, which she believes helped her and her team go farther than she, and others, had before. They implemented some unique strategies, especially during the nights which are notoriously difficult.
“I would hide behind trees and scare my teammates,” Carlsson told Runner’s World. “We also sang a lot together and I think this helped us running longer than anyone would’ve done in a normal race. Mostly, we tried to have fun. If someone was feeling bad, we asked if they wanted company for a loop. The strong person was then running with the weaker person.”
These strategies paid off as 13 of their runners made through the first 24 loops. Fourteen loops later though, it was down to two: Carlsson and Torbjörn Gyllenbring.
Both looked strong, but stomach problems had plagued Carlsson from the start of the second day. Despite that and the soreness that come from running 150 miles in a day and a half, she had only one thought on her mind.
“I decided I wasn’t going to quit,” she said. “Just keep running until I was out of time or my legs didn’t work anymore. I didn’t care if it was fun or if it hurt, I didn’t think much about winning or losing or how far I would go, my only focus was just keep running.”
Her teammates did their best to help Carlsson through lap after lap, and her mental strength shined through, as she pushed through another 17 hours. But sometimes, the body wins over the mind. Carlsson left for lap 55, and she would not finish it.
“Basically, I passed out on the course,” Carlsson said about what she remembers of going out for her 55th loop. “I fell over and don’t remember much. I was a little bit sour because I didn’t see that coming. I felt lost in my head, but I didn’t think I was going to pass out. That was a bit annoying because my thought was I wasn’t going to quit running for some more hours.”
Carlsson was found on the course and taken to the hospital. Since then, she has recovered and has gone for a few runs since her race. It’s not the outcome she expected, but she understand that’s the game, and she’s proud she ran until she physically couldn’t.
“That’s the cool thing about the backyard format: it’s just one winner,” she said. “I think everyone that decided to play the game knows how it is. I’m super happy with 54 loops, but I don’t feel like I need to get attention because I knew from the beginning I was basically getting a DNF. It’s a bit harsh, but that’s life.”
Harvey Lewis, Team USA
Individual Place: 4th overall
Yards Completed: 67 yards
Miles Completed: 279.167 miles
Team Finish: 2nd
Winner: Courtney Dauwalter (68 yards)
Harvey Lewis is no stranger to the assist title. The Cincinnati high school teacher finished second back in 2017 when he and Guillaume Calmettes duked it out for 58 loops before Lewis dropped.
He would find himself there again as the second-to-last runner in the U.S. race this year as he fell one lap short of the record again, this time giving Dauwalter the win with a recording tying 68 loops. The Best Songs to Add to Your Recovery Playlist.
“Finishing second is nice because it makes you want to come back even stronger and harder and makes you train more and become a better version of yourself,” Lewis told Runner’s World. “At some point, winning the race didn’t become as important to me. My only regret is I didn’t get us further.”
He and Dauwalter ran one-on-one for 18 hours, always fist-bumping at the start of each yard when Laz rang the bell. At first, they attempted to strategize by switching off leading loops, but they ultimately ran their own loops.
“There’s a level of respect between the final two runners,” Lewis said. “You form a bond because you’ve seen each other for so many hours. We both understand that we’re competing to win and someone is going to be the assist. At some point, we just embrace it and you encourage the other just as they’re encouraging you.”
It does help that Dauwalter was on the other side. Lewis said her positive attitude mixed with his made him go farther than he thinks he could’ve done without here.
With her help, she was able to tie the record that took her down in 2018, and Lewis was able to walk away with a nine yard, 45-mile personal best. Together, they helped push the U.S. to a second overall finish.
Miguel Lara, Team Mexico
Individual Place: 6th overall
Yards Completed: 63 yards
Miles Completed: 262.5 miles
Team Finish: 8th
Winner: Pedro Parra (64 yards)
The Ráramuri runners—yes, the ones highlighted in Christopher McDougall’s Pedro Parra 64 yards—from are some of the most legendary ultrarunners in the world. Three runners from Team Mexico—Lara, Pedro Parra, and Juan Contreras—were the only trio of any team to run over 50 loops together; in total, they combined for 188 yards of the team’s 447.
Running is engrained into the Ráramuri culture. They may not have encountered a race like this before, but their communal mindset stems from their own games.
“I had never done anything like this,” Lara told Runner’s World. “But some parts remind me of the Rarajipari, [which consists of running and kicking a wooden ball with their feet. In the Rarajipari, the Rarajipame [player] has a teammate that supports them so that they can go longer and win the race, they are like the second person here I think trying to run for the team. We also run together if there are two players or 20 players on our team and the whole community supports us and that felt the same, too.”
Lara and his teammates focused on a saying: Team Mexico—Let’s Stand Together Forever,” which pays homage to the Ráramuri proverb that when you run on the earth and with the earth, you can run forever.
“I hoped to keep going forever for them, for the team, for those who help us, and to honor the race, it is important to not stop,” Lara said. “We all ran together the whole of the race. I want to encourage all my team to run forever together.”
The trio of runners looked comfortable through 60 hours until injuries started popping up. After his 61st loop, Contreras left the race in an ambulance. Two completed loops later, Lara dropped—A shin issue had slowed him for 30 laps until it became too much after 63 yards, leaving Parra to win Mexico’s race with 64.
He really did want to run forever with his team, but he knows though that he can only run what his body lets him. It’s what he hoped every runner around the world was able to do, and that alone, along with the support they received, made him happy.
“We had many memories that will be with us,” Lara said. “It was a joyful race because it was together with each other and I felt like we were running together with the whole of the world. The running brings joy and we hope that the people will all run with us.”
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Why Trust Us Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
