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UK Backyard Ultras: The Full List for 2026/27 and How the Format Works

Written by James, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated September 2026.

Quick answer: a backyard ultra is a race with no finish line. Everyone runs the same 6.706 km (4.167 mile) loop every hour, on the hour, until only one person completes a lap alone. That loop length is chosen because 24 laps equals exactly 100 miles in 24 hours. There are now more than 40 backyard ultras a year across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, from £50 village events to 700-runner festivals, and two or three of them each cycle are "silver ticket" races that send their winner straight onto Team UK for the world championships. The full list by nation is below, followed by the rules, the pacing maths, what you actually do about sleep, and the UK records.

How a backyard ultra works

The format was created by Gary Cantrell (better known as Lazarus Lake, the man behind the Barkley Marathons) and first run in 2011 as Big's Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, named after his dog. The rules are simple and completely unforgiving, and UK events follow the same core set.

The loop is 6.706 km, or 4.167 miles. Each lap starts on the hour, usually announced with three, two and one-minute warnings and a bell. You must be in the start corral when the bell goes; anyone who starts late or early is out, and anyone who has not finished the loop within the hour is out. You cannot receive aid on the loop itself, only in the corral or pit area between laps. Poles and other artificial aids are banned at most UK events. Walking is allowed, though at 4.167 miles a walker needs to average under 14 minutes 24 seconds a mile with no rest to make the cut, so almost everybody runs at least part of every lap.

The race ends when one runner completes a lap that nobody else finishes. That person is the winner and the only official finisher. Everybody else, however many laps they ran, is recorded as a DNF, and the last person to drop before the winner earns the title of "assist". If the last two runners both fail to complete the final lap, there is no winner at all, which is why the format rewards patience over bravado.

Many UK events run a trail loop by day and switch to a road, track or tarmac loop for the night, partly for safety and partly because a technical loop in the dark takes longer and eats into rest. Some events, notably the Kent series and a few others, start on a Friday evening so that runners hit the night early while fresh. Standard backyards have no time limit; a few UK events labelled "12-hour" or "last one standing" variants cap the number of laps, which is a different (and much friendlier) format. I have marked those where they appear below.

The pacing maths, and what you do about sleep

A lap of 4.167 miles at 12 minutes a mile takes exactly 50 minutes, leaving 10 minutes in the pit. At 11 minutes a mile you are back in under 46 minutes; at 13 minutes a mile you have less than six minutes spare. The winners of the biggest events typically run their laps in 48 to 53 minutes for days on end: when Sarah Perry set the women's world record of 95 laps in October 2025 she averaged 51 minutes 13 seconds per loop. The universal mistake at a first backyard is running the early laps in 40 minutes because it feels easy, which buys nothing and costs you later.

The direct answer to "do you sleep during a backyard ultra" is no, not properly. Once you are past 24 hours, experienced runners bank naps of five to ten minutes in a chair or a car by running a slightly quicker lap, and they treat the night laps as one long shift rather than a series of races. Hallucinations are common past the second night. Sleep planning is also why people choose events by start time: a noon start puts the first night at laps 8 to 18, while a Friday 9 pm start means you run the dark laps while you are still fresh and get daylight for the hard middle stretch.

Eating is the other constraint, because you have to get a meal's worth of calories in between laps, every hour, for as long as you last. I have a dedicated guide to backyard ultra nutrition that covers what to eat lap by lap and what to prepare in advance. The principle is small, dense and quick: a 120 g Phoenix Bar is 527 to 557 kcal and takes two or three minutes to eat, which is roughly the calorie cost of a lap in one hand-sized portion, and it can be broken into pieces or stirred into hot water as porridge for the night laps when you want something warm. Rotate savoury and sweet, keep fluids and electrolytes going, and read my page on nausea and appetite loss during endurance events before the race rather than during it.

The world championship pathway: silver tickets, Team UK and Big's

Backyard racing has a proper competitive structure, which almost none of the UK calendar pages explain. Big's Backyard Ultra in Tennessee is the world championship venue. In odd years it hosts the World Individual Championship (October 2025 was the most recent, with a roster of roughly 50 national champions plus 25 at-large places), and in even years there is a World Team Championship in which every country races on the same weekend on its own home course, with results compared live. The 2026 World Team Championship is on 17 October 2026, and the UK's race is at Sherwood Pines in Nottinghamshire, hosted by Rasselbock Running, with a Team UK of 15 runners.

There are two ways onto Team UK. Winning a designated silver-ticket race guarantees a place; in the 2026 cycle the Portland Pig in Dorset (won by Phil Marshall with 46 laps) and the Highlander in Perthshire, which doubles as the Scottish championship (won by Alex Sweet with 44 laps), were among the silver-ticket events. The remaining places go to the runners with the highest lap counts at any recognised backyard inside the qualifying window (16 August 2024 to 15 August 2026 for this cycle), which is why the top of the UK roster is led by Sarah Perry (95), David Phillips (65), Sam Mayhew (64) and Iain Bethune (64). Silver-ticket races change from cycle to cycle, so check the organiser and the Big's Backyard Ultra "road to Big's" page before you build a season around one.

UK backyard ultra records

The British backyard story is a good one. England's first backyard, the Suffolk Backyard Ultra at Knettishall Heath in June 2021, produced what was then the world's best performance: John Stocker ran 81 laps (337.5 miles) with Matt Blackburn finishing as assist on 80. Sarah Perry then won the UK team championship race in October 2024 with 59 laps and, a year later at Big's, ran 95 laps (395.8 miles) to set the women's world record and the outright UK record. The men's world record is 119 laps (495.8 miles), set by Phil Gore at Dead Cow Gully in Australia in June 2025. For context, 24 laps is 100 miles, 48 laps is 200 miles, and the winners of most mid-sized UK events finish somewhere between 30 and 50 laps.

Every backyard ultra in the UK, by nation

Dates, fees and field sizes below were taken from organiser websites and the main UK backyard calendars in September 2026. Fees are the listed standard entry at the time of writing and most events run an early-bird price; "lap climb" is the ascent per loop, which is the single best indicator of how hard an event is. Anything marked as sold out was sold out for its next edition when this was written, so join waitlists early.

London and the South East. The Brighton Backyard Ultra (Stanmer Park, Falmer; Backyard Ultra UK; 8 May 2027; £109; 150 runners; 177 m of climb per lap) is one of the hilliest in the country and the flagship of the Backyard Ultra UK series, whose other events are the London Backyard Ultra at Frylands Wood Scout Centre in Croydon (28 August 2027; £128.50; 150 runners; 116 m per lap), plus Manchester and Wirral in the north. Entries for the series open around November. The Putney Loop Backyard Ultra (Lower Richmond Road, London; 3 October 2026; entry by email; 80 runners; 8 m per lap on pavement and track) is the flattest backyard in Britain and raises money for the homelessness charity Glass Door. Hellfire Events runs the Kent Backyard Ultra series of four: Vigo near Meopham (Friday 16 October 2026, 9 pm start; around £115 to £119; 120 runners; a 168 m day loop and a 119 m night loop), Dover at Great Farthingloe Farm (9 January 2027; around £115 to £120), Sholden near Deal (10 April 2027; only 8 m per lap) and Bedgebury Forest (Friday 16 July 2027, 9 pm start; 93 m per lap). The Longbridge 100 near Litlington in East Sussex (3WordRuns) is a small, tough event with 190 m per lap and a Friday 6 pm start, run in winter (22 January 2027; around £130; 50 runners) and summer (18 June 2027; around £140). Blended's Backyard at Chilton Candover in Hampshire (Blended Trails; 5 June 2027; £105 to £115; 120 m per lap), The Endless Garden at Ayot Green in Hertfordshire (Pub Runs; 26 September 2026; £80; 100 runners; 61 m per lap; sold out), the Summit Mentality Backyard Ultra at South Weald near Brentwood in Essex (mid-September, Friday morning start; £90; 100 runners; sold out in 2026), the Gosfield Backyard Ultra at Cut Hedge Park near Halstead in Essex (28 August 2027; £90; 100 runners; 29 m per lap) and Loop 'Til You Drop at Turvey House in Bedfordshire (Polka Dot Events; 10 October 2026; £128; no cap; 25 m per lap) complete the south-eastern picture.

East of England. The Suffolk Backyard Ultra Festival at High Lodge in Thetford Forest (Challenge Running; 5 June 2027; £138 plus £10 parking; around 250 runners; 28 m per lap) is the historic one, the venue of the 2021 world-best performances, and its sister Thetford Backyard Ultra Festival on the same site (11 September 2027; £106 plus parking; 250 runners) is the autumn version. Both are fast, flat forest loops that produce big lap counts. The Yellow Belly Backyard Ultra at Wyham near Louth in Lincolnshire (22 May 2027; £74; 100 runners; around 116 m per lap) is one of the cheapest entries in the country.

Midlands. Rasselbock Running is the biggest backyard organiser in Britain and the host of the 2026 UK team championship. Its Sherwood Pines Backyard Ultra at Edwinstowe (27 March 2027; £115; roughly 200 runners; 65 m per lap) sold out for 2027 almost immediately; Hardwick Hall at Doe Lea near Chesterfield (11 September 2027; £115; 69 m per lap) and Stapleford Hall near Melton Mowbray (3 July 2027; £119; a cap of 700, making it the largest backyard in the UK; about 50 m per lap) are the other two. The Beacon Hill Backyard Ultra at Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire (Beacon Race Events; 27 March 2027; £101; 250 runners; 180 m per lap) is the Midlands' hilly one. Green Dale Performance's GPC Backyard Ultra at Manor Farm, Chilcote near Swadlincote (Friday 25 September 2026, noon start; £95; 40 m per lap), Polka Dot's second Loop 'Til You Drop at Marston Trussell near Market Harborough (17 April 2027; £128; 79 m per lap) and the DNF Club Backyard Ultra at Far Coley Farm, Little Haywood in Staffordshire (4 June 2027; £100; 100 runners; a loop with up to 180 m of climb) round out the region. A Tockington Manor backyard in Gloucestershire is listed for 29 May 2027 but had few details published at the time of writing.

South West. The Portland Pig on the Isle of Portland in Dorset (Bustinskin Events; 30 April 2027; £108 to £124; 98 m per lap) was a silver-ticket race in the 2026 cycle and is the most competitive backyard in the south. Bristol Backyard Ultra at Blaise Castle (Gravel and Grit Events; 1 May 2027; £90 to £95; 125 runners; 160 m per lap) and the Breakheart Backyard Ultra at Breakheart Quarry near Dursley in Gloucestershire (Gert Lush Events; 12 June 2027; £75 early bird, £85 standard; no cap; about 170 m per lap on a loop that is almost entirely trail, with camping and a log fire at the pit) are two of the best-run events in the country for a first attempt. Red On in Cheltenham (21 May 2027; 160 m per lap; a field in the hundreds; sold out), Cornwall's Backyard Ultra at St Eval near Wadebridge (Grit Culture; 3 October 2026; £95; 150 runners; 92 m per lap; sold out) and the Devon and Cornwall Backyard Ultra at Newnham Park near Plymouth (28 to 29 August 2027; £95; 200 runners; around 130 m per lap; in aid of Bowel Cancer West) complete the region.

North of England. Backyard Ultra UK's Manchester Backyard Ultra at Giants Seat Scout Camp in Radcliffe (12 June 2027; £117; 150 runners; around 50 to 70 m per lap) sells out with a waiting list, and its Wirral Backyard Ultraat Wirral Country Park, Thurstaston (24 July 2027; £116; 12 m per lap) is the flat alternative. Resolute Backyard Ultra in Delamere Forest, Cheshire (Resolute Running; 8 May 2027; £115; 100 runners; 71 m per lap; sold out), Moar Events' Scouts Honour at Hollinwood Scout Camp in Worsley (31 July 2027; £106; 100 runners; 20 m per lap) and Among The Pines in Gisburn Forest, Lancashire (24 October 2026; £106; 200 runners; 167 m per lap) cover the north west. In Yorkshire, God's Own Backyard Ultra at Hawksworth near Leeds runs a spring edition (29 May 2027; £80 to £90; 100 runners; 91 m per lap; sold out) and an autumn edition (14 November 2026; £75 to £80), She Strides at Mytholmroyd near Hebden Bridge (29 May 2027; a small field; 133 m per lap) is new, and The Sting at Brompton-on-Swale near Richmond (Team Caterpillar; 10 July 2027; £85 to £100; roughly 100 m per lap; sold out) is the North Yorkshire favourite. In the North East, the Turbine Backyard Ultra at West Shields Farm, Satley in County Durham (Greener Miles; 19 September 2026; £106; 300 runners; 122 m per lap), Endure the Moor on Newcastle's Town Moor (Zone 5 Events; 31 October 2026; £100; 200 runners; 36 m per lap; sold out) and Heart and Soul Racing's LSD Backyard Ultra at West Benridge Farm near Morpeth (10 April 2027; £92 to £118; 60 to 100 m per lap) are the fixtures, and Heart and Soul's The District Backyard Ultra at Greystoke in Cumbria (3 October 2026; £111; 167 m per lap) is the Lake District's own.

Scotland. The Highlander Backyard Ultra at Murthly in Perthshire (Run Ya Rocket; 17 July 2027; £104; 200 runners; a loop of roughly 50 to 120 m depending on the day and night courses) is billed as the Scottish championship and carried a silver ticket in 2026. Beecraigs Backyard Ultra at Beecraigs Country Park, Linlithgow (Run Smile Inspire; 24 April 2027; £105 to £115; 150 to 170 runners; around 140 to 150 m per lap; sold out for 2027) is the biggest, the Burgh Backyard at Dalkeith Country Park (20 March 2027) the newest, the Golspie Backyard Ultra in the grounds of Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland (7 November 2026; £50 to £60; 100 runners; 79 m per lap; sold out) the most northerly and the cheapest, and the Kinloss Backyard Ultra in Moray (late August, as part of the Kinloss Running Festival; around £65; 100 runners; flat, with a night loop on the old runway) the flattest.

Wales. Gert Lush Events' Medieval Backyard Ultra at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park in Penarth (24 April 2027; £95; no cap; 52 m per lap) is the biggest Welsh backyard. Limitless Trails runs the Trails and Tarmac backyards at Crickhowell in Powys: a summer edition (19 September 2026; around 90 m per lap; note that at least one calendar lists it as a 12-hour variant, so check the format) and a winter edition (6 February 2027; £100 plus a £5 fee; 75 runners). Kip's Backyard Ultra near Denbigh (166 m per lap) has been listed with dates to be confirmed.

Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is the gap in the UK backyard map. At the time of writing the only listing was a last-one-standing event at the Florence Court estate in County Fermanagh (114 m per lap) with dates to be confirmed, so Northern Irish runners mostly travel to Scotland or the north of England.

Crown Dependencies (not part of the UK, but close). The Isle of Man Backyard Ultra at Archallagan Plantation (Friday 2 October 2026; £105; 200 runners; around 110 m per lap; sold out) and Jersey's Last Crapaud Crawling at Les Landes Racecourse (Run Jersey; 18 September 2027; £84; 150 runners; around 60 m per lap) are both worth the ferry.

Cancelled or paused. The Chiltern Hills Backyard Ultra at Bradenham (scheduled 19 September 2026) was cancelled. Several "Lone Wolf" events in Birmingham, Manchester, Scotland and the south are timed last-one-standing races rather than open-ended backyards.

How to choose your first backyard ultra

Pick by lap climb first, then by start time, then by field size. A flat loop of under 40 m per lap (Putney, Sholden, Wirral, Suffolk, Thetford, Kinloss, Endure the Moor) makes 24 laps a realistic first goal because you can run 11-minute miles and still rest. A loop of 150 m or more (Brighton, Beacon Hill, Longbridge, Bristol, Among The Pines, The District) is closer to a hill race every hour. A noon Saturday start is the classic format; a Friday-night start suits people who want the dark done early. Big festivals (Rasselbock, Suffolk, Stapleford Hall) have atmosphere and pace groups to follow; village events of 50 to 100 have more pit space and quieter nights.

Whatever you choose, the training is the same: an ultramarathon training plan built on long, easy volume, a rehearsed eat-every-hour routine, and a proper recovery plan for afterwards, because a 30-lap backyard is 125 miles on 30 hours without sleep. My ultra marathon kit list covers the pit setup (a chair, a camp bed, three sets of dry kit, a head torch per night, and food you have practised eating, which for a lot of our customers means a box of high-calorie bars that stay soft in the cold next to the flask), and the best energy bars for ultra running comparison explains why calorie density per gram matters when every minute in the pit counts. If you would rather see the wider field of UK races first, my guide to the best ultra marathons in the UK covers 50K to multi-day.

Frequently asked questions

What is a backyard ultra in the UK? The same format as everywhere else: a 6.706 km (4.167 mile) loop every hour, on the hour, until one runner completes a lap alone. UK events run from 50-person village races to 700-runner festivals, most cost £75 to £130 to enter, and the biggest UK event of the year is the World Team Championship race at Sherwood Pines in October.

What are the best backyard ultras in the UK? For a first attempt: Suffolk or Thetford (flat, well organised, historic), Breakheart (small, beautifully run) or Medieval in Wales. For competition: the Portland Pig and the Highlander (both silver-ticket races in 2026) and the Rasselbock events. For scenery and suffering: Brighton, The District in Cumbria and Golspie under Dunrobin Castle.

Do you sleep during a backyard ultra? Not in any normal sense. Runners take naps of a few minutes in the pit after quicker laps, and the winners of multi-day backyards typically manage a few short naps across two or three nights.

Is a backyard ultra harder than a marathon? Yes, for almost everyone who lasts beyond 12 laps. The first 24 laps are a slow 100 miles; after that you are running through a second night with no sleep. The difference is that you choose when to stop, so a backyard can also be the gentlest introduction to ultra distance if you stop at eight or ten laps.

What is the ideal pace for a backyard ultra? Roughly 12 to 12.5 minutes a mile, giving a 50 to 52-minute lap and 8 to 10 minutes of rest. Faster than that gains nothing you can bank, and slower leaves no time to eat.

How much does it cost to enter a backyard ultra in the UK? Typically £75 to £130 at the time of writing, with the cheapest around £50 (Golspie) and the most expensive around £140 (Suffolk Festival, Longbridge Summer). Most include camping or a pit pitch, hot water and a medal for every lap-count milestone.

How far is 24 laps of a backyard ultra? Exactly 100 miles (160.9 km), which is the reason the loop is 4.167 miles.

Flaming Phoenix is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of the event organisers named on this page, including Backyard Ultra UK, Rasselbock Running or Big's Backyard Ultra. Event names are used for identification only and belong to their respective owners. Dates, fees and field sizes were checked in September 2026 and change every season, so confirm with the organiser before entering.