Lap 110
FINAL UPDATE.
The Australian runners did exactly what they promised – putting absolutely everything in to support the team. Once Megan finished with an incredible 87, the Aussies just had to get one person to 96 and we would have 2nd. Of course, it’s easy to type or predict, but those last laps were pretty rough. Once Ryan Crawford finished his 95, he allowed himself to stop. It was 20 hours further than his previous best, which he earned at the 2022 Sat champs, again an epic run as the Assist to Phil Gore. Now Phil ran the last lap again, and finished with 96, 6 short of his PB and former world record.
Overall, the Australian performance was brilliant, with every runner giving their all, and the organising team setting new standards for support and atmosphere. It all made me so proud to be an Australian.
Once we were finished, 4 Belgians were left. Kenneth stopped on an even 100, while Ivo, Merijn and Frank just kept going. They sailed past 101, that Ivo and Merijn had stopped at together in 2022. They went past Harvey’s WR 108 from 2023, and nothing seemed able to stop them. Then after completing 110, as it became time to head out for 111, the 3 of them instead celebrated on the start line and stopped together. That now means at all 3 satellite champs, a Belgian has been the last to finish – and there has been more at the end each time.
Their team too was astounding. Perhaps it’s the Belgian chocolate or waffles. Some have suggested their indoor transition facilities and shared support crew and food were pivotal. Laz wondered if perhaps the Belgians were imprisoned on the course and no one would let them leave. But one key has to be the friendship between the runners, many of whom race and train together regularly. This was a group that genuinely trusted and enjoyed each other, and could offer support all the way through.
I’ll admit to being a bit happy with the results too. In my first post for the race I’d suggested “it’s plausible that the winning team will need an average of 74 laps”. Belgium finished with 1147, which was an average of 76.5. Pretty close!!! Australia’s average of 64.7 was not bad either. Crazily, only 6 countries winner went further than Belgium’s average, and two-thirds of the countries stopped before the Belgians lost their first runner at 50.
Similarly, a day before it finished, I wrote “If you want an outlandish prediction – Belgium stops running after 4 of them beat the current world record of 108, and they all agree to accept a tie with 110 laps – or perhaps 120!” Again, it was pretty close – 3 finished with 110.
Overall, it was an incredible event and it reminded me of a lot of the fun of the 2022 event. I loving watching that, and when I first came up with the idea of writing a book about Backyards, that event was my first thought for a great chapter. And it still is one of my favourite chapters.
Lap 95
It keeps on getting more exciting!
In the last nine laps, the USA finally finished their battle. Megan Eckert set the new female world record, with an amazing 87 laps, way up from her previous best of 65, and the previous record of 74. That left Scott Snell to take the USA win with 88, improving his best by 13. Champion efforts!
That left Belgium, Australian and Japan. Japan was next to fall. Hirata finished with 91, so Kawahata could win with 92. Wow!
Belgium remains the unstoppable winner, although they have now lost a few. Matthias Pelgrims stopped at 85, Jan Vandekerckhobe at 86 and Brecht Vandamme at 92. That leaves 4 Belgians still running – defending champions Ivo and Merijn, who famously tied with 101 laps in 2022, Frank Gielen and Vanthuyne. Who knows when they will stop?
I am an aussie though, and that’s where the real interest is right now. We’ve had no losses since 82, when legends James Blanton and Tim Kacprzak finished. Once the Americans finished, it suddenly meant we had to go another 7 laps to move into 2nd place. In 2022 we came 3rd, so this would be a great increase for us. It has not been an easy journey though, and at the end of one lap Ryan only head one minute to recover before restarting
Right now Phil and Ryan are half way through lap 95. Finish this, and we get second place. They should finish around 8:50pm or so – Brisbane time – 6:50 in Perth. There should be a massive crowd watching. Online, the best place to watch is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs2WFX-HiRI.
From there, it’s 4 hours until 100 laps, then the current world record is 108. There’s still a lot of action to come!
Lap 86
The Backyard Battle is virtually over, but there is still a lot of fighting to go. Team Belgium seems to have the overall win in the bag. They have just lost two runners on 85. But with 5 runners left after lap 86, and 1055 team laps, their lead does not seem beatable, unless there is a sudden outbreak of Belgian waffle poisoning.
Their closest competitor, in 2nd place, is the defending champion USA team. Megan Eckert is increasing the female world record with every lap, and Scott Snell is keeping up well too. Interestingly, the previous record of 73 was held by Jennifer Russo, also in the USA team. She had been the assist in the 2023 Capital Backyard. And who was she the assist to? Scott Snell!
On 966 laps The USA is 85 laps behind Belgium, but far from catching up, they are finally behind by 5 laps per hour. 14 laps behind the USA is my Australia on 952, and Japan is 80 behind Australia in 4th.
The USA, Australia and Japan are all on 2 runners each. None of them can realistically catch Belgium, and the only plausible change in the rankings would be for Australia to catch the USA.
However, there is still massive tension. ANY of the remaining runners could end up with the win, and a possible world record. In each country, there is still a real contest to see who is the national champion, who gets the ticket to Big’s, and what PBs people end up with.
And how will it finish? If you want an outlandish prediction – Belgium stops running after 4 of them beat the current world record of 108, and they all agree to accept a tie with 110 laps – or perhaps 120!
But of course, my heart is with Australia, and I’m cheering for Phil Gore and Ryan Crawford to go all the way!!
Lap 79
This is INSANE! …
At this stage in 2020 it was all over, Belgium going the furthest with 75 and winning the teams with 574 laps. In 2nd was USA with 517, Courtney Dauwalter winning the USA with 68.
In 2022, there were only 4 left, 2 from Japan and 2 from Belgium, who would go on to make history.
Today, in 2024 26 runners remain, in 7 countries.
Mexico had their final 3 from 56 laps, until they lost Contreras at 76. 2 remain, wigth 668 laps.
Sweden has 726 laps, but their final 2 have been alone since lap 56, an incredible 23 laps.
New Zealand is finally gone, Sam Harvey getting to 73 after a MASSIVE PB by John Bayne on 72. Unless Sweden’s final 2 go for a LONG time they’ve got a worthy 6th place. Well done Kiwis!!!
France has 4 left, in 5th place with 833, no losses since 67.
Japan is down to 3, 856 laps, after Yoshida stopped with 71.
Australia is in 3rd with 932, only 19 behind the USA. We’ve had some recent losses with Ash and Camac on 75 and Bellmon on 73. With their previous bests being 57, 51 and 56 respectively, they are true team-building performances. Our final four are worth banking on though: Tim Kacprzak, James Blanton, Ryan Crawford and Phil Gore have got what it takes.
In 2nd place, things have also taken a sudden and surprising turn for the worse for the USA. Now with 951 laps, they lost Noll on 72, Wireman on 74 Yoder and Fall on 75, and – the biggest shock – world champion and world record holder Harvey Lewis with 76. It’s an eery repeat of 2022, when the USA lost their final 5 in the early 1970s, including Harvey finishing with 75 then. The big difference? They still have 3 runners now. USA’s winner in 2022, Piotr Chadovich, is looking strong, as is Scott Snell. Megan Eckert is evidently struggling, but is also the only female remaining and now has the world record with 79 laps!
And in Belgium? To be honest, it’s a bit boring. Despite some awful weather and their day course being too wet to run on, they remain in first place with 8 runners. They said they were aiming for 1000 laps, and already have 1007. Earlier they had retained their entire team for 50 laps, then lost 7 from 50-56. So now for 23 laps they’ve kept this elite team intact.
I’d been predicting a winning mark of 1110, and it looks like I was wrong.
Lap 64 …
The top 3 remain Belgium (879), USA (854), Australia (840). USA with 9 runners has a one-person advantage, so is catching up to Belgium’s 25-lap lead, and increasing their 14 lap lead over Australia, one lap per hour. Both Belgium and Australia have 8, after we lost the awesome Ben Nicholls on 62.
In Czechia, the final warriors went for 26 hours, just the two of them, until finishing with 62 and 63.
Thor won with 62 in Iceland, setting a new Icelandic record and PB, with the team taking out the mind-size teams comp.
The loss of the two last Icelandic females, and Amanda Nelson finishing with an incredible 60 in Canada, means that now only USA’s Megan Eckert remains for the ladies.
Sweden, Canada and Poland all have just the two people remaining.
That leaves Mexico on 4, New Zealand on 5 and Japan and France on 6 runners left.
I had estimated a winning total of somewhere near 1110. Belgium is on 879, so it’s still a long way to go.
Lap 56
So far, it has been fantastic, and it still has days to go!!!!!
Guatemala was the surprise winner of the small teams competition, winning with 258 team laps, Cali going the furthest with 26.
Iceland has won the mid-size comp, currently on 576 laps, but still with 4 people running, including 2022 Team Champs winner Thor. They are also the ONLY team left with two females running – and have consistently had females as half or more of their team. – and 2 of only 7 left running in the entire field of 81 runners in 16 countries.
In the overall competition, the standout has to be Belgium. New Zealand were early -over-achievers, not losing their first runner until an incredible 38 yards. Belgium? They kept ALL 15 runners going until they hit 50. Amazing stuff, and the greatest early team performance in the history of the sport. Unfortunately, over the next few hours they lost 5, and have been brought back to the field, albeit with a massive early lead.
After 56 hours, Belgium and Australia have the largest teams on 56 hours, but both teams have clusters of runners approaching their PBs. The USA has fallen to 9, as has Japan, but the resumes of the Americans remaining are pretty incredible. The next biggest teams are France with 7, New Zealand with 6 then Poland with 5.
Overall, Belgium retains a 38 lap lead over USA, who is 13 ahead of Australia in 3rd.
So, the questions now become – who will win overall? What country will have the highest winning times?
In 2020, Belgium came first, and their team had an average of 38 laps each. This year none of their team dropped out before then! In 2022, the winning USA team had an average of 57 laps, a 49.8% increase in the winning time. 3rd placings were similar, with a 51% increase required.
If 2024 shows a similar increase in performance, they would need 49.8% higher again, or an AVERAGE of 86 laps per team member to win. I doubt the increase would be quite as much, as the sport has matured more, but if it fell to say a 30% increase, then it’s plausible that the winning team will need an average of 74 laps. That’s a long way to go!
And how far will the furthest go? I suspect Harvey Lewis – Ultra Runner’s benchmark of 108 will fall, but by no more than half a day.
We will see sometime later this week!