Copy and paste from a Facebook update page:
And the winner will be: Phil Gore with 114 hours, with Ivo Steyaert in a valiant assist on113.
For those who came in late: since Saturday morning, Tennessee time, 72 of the world’s best multi-day endurance runners have been trying to decide who is the world’s best Backyard ultra runner
My last update I wrote was for hour 105, the losses came immediately after that.
Nicolas Cointepas was a shock finish at 105. In his first time at Big’s, in fact, his first Backyard outside of France, many were picking him as the overall winner. When he finished, Laz himself said that he thought he had been going to win for quite some time. He finished with a 19 hour increase on his PB of 84.
Kazuhiro Kawahata finished the next hour, in 106, a big increase on his best of 92. This was only his 3rd Backyard, and similarly, his first outside his home of Japan.
The final four held for five hours, until the two americans, Jon Noll and Harvey Lewis, both finished on the same lap.
Jon was one of the good news stories of this year. In 2023 he has come agonisingly close to 100, finishing on 98 with nothing left. That year, for hours he had run with Harvey, both staying close to the cut-off for hour after hour after hour. This year, he smashed his old best, and well and truly established himself as one of the top runners in the world. On lap 112 he turned back early on and finished with 111
It took a long time for Harvey Lewis to appear. When he finally came back to the start, he was assisted by two people, and could hardly walk. This was a very different scenario to when he waltzed in at the end of his 108th lap in 2023, running and speaking confidently. This time he sat in his chair, completely spent. He shared “That was some race. I thought I was competing in some geriatric sort of thing.” He didn’t fall at all the first few days, but fell over multiple times on the last. Finally, he succumbed, but only when his body would not allow him to give any more. For years now the individual championships have been Harvey’s domain, and finally, it was someone else’s turn.
While running, he was also trying to raise monmey for his friend David to be able to buy a Tuk Tuk for him to have a sustainable livlihood. Somehow he managed to raise $8000! Check out
https://www.run4water.net/bigs-fundraiser-for-david.html.
That then left Ivo and Phil left.
Although not a tall man, Ivo is one of the Belgian giants who has ruled the Backyard world the last fe years. He was one of the two, with Merijn, who agreed to stop at 101, breaking the 100 barrier for the first time, and the 2022 world teams championships. He was then one of the three, this time with Merijn and. Frank, who stopped at 110, in another world record, at the 2024 teams. At Bigs in 2023 he had stopped at 80, found delirious on the course and in a lot of pain.
For years there has been conjecture about whether the Belgian brilliance was coloured by a flatter course for their world records. Merijn did his best to dispel those myths by hitting 100 in three different continents, and today, Ivo did his part by winning an awesome assist. He did it on one of the toughest courses in the world, and certainly against the toughest opposition the world has seen gathered.
For lap 113 Phil ran with Ivo, and they walked back in together in 52:50, Ivo’s fastest lap for a while. They chatted after the line, Ivo saying he was finished, Phil, and the crowd, gently encouraging for just one more. Ivo was gracious, but said no, and allowed Phil to run his one final lap.
And then there was Phil. In his first Backyard, he was the assist. Chastened by the narrow loss, he committed himself to improvement, and that seems to have paid off. Since then he has won every Backyard he has competed in, including two world records at Dead Cow Gully, except for a solid 6th and 101 in Bigs 2023.
His generous nature, disciplined approach to his planning, speed that enabled him to rest more than anyone else all helped him with his win. While others were coming in hour after hour with not enough time to rest, he was banking a solid 10-15 minutes. Over the last few hours, it became apparent that Phil would win, unless somehow disaster struck.
For years, Phil has been regarded in many circles as the king of the backyard, but without a world championship title, the crown was in dispute. No longer. Congratulations to Phil, to all the competitors, and to all the exhausted fans who have been following this along for days.
Technically, as I post this, Phil is running his final lap. If an Australian drop-bear happens to be on the course and takes him out, then yes, Ivo and Phil will be equal DNFs on 113.
To read any of the previous recaps of the race, see
https://www.facebook.com/thebackyardultrastory/. The first link there also has links for my book about the riveting story of Backyard Ultras, with foreword by Laz, afterward by Harvey Lewis, and praise from many of the runners you’ve watched the last few days.
Personally, my favourite part of the race was every time the runners went under the start finish banner, proudly proclaiming There is No Finish – a nice form of subliminal advertising for the book.
