This Saturday and the days that follow will bring an extraordinary event in the world of ultra running.
Backyard Ultra - World Team Championships 2022
It's the original backyard ultra event expanded to the whole globe.
Saturday, October 15th 2022 at 7 am local time (US central time) in Buckle, TN, Lazarus Lake will shake his bell and send off the runners from 37 countries. 37 15-person strong team will collect laps for their countries. It's a team championship after all.
The concept, quote:
At 7 hours on Saturday, October 15, we will start a race around the 4.166667 mile Big Trail.
The time limit will be one hour.
At 8 hours, we will begin another race around the trail.
We will do the same at 9, 10, and so on,
every hour,
until only one runner can complete a race within the time limit.
Any runner not in the starting corral for any race, is not eligible to continue.
No late starts!
If no single runner can complete a race at the end,
there will be no winner.
As for the team event:
37 countries’ national teams will start the second satellite backyard ultra world championships.
37 national championship races occurring simultaneously
but, the real question is;
whose top 15 runners are the best?
each nation will field a 15 man team.
scores will be kept.
and the country whose 15 top runners complete the most hours
will win the world team championship for their country.
the result is a race not quite like any other.
the runners are rivals.
but they are also team-mates.
they combine their efforts to try to bring the world championship home to their country.
only when each race comes down to two runners
does it become a race to see who will represent the country in the individual world championships in 2023….
and it is all being broadcast,
start to finish.
with hours dedicated to each team
and coverage of the developing competition for the world championships.
and you can see it all;
the mud
the blood
the tears
and athletes pushing the limits of human capability ever further into the unknown.
is this the year that magic 100 hour barrier falls?
it is in the dreams of runners around the world.
tune in and see what happens.
37 countries, 15 runners equals 555 participants. Here is the full roster, searchable by participating countries.
The event will for three, or even four days. The current world record stands at 90 Yards, 90 hours of running. Amazing.
I will follow it and run along and report about the happenings. Stay tuned.
better and better
:ervin :lemark