Chris Spencer, Brodie Easton, Stuart Trevena, Hilary Grigg, Troy Thomson, Rachel Partridge, Tim Nelson and Maddi Vick participated in the Backyard Trial Series.
On Sunday, 49 runners set out to see how far they could go in eight hours, caning it around Victoria Park Lake and beyond in the teeth-chattering cold.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The answer, as it turns out, was less about distance and more about defiance.
Sunday’s occasion was the Backyard Trial Series, a kind of soft open for a race that has grown into something bigger and stranger than its name might suggest — the North-Vic Backyard Ultra.
Here’s the premise.
Everyone starts each loop, spanning 6.7km, together.
Whether you’re elite or amateur, you’re running the same distance with the same ticking expectation: finish before the hour, or you’re done.
Then you go again. And again. And again.
And while some of these last-man-standing races have previously gone for 116 hours straight in a gruelling test of grit and cardiovascular invincibility, Sunday’s trial series was a precursor, a toe-dipper for runners keen to whet their ultra marathon appetite.
Rachel Partridge, who trains out of Kyabram’s Riot Gym, was among the participants.
She and a small crew of fellow gym-goers — some seasoned, some freshly initiated — had decided to give the format a go, despite only a few weeks of preparation.
“Tim Nelson has done a few of the backyard ultras and Tom (Jenkins), who owns the gym, as well as Troy (Thomson) and Maddi (Vick) have previously done them,” she said.
“The rest are just gym members who wanted to have a go. Really, it’s only been a few weeks of training.
“Only two of us didn’t complete all of the loops, so six of us completed the 54km over the day.
“There was actually a guy there, he was running insanely fast. He was pumping out (laps) in half an hour and then laying in these Nordic recovery boots in between.”
The supersonic runner in question was Buddy Dempsey, 19, from Plenty, Melbourne.
A young whippet training for the Busselton Ironman, the teenager was pumping out each loop, or ‘yard’, as it’s called in the backyard ultra game, in less than half an hour at a split of 3:44.
“He was phenomenal,” North-Vic Backyard Ultra race director Robbie Howse said.
“He was coming in around the 25-minute mark on every lap, so 6.7km in 25 minutes — that’s how long it takes me to do 5km.”
Dempsey, an “absolute machine” by Howse’s standards, belonged to another tempo entirely.
But here, he was simply another dot on the course map, starting from the same chalk mark as everyone else.
Earlier in the year, Echuca Run Club members competed in the 2 Rivers North-Vic Backyard Ultra.
Photo by
Supplied
“The thing I love about the backyard is, there’s people like him and then there’s a bloke who’s 64 years old and has Parkinson’s and he just runs and he runs and he keeps on running and he just gets it done,” Howse said.
“There’s no woe is me or anything like that, he’s just there for the fun of it and he cracked all eight laps.”
Sunday’s trial series was the seventh of its kind and by far the most popular.
Of the 49 who participated, up from the usual 25-30, a total of 39 completed all eight laps to clear 53km for the day.
The trial series was born as a way to grow the sport, offering runners a chance to break into ultra marathon territory for a fraction of the usual cost.
Additionally, various locations are put forward as course suggestions and experimented with during the trial series to determine whether they’re worthy of hosting the main event: the backyard ultra.
That’s coming in September, when Shepparton’s version of the last man standing format returns for its fourth year, this time with a high-stakes twist.
The winner of the North-Vic Backyard Ultra won’t just outlast the field — they’ll earn a place in green and gold, representing Australia on the world stage at the Backyard Ultra World Championships.
But for now, the trial has done its job: welcoming the wary, celebrating the seasoned and proving that even eight laps is a victory worth chasing.
“We’re pretty passionate about it, just seeing people achieve their best, so big kudos to everyone,” Howse said.
“Even those that did four or five laps ... it’s a big one for personal bests.”
