Baby Backyard Ultra - 42.7 Miles
10 hour cutoff - 6th most miles overall - 42.7 miles
THE LEADUP
I was undecided on whether I wanted to try the Baby Backyard Ultra. On one hand, it was only an hour from my house. On the other hand, my son had basketball tryouts that day so my wife would have to drive me to the run, swing back home for tryouts, and then come back down. Also, I had been battling some leg issues leading up to it so I wasn’t feeling great. But I am so happy I did it.
THE STARTING LINE
The crazy thing with this run is I had no idea the different format options until about a week ahead of time. Apparently reading the details before entering a race is a really good idea! What I thought was a more traditional backyard ultra with a loop every hour on the hour actually had four different options of how to run:
You could run as little as you wanted. If you got one 3.2 mile loop done, you would be considered a finisher.
You could run a 5k (just over) on the hour every hour for ten hours. More your traditional backyard ultra set up.
You could run as many loops as you could in the 10 hour time limit. (My Choice)
You could run as fast of a 50k as possible and call it quits.
Up until a week ahead of time, I planned on the more traditional backyard ultra format, but once I discovered that I could just keep running I decided that I would do that.
Amazingly, despite dealing with leg issues up until the night before, my legs felt really good the morning of.
The weather was great, the race was well organized and attended, it was going to be an awesome day.
And best of all, my son and wife were there to crew me….other than when they had to run back home for tryouts.
RACE LOOPS AND FUELING
I am just going to throw out my approximate times, break time, and fueling for each loop. Might not be exact but it is really close.
30:00
1:00 aid
8oz water
I didn’t see my wife and son so I just started the next loop right away
31:00
7:00 aid
8oz water
33:00-ran with my son
7:00 aid
Precision 30 gel
24oz water mixed with tailwind (630mg + 50g carbs
30:00
9:00 aid
16 oz water
Precision 30 gel
Sodium Capsule (250mg)
46:00-Ran with my son. Walked a bunch
4:00 aid
Handful of gummy bears
24oz water with tailwind
33:00
6:00 aid
Precision 30 Gel
Salt Capsule (250mg)
8 oz water - Noticed I had been peeing a lot
Rice Crispy Bar
35:00
13:00 aid
Precision 30 Gel
20 oz water
Rapid Hydration (320mg sodium + 12 carbs)
250mg Sodium Capsule
37:00
11:00 aid
Precision 30 Gel
Sodium Capsule Capsule (250mg)
Handful of Gummy Bears
16 oz water
37:00
8:00 aid
Precision Chews (30g carbs)
Sodium Capsule (250mg)
20oz Water with Rapid Hydration (320mg sodium + 12 carbs)
41:00
11:00 aid
2-Sodium Capules (500mg total)
Precision Chews (30 carbs)
16 oz water
45:00
10:00 aid
Bobos (32 carbs)
¾ can LMNT Canned Drink (consumed 750mg carbs)
Switched shoes here to the Pegasus Trails. Hurt my feet
42:00
3:00 aid
Precision 30 with caffeine….really helped
16oz water
Back to my Nike Vomero road running shoes
43:00
16oz water
TOTAL: 9:33
Moving Time: 8:03
Aid Time: 1:30
2,323’ of climbing
NUTRITION DATA
Total Fluid: 204 oz.
Only 21 oz/water….not nearly enough
4,400mg sodium
730ish/liter of fluid. This is close. Probably would prefer it over 800 but close. The problem is I didn’t drink enough water so I still fell short
Approx 430-450 carbs
45-47/hour
I would much rather be over 60 and closer to 75/hour.
My times are obviously approximate, thought I had my Garmin watch all figured out heading into the run, but obviously I didn’t. It is within a minute here and there. The fueling I thought I went in with a great plan, but ended up being under fueled and definitely under hydrated. Poor calculations on my part. The race went about at the pace I pictured, so I just messed up planning. Always learning.
THE RACE
I felt like I did better with this race than the numbers suggest. I am confident I could have gotten at least 15 laps. I stopped with about 27 minutes left just because I knew I couldn’t get another lap in and then me and my son had a pretty slow lap early.
I felt like I was organized with my fueling but miscalculated.
I did a good job of walking when I needed to without falling into a rut of walking all of the time.
The shoe change at lap 11 ended up being a backfire…I couldn’t wait to switch back.
I think I did a good job of managing my pace.
FAMILY
I love that running has become something that me and my family do together. My son joined me for 3 laps and my wife did for one, and it is so cool having them out there. If they aren’t running with me they are crewing. I am very fortunate for that.
TAKEAWAYS
I think every race there are a million things to learn from. Here are a few from this one:
Have to have realistic pace charts and double check the math. My fueling plan was rock solid…if it would have been accurate. Not sure where I messed it up, but I did. I think I planned on one loop every hour and never adjusted once I realized I could keep running.
Walk/Run is a good option. I was doing that for a while towards the end and I was shocked at how good my paces were.
Don’t change shoes just to change shoes. My Vomeros were really comfortable and I wanted to change shoes just to do it once…and it hurt my feet.
If you think you are eating enough…keep eating.
Consistent forward progress is the key. Amazing how many loops some people got that weren’t necessarily moving fast but they were always moving.
Aid station time adds up. 10 minutes here and there makes a huge difference.
Got to run 3 laps with my son!
Lap after lap after lap
Makes it all worth it
This is the kind of pizza I LOVE