I (Barely) Survived the Ohio Backyard Ultramarathon
From March 18, 2023. Written February 2024 via computer + journal notes. Race + Photo credits below.
On March 18, 2023, I stepped foot in the starting corral of the legendary Ohio Backyard Ultra race. Not only was this my first taste of a backyard-style race, but it was also my first official ultramarathon. Yippee!
Through rain, snow, and sunshine.
Through knee cramps and stomach aches.
Through my own never-ending doubts.
My race was far from perfect, but I want to share my experience for anyone interested in the trail running/ultra-running/psycho running world, describe what this race was like, and provide a few tips that I wish I knew before racing. Buckle up fellas, because this is a wild ride.
Before I get into my race, you may be wondering what an ultramarathon is. And what’s this term “backyard”? You mean to tell me that I can run around my tiny, freshly-mowed, fenced lot behind my house? Not quite. “Ultramarathon” refers to any race longer than a marathon, or 26.2 miles. This can range from 50ks, 50 milers, 100 milers, etc. My current bucket list ultramarathon is the Marathon des Sables, which is a 160 mile race held in the Sahara Desert that can last up to six days! A girl can dream…
Anyway, “backyard” is the term for a last person standing event. In the Ohio Backyard Ultra, everyone has to complete a 4.1 mile loop every hour. The only breaks during this race are the few minutes you have left after finishing the loop before the next hour starts. All competitors run until they decide to drop out of the race or don’t finish a loop in an hour or less, and the race ends when there is one competitor left.
Dun, dun, dun!
To give you an idea of how competitive this race is, around ⅓ of the racers ran 100 miles or more in 2022. That’s at least a full day and night STRAIGHT of running. The record for this race is 229.16 miles, which is 55 hours of running with no long breaks, no sleep, continuing in the dark at night, and facing whatever weather appears during the race. It’s a unique race format that utilizes strategy, heavy training, and honestly a little good luck.
Enough blabbering, now onto my race!
To start, the day and night before the race were pretty rocky. My dad (who was acting as my sole crewmate) and I were pumped during our 4 hour drive down to Lucasville, Ohio. Contestants are allowed to camp overnight in the park where the race is held, and my dad and I had an epic plan of how we were going to set up our camp for maximum comfort both before and during the race. Think of these camps as your own personal pitstops; they’re crucial to having a good backyard race effort. We also discussed our goal of completing at least 12 loops, and how I would continue after to see how far I could go until I was completely pooped out. However, there was a noticeable shift in energy once we arrived.
The start wasn’t until March 18th at 7:30 a.m., and by 2:00 p.m. on the 17th the park was already almost completely full. The “tent city” was PACKED, and from the look of the other camps it seemed like everyone was prepared to run for multiple days. That’s when it hit me: every runner was really going to fight to stay in the game for as long as possible. I also realized while touring the course that there was a lot more elevation gain than I expected. The course is near a ski resort, so a good portion of it was filled with significant up-and-down hills. Nerves were starting to get the best of me, and I desperately wanted to make a good debut in this ultra. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? My dad had other concerns, as he 1) wanted our tent to be close to the start/finish line so he could bring me food and drinks more efficiently during the race, and 2) had explained during the entire car ride how much he wanted to be right next to a firepit (we get it you caveman, you like fire). My nerves subsided a bit when he found us an amazing camp spot complete with a fire pit. However, it was right next to a large cabin and I’m 80% sure we were trespassing. Do squatters’ rights apply to camping too? Oh well, it is a Backyard Ultra so it seems fitting that we were sleeping in an actual backyard. We set up camp, ate some pizza, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying the fire before hitting the hay.
The night portion of this tale could best be described as an “Ice Age”. I got maybe three hours of sleep total due to the cold temps and high wind gusts that shook the tent like a trash bag. Even with my sleeping bag that promised warmth in below-freezing conditions, the 24-degree night was pretty chilling. At one point I tried to go outside of the tent to use the bathroom and ran into an issue that almost resulted in pee-sicles flying into our canvas tent. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so around 2 a.m. I grabbed my portable heater in the hope that it would heat me up enough to fall asleep and held it close to me the entire night. After a restless night shivering and possibly inhaling propane fumes, my 5:30 am alarm rang and I got ready for the race.
I slogged around for my uniform. Dri-fit tee, a crewneck, a windbreaker jacket, spandex shorts, insulated fleece leggings, and my trusted trail shoes complete with my lucky orange blossom socks. I had breakfast, two cups of the camping equivalent of “coffee” with my dad, and paid the porta-potties a visit at least seven times before lining up for the race. Don’t judge, I was nervous.
The air was crisp and there was a thick layer of frost lining the ground, but the pink morning sky peeking above the woods as racers prepped for the start was a gorgeous sight. At 7:30 am the start buzzer went off, and I and 99 other competitors were off at a pace that would make a slug look like Usain Bolt. We all knew we had a long day of running ahead of us, may as well go out easy.
The first three hours went by quick and were pretty uneventful. People were in good spirits and chatting about their goals, their lives, etc. I met a woman from Michigan who had a baby just two months prior to the race and another from Georgia who said this was her 50th ultra race. One group of four runners that I met at mile 10 said they were kept awake at their hotel by a rowdy bachelorette party (you guys were lucky to have a hotel, I thought, I had to sleep in the damn tundra). I would chat about training with some fellow racers and was shocked to learn that some of these people were running 100-110 miles a week. These weren't professional athletes that make a living off of running, mind you, but “regular" people who worked 9-to-5s, focused on school or careers, raised families, and other commitments that would make training difficult to schedule. How phenomenal are these people that they lead functional lives while also running for over 3 hours a day and racing in events like this one? And for FUN, no less. I would find out during the race that there were some pro-running legends running among us as well. Harvey Lewis, who ran the record I mentioned previously of 55 hours; Jennifer Russo, who two months later in May 2023 at Virginia’s Capital Backyard Ultra would run the world record for longest backyard effort for a woman with 308 miles (74 hours straight of running) AND would win the 2024 Ohio Backyard Ultra; Tara Dower, a personal favorite of mine due to her amazing Youtube videos who has multiple 1st place race finishes and ran the fastest known time for the Mountains-to Sea Trail (1,175 miles), the Benton Mackaye Trail (288 miles), and the Colorado Trail (500 miles). Legends of the sport gathered with fellow ultra enthusiasts like myself to essentially run in a large circle in the middle of the forest for as long as possible, and I was loving every second of it. That is until the snow began to fall.
By the fourth hour, a heavy powdering of snow was descending. Though it would have been a wonderful sight to see if I were merely strolling through the woods, it was an unwelcome surprise that froze us athletes to the bone and made the terrain slick with ice. We continued through the hellish landscape, enjoying eachothers’ conversations through chattering teeth. During this period I also kicked up the support from my dad. Every hour, as soon as I finished a loop, it was one bowl of instant noodles, a cup of warm water, and a refill of the electrolyte drink I had in my water vest. He would also bring me extra snacks that I’d request while running, primarily apples and Honey Stinger waffles (please sponsor me, Honey Stinger) since I was craving sugar as I burned more and more calories over time. The race directors even got everyone pizza, and you better believe I absolutely wolfed down some gluten-free pizza as quick as I could every lap. This was all fine and dandy on my stomach until lap 6, which was when I started to board the Struggle Bus.
Good news: it stopped snowing and the sun was out and shining. Typical bipolar Midwest spring weather, am I right? Bad news: without the wind chill and snow, I was getting surprisingly warm in my garments. Not only did the freshly-laid snow melt into a sticky sludge of mud on the race course in less than an hour, but I was hot in the amount of layers I had on. I was able to take off my jacket, but due to the extra effort required I never had enough time during the loops to remove my thermal leggings. I’m not a fan of leggings to begin with, as I prefer to run with my scandalous legs out and free for the entire world to see, but now they were becoming extremely uncomfortable. The joints in my knees were starting to cramp in the warm leggings, and after 25 miles of running up hills my knees were stinging. I thought of removing my crewneck too to cool down, but I realized I had completely soaked my under-layers with sweat and didn’t want the exposed moist clothes to make me too cold. I could risk being hot enough to sweat since I had fluids available to rehydrate me quickly, but overexerting myself in the cold while burning hundreds of calories an hour wasn’t an option I wanted to explore. This eventually created some issues with fueling.
If I could give anyone advice for their first ultra, it would be to bring a hydro-vest. It comes in handy not only for carrying fluids but to carry snacks to eat mid-effort. If I had one for OBU I believe I would have done a much better job of pacing myself when eating. Trying to eat large meals during a race in five minutes or less is NOT smart, and that’s pretty much what I was doing at the end of each loop before the start of the next hour. My worry of not getting enough calories in while running caused me to greatly overcompensate by eating wayyy too much and it kicked me in the butt. When it was snowing and cold out, I had no issues scarfing down meals this way. It was a different matter entirely with the milder weather plus the discomfort from the extra layers. From laps 6 to 8, I was throwing up at least twice per hour. The warmth and the sweating made my stomach feel unbearably heavy, so my body decided the best route from there on out was to expel pizza-noodle-electrolye stew as quickly as possible. One sweet lady gave me a Pepto Bismol tablet and ran beside me for an hour. Her high energy was extremely helpful, and with my new encouraging buddy basically acting as a service animal for me we sallied forth. She never said one negative thing… except when I brought up a race I wanted to do in northern Georgia.
“Oh, don’t do that one. The race director is a dick.”
Cool, noted.
My glamour shot during the snowy portion of the race.
Lap 7, even with the stomach issues, felt like my best lap. Even after running for over 6 hours, I felt like I had some fight. I ran beside another new gal who also had a goal of 12 hours, and I don’t know if it was the conversation we were having or her competitive nature but we were cooking. When I finished that lap I had 12 minutes to spare, which may as well have been a week’s worth of rest. Little did I know that hit podcaster, commentator, and jiu jitsu enthusiast Joe Rogan would single-handedly be my ultimate demise. After 7 hours of running I thought to myself, “Gee, I could really use a pick-me-up. A boost of energy for my next 5 hours of running”. Enter the Limited Edition Joe Rogan Walmart energy drink I brought to the race. These other racers had no idea the sheer power and force I was going to display after finishing all 150 mgs of caffeine in this can. Truly, I felt like a genius. I chugged the drink down and enjoyed a few bites of food before continuing on with my race….
MAY DAY, MAY DAY, MAY DAY!!!
HOUSTON, WE’RE HAVING A HEART ATTACK!!
Within the first mile of my 8th lap I felt like I was having heart palpitations. God, is that you?! It’s important to note that I rarely drink energy drinks, and I certainly have never tried to drink one during an effort as long and tiresome as this. I think my body was gently trying to tell me “You overdid it and now we gonna die”. One mile went by, then two. My breathing felt heavier and I could not for the life of me get my heart or body to calm down. My knees were still screaming, my stomach was torn to shreds, the sweating I was experiencing from my many layers of clothing seemed to double. I was frustrated. I just had a lap where I felt amazing and I only had 4 more laps until my goal. It seemed like problems were suddenly piling up in an effort to take me out of the race. I just want to make it to the 12-hour mark, am I not going to make it?
Allow me to quickly flash forward to November in 2023, when I would be racing the Pike Lake Ultramarathon 60k. This was my first race with significant prize money for the top five finishers and I ended up finishing 4th. However, I was two minutes behind the 3rd place woman and four minutes behind 2nd. I had given it my all during that race and was proud of the effort but felt bummed that I couldn’t snag a higher place. After the winner's ceremony the race director approached to congratulate me. When asked how I felt I remember mentioning how close I was to the third and second women and how I wished I could have pushed a little harder. He smiled.
“Well Abby, look at how you did today! And you just started running ultras earlier this year, right? I have no doubt that you’ll continue to improve with the more experience you get, and I can’t wait to see it.”
If “Abby who was racing at OBU” knew what “Abby who had finished 4th and won her first prize check” had done she would have been ecstatic, and while I think it’s crucial to chase after goals I’ve had to learn to direct my focus more on the actual accomplishment rather than a place or time goal. I know some who will disagree with this, but you shouldn’t have to “reach” anything before you can be happy with something you’re doing. Happiness isn’t at the top of a staircase that you have to climb, it’s right there with you no matter what step you’re on. What use is putting effort into something if you aren’t actually proud of yourself? You can always strive to do better, but in order to improve you have to take those previous efforts you made with grace and say to them, “Thank you, I learned something very valuable from that.” After a lot of consideration, I decided to end my OBU race after 8 hours bringing my mileage total to 33.3 miles. While I wished at the time that I could finish the 12 hours, I had nonetheless run further than I ever had in my life (my furthest at the time was 21 miles) even with all the obstacles that prevented a good race effort.
In the case of the Ohio Backyard Ultra, I learned a lot. People shared their training with me that I now implement into my daily routine. I learned how to strengthen my joints so my knees wouldn’t hurt during races. I changed up my diet for both training and races and learned how to avoid stomach issues. Most importantly, in the wise words of the lady who gave me Pepto Bismol, I learned “It’s not a proper ultra unless everything goes wrong”. Speaking of, the other competitors were fantastic. Out of 100 people 71 people would run over 12 hours, 62 would run through the dark winter night with no sleep, and 29 would hit 100 miles. Insane! I’m grateful for the experience and for the lessons learned that I was able to apply to my 8 other races I had throughout 2023. I really had a blast out there, and I have major goals for the next time I make it into the Ohio Backyard Ultra.
I love this photo so much.
And now, some shoutouts!
Shoutout to my dad for keeping me alive during the race.
Shoutout to the baby-having lady, the Georgia lady (I hope you enjoyed your 50th ultra experience!), the pepto bismol lady, and the lady from Lap 7.
Shoutout to SEOTR Events (https://www.seotrevents.com/ ) for putting on an incredible race. You guys rock!
Shoutout to Stu (https://www.windingtrailsphotography.com/) and Brandon (https://www.brandonholly.com/) for the sick race photos!
Lastly, shoutout to Joe Rogan for making a heart-failing energy drink that ruined my race. I’ll forgive you if you have me on your podcast.
