The Road to Big’s

If you’ve heard anything about Backyard Ultras you’ll know there are two races that are the highlight of the Backyard calender. First is Big’s Backyard Ultra, the original race in laz’s literal back yard in Tennessee and now the World Individual Championship Race. Second, the World Team Championships, first held during COVID travel restrictions in 2020. But did you know that every single backyard race is an opportunity to qualify for either of these races? Heard about bronze, silver and gold tickets and the “at-large” list, but confused what it all means? This post aims to explain it all as simply as possible – we promise!

Note: this is written from a UK perspective. The process is the same for other countries, but you’ll need to look up the exact distances and qualifying races on backyardultra.com yourself.

Note #2: all the graphics were produced by Rasselbock Running and re-used with permission.

Big’s Backyard Ultra

The Individual World Championship is held every other year in October at Lazarus Lake’s very own backyard in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, the site of the very first Backyard Ultra back in 2011. It alternates with the World Team Championship. You might remember that we were on the UK team for the 2024 Team Championship, so in October 2025 its the turn of the Individual Championship. Qualification for the race is open for a two year period (16th August 2023 to 15th August 2025) but it’s already a mammoth task to secure a slot. Of the 75 spaces at the event, 50 are given to the each country’s champion from the World Team Championships races. Winning your country’s Championship race with a minimum of 24 yards gives you a Golden Ticket straight in to Big’s. In 2025, the UK will be represented by Sarah Perry, who won the UK race with a total of 59 yards.

That leaves 25 spaces which are filled by the runners who record the highest number of yards at any Backyard Ultra event during the qualifying period (this is the global At-Large List). A big run at any event until the 15th August 2025 could earn you a spot, but beware! At the time of writing, the 75th slot is held by runners with 82 yards, so you’ll need to run 83 or more to qualify. The UK record holder Matt Blackburn is on the list with 87 yards, so it looks likely that 2 UK runners will be booking their tickets to Tennessee once the qualifying period ends. A few big results in the Spring though and Matt might have a nervous summer… You can find the latest list and watch it change throughout the year on backyardultra.com.

World Team Championships

If you don’t fancy your chances of running 85-ish yards, a (slightly) more achievable goal is to qualify for the UK team. The next World Team Championships will be held in October 2026, so we are quite near the start of the two year qualifying period which runs from 16th August 2024 to 15th August 2026. This qualifying period overlaps half of the qualifying period for Big’s, so any run between August 2024 and August 2025 counts for both. The key dates are shown below:

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that qualification period is split into two halves. The first half (August 2024 to August 2025) contains some Bronze Ticket races, and the second half (August 2025 to August 2026) has four Silver Ticket races. Similar to the Golden Ticket to Big’s, if you win a Silver Ticket race, you book yourself an automatic spot on the UK team. Iain earned his spot on the 2024 UK team by winning Pig on the Hill BYU which was the final Silver Ticket races in the previous qualifying period. The 4 UK Silver Ticket races were announced last week on the Rasselbock Backyard livestream and here they are:

The trouble with the Silver Ticket races is they are already popular and often sell out quickly, and that’s where the Bronze Ticket races come in. If you manage to win one of this year’s Bronze Ticket race you automatically earn a spot in one of the Silver Ticket races – even if it is already sold out. It’s also common (at race director’s discretion) to offer Bronze Ticket holders a free or steeply-discounted entry. The Bronze Ticket races are grouped by region, so check the graphic below to see which ones will earn you a spot in each of the four Silver Ticket races:

All making sense so far? One last thing to mention… each national team for the World Team Championships has 15 members. Four go to the Silver Ticket holders and the remaining eleven are made up of the runners with the highest number of yards recorded at any event during the qualifying period. At the moment it will take you a run of 39 yards or more to get onto the team, but expect this to increase rapidly! There’s plenty of time for any of the runners currently on the list to be knocked off before the end of the qualifying period.

We hope that all makes some sense. It can be a bit overwhelming, but there are two key things to remember:

  • Long runs will get you onto the at-large list.
  • Winning Bronze gets you in to Silver, winning Silver gets you in to the UK Team, and winning the UK Team Gold gets you to Big’s.

Simple!

Julie is already on the UK team list for 2026 thanks to her 48 yards run at the Team Championships in October, but it’s far from secure with many big events coming. The 2024 Backyard Ultra season has already started with the Longbridge and Trails & Tarmac BYUs taking place last weekend. We’ll be starting our own season at the Rasselbock BYU in March. Looking forward to seeing some of you there 👋

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