The BACKYARD Genesis 2027

The BACKYARD Genesis is the world championship race for backyard ultrarunning, held in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Runners start at 7 a.m. on a Saturday in October. Everyone runs the same 4.166667-mile loop, called a yard, and has one hour to finish it. If you make it back in time, you line up again at the top of the next hour; if you miss the cutoff or choose not to start, your race is over. There is no fixed finish distance, and everyone still running is tied for first until only one person remains. To win, that last runner must complete one final solo yard. The race uses two loops: a trail route during daylight and a road route after dark. Its sharpest drama comes from the tiny rest windows between yards, where faster runners may earn extra minutes to eat, sit down, or reset, while slower runners can survive for days by staying just ahead of the clock. The field draws top backyard specialists from many countries, and the front of the race can stretch past 100 hours. Harvey Lewis, Ihor Verys, Bartosz Fudali, Phil Gore, Merijn Geerts, Terumichi Morishita, and Claire Bannwarth are among the runners tied to its modern story, with Lewis reaching 108 hours and 450 miles to finish as last person standing and Bannwarth running 60 hours as the last woman standing.