Sole Survivor Backyard Ultra 2026

Sole Survivor Backyard Ultra is a last-runner-standing ultramarathon centered on a repeated task: start a 4.16-mile loop at the top of every hour and return before the next hour begins. Finish in time and you line up again; miss the cutoff and your race ends with a DNF. The format resets the clock after every lap, so a runner who jogs in with minutes to spare and a runner who arrives just before the bell are equal when the next loop starts. The distance increases in plain, brutal chunks: seven loops make a marathon, eight make 50K, twelve make 50 miles, and twenty-four make 100 miles. Anyone reaching 24 hours earns a custom Sole Survivor belt buckle, while the overall winner receives entry into Big’s Backyard Ultra plus airfare support. The race follows the backyard-ultra model inspired by Lazarus Lake’s Big’s Backyard Ultra, with a single aid station, a BBQ at dusk, hot soup through the night shift, and runners slowly determining who can keep answering the bell the longest.