This year’s edition of the race that started the backyard ultramarathon craze, the 2025 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra, saw Sarah Perry of the U.K. set a new women’s record of 95 “yards,” totaling 395.8 miles (637.0 kilometers).
Perry exceeded the prior women’s record of 87 yards, or 362 miles (583.3 kilometers), which was set by Megan Eckert (U.S.) at last year’s Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra, by eight laps, or 33.3 miles (53.6 kilometers). Eckert also raced this year and was the second-to-last woman standing with 92 yards, or 383.3 miles (616.8 kilometers). After 95 hours of racing around 4.1667-mile (6.705 kilometers) laps, Perry exited the race, citing an increasingly sore back, with nine men left to continue.
Sarah Perry ending her 2025 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra after 95 laps, totaling 395.8 miles, a new women’s backyard world record. Photo: INOV8/Jacob Zocherman
For those unfamiliar with the backyard ultra format, which was created by Gary Cantrell, aka Laz, of Barkley Marathons fame, racers complete laps of a 4.1667-mile course, called a yard in backyard ultra speak, starting each lap at the top of the hour. Runners continue until they either miss the one-hour cutoff or choose not to continue on. The format of racing has become popular around the world, and the Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra is considered the world championships of the format. The world championships alternate between crowning a winning team and a winning individual each year. For this particular event, racers switch between running a lap that is part trail during the 11 hours of daylight and a pure road lap for the remaining 13 hours of the day. It doesn’t matter how fast they run each lap; runners just need to be back in the start corral when the next lap starts on the hour.
This year’s race, which is held in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, started at 7:00 a.m. local time on Saturday, October 18, with 75 runners from 40 different countries on the startlist, including the current and a former women’s and men’s world-record holders. Four women lined up for the event this year, including Eckert, who won the 2024 edition of this race with 87 laps, breaking the record set by American Jennifer Russo, who ran 74 yards in 2023. Russo, the oldest competitor at the event this year at 59 years old, was the first woman to stop after completing 52 yards (216.6 miles/335.2 kilometers). Edit Fűrész of Hungary made it 76 laps (316.6 miles/509.6), leaving only Eckert and Perry. Eckert is no stranger to multiday events and is also the current six-day world record holder with 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers) and was able to exceed her old backyard world record by five laps before stopping after 92 laps (383.3 miles/616.8 kilometers). Perry continued on for three more laps, thereby setting the women’s backyard ultra record at 95 yards.
Perry has several years of experience at this race format. She ran and won the overall of her first backyard ultra in 2021 at the Backyard Ultra Cymru in Wales with 20 laps (83.3 miles/134 kilometers), and then she won the overall at the 2022 Cow Shed Backyard Ultra with 33 laps (137.4 miles/221.2 kilometers). She qualified for Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra by winning the U.K. Backyard Ultra World Team Championships with 59 laps (245.8 miles/395.6 kilometers).
Perry on her way to a new women’s backyard ultra world record. Photo: Jacob Zocherman
While still looking strong and completing laps well under the one-hour time requirement, Perry ultimately decided not to go out on her 96th lap due to issues with her back, leaving nine men still running. In addition to setting a women’s backyard ultra world record, her final distance set a new overall U.K. backyard ultra record, exceeding the 87 laps run by Matt Blackburn in 2023.
Of the remaining men in this year’s race, current world record holder Phil Gore (Australia) came away with the win with 114 laps (475.0 miles/764.4 kilometers) with Ivo Steyaert, who was part of the Belgian team that won the team Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra in 2024, as the “assist,” or second-place finisher with 113 laps (470.8 miles/757.7 kilometers). This was short of the current men’s backyard ultra world record of 119 laps (495.8 miles/797.9 kilometers), currently held by Gore himself.
Sarah Perry (center) lining up for a fresh lap at the 2025 Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra. Photo: Jacob Zocherman
