A race with no finish line

About nine hundred runners from sixty-seven nations, including fifteen Australians, started the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship at eleven pm on Saturday at Kembla Grange in New South Wales Illawarra.

How the race works

Each athlete completes a six point seven kilometre course loop on the hour, every hour, until one runner remains.

Jonathan Ash's painful exit

Jonathan Ash was the first Australian to pull out on Monday afternoon after exceeding the hour limit on his forty-first lap.

“Basically every muscle in my body started to get knotted at some point.”

Australia's endurance record

Jonathan Ash, forty-three, is the second-ever Australian to complete one hundred laps, equal to six hundred seventy kilometres, over four days in two thousand twenty-four.

Brandon Lee Gretch's personal best

Melbourne's Brandon Lee Gretch tapped out after lap seventy-three about midnight on Wednesday. The thirty-two-year-old said he was proud of his effort, having achieved a personal best despite pain down his back from about yard…

“It was hell.”

The origins of Backyard Ultra

Backyard ultras were invented fifteen years ago by Gary Lazarus Lake Cantrell and hosted at his Bell Buckle property in Tennessee.

Two Australians remain

All but one Australian runner ran more than sixty kilometres, but only two passed the eighty kilometre mark.

The final push

Dan Camac and Ben Nicholls were hoping to reach one hundred hours, which would be Thursday morning.

“When there is only two left, they really need to work together.”

Dan Camac finishes for Australia

Dan Camac was the last Australian left standing, completing the eighty-seventh lap. The Australian team finished the event with a combined one thousand sixty-nine laps.