Wayout Backyard Ultra 2025

This weekend I ran Wayout Backyard Ultra 2025 - a backyard ultra trail race at Fort Østerlund in Silkeborg.

First things first: I completed 20 hours of running. Or 20 “yards” (/rounds/loops). Resulting in 134 kilometers. Last year, same race, I completed 17 rounds - so this time I added 3 more to that. This makes it my record within Backyard Ultras - longest time and distance covered in this kind of run.

The race took place in Fort Østerlund, a bit outside Silkeborg city. Since I didn’t really know when I would finish this race I had prepared my car such that I could sleep in it if the need should come (it didn’t); a sleeping bag, pillow, changing clothes etc. Ahem … sorry … the car wasn’t super vacuum cleaned before 😬. Anyways - parked that and picked up my race bib:

Last year I brought a little tent and it worked ok. However, this year, the race organizers offered an opportunity to share a table for 4 runners in a big tent right outside the backyard starting/finish line; so I took that option instead this year:

That was totally awesome! Sharing a table with 3 other runners was super amazing. See … I was at this race alone, so it made it a bit more fun for me to be close to other runners for socializing. In between the rounds we typically met there at our table and exchanged some encouraging words to eachother and/or just generally talked a little bit about this and that. It was really great - next year I will try to get such a shared table place again.

The race started Friday evening at 20:00 hours CET. At that time it was dark already. This also meant that us 163 runners headed out to run in the night; warm clothes and headlamps on!

Running in the night was super much influenced by solo-runs - I (for one) generally didn’t talk a lot with other runners out there on the route. Only a little bit. We mostly followed the trail of headlamp lights around the lake and forest paths. Back at the tents before the next loop(s) there was plenty of socializing; good mood, eating, drinking (not alcohol … for most .. haha: some did actually drink beers 🤯).

It felt like a long night … the sun rised at around 06:00 CET (so roughly 10 hours after the start). That also meant that many runners had stopped. Which is extremely unfortunate since they never got to experience the lovely lovely route in full daylight. I am so happy and greatful that I had the endurance to push through the night and into the day. With the daylight came a renewed energy surge for me. And the talks suddenly exploded out there on the runs too: I began to run with different runners for a while. Enjoying very good talks with very interesting and kind people. Nothing beats being in something hard together. It has a tendency to make it easy to talk to eachother 🤗.

My wife and children had promised to come and cheer for me Saturday. So I had to keep on running until then. The problem was … we never agreed on a time at which they would come. So imagine that 🤣 … as the time ticked to 09:00, 10:00, 11:00 … I just kept on running. I had to - I couldn’t have them visit me and then I would be sleeping in the car 🤣. But they finally arrived (my wife and 2 boys) and cheered for me … it was wonderful ❤️. Here’s a few photos my wife took:

It turned out I had good legs. No sign of injuries. In fact I ran some of the fastest rounds at the later part of the race. At some point I was on top of the leaderboard 🤩 (Pssst: don’t tell anybody … but in a backyard ultra, speed actually doesn’t matter at all):

I knew I had to do better than last year (17 rounds). So when I reached 20 rounds (also “hours”) I decided to call it a day. Despite feeling super strong I did not really want to keep on running for more hours. Rather: I wanted to end on a high note and stop while the daylight was still there and then enjoy some family time. And … ahem … McDonalds … you know for the boys. So that was it - I went to the race volunteers and proudly asked for my DNF medal:

In a backyard ultra, everybody will DNF … except from the last man running. Only one can ever complete it.

Recommended?

Yes! Absolutely - highly recommended.

Backyard ultras are a fantastic format. It is super social. It allows all levels of runners to push their own limits if they so choose. Since focus in not on being fast, everybody has time for each other. Nobody is truly in a hurry. It’s a crazy format - and I love it.

This particular race in Fort Østerlund is extremely well arranged. Everything is fantastic: the smiling and charming race organizers, the unbeaten beautiful route, the food served by the race organizers at certain hours, the venue where you can put up a tent, the shared tent, the toilet and bath facilities (ok well… they work… may not be lovely …but in an ultra you don’t care when you are in need 😆). Everything is just so incredibly good.

I will for sure be back again next year! And … let’s see how long I am willing to go then. If I can, then I promise already now that it will be longer than this year 👊🏻.

This race gets my full 5-star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (and it would get more if I could allow more!)