Wayout Backyard Ultra 2026

Back at it for the third time! Wayout Backyard Ultra 2026 — a backyard ultra trail race at Fort Østerlund in Silkeborg. This year I completed 21 loops (yards) covering 140.7 kilometers over 21 hours. And yes — a new PB 🎉!

Before the race

The race started Friday at 20:00 — after sunset, so already completely dark. But since I arrived about three hours early I got to experience Fort Østerlund with some afternoon daylight still lingering 🌅. That was a nice bonus!

Arriving early meant I could claim a good spot in the shared tent ⛺️ — something I had been lucky enough to book in advance. Lots of tables inside, so I just picked one. Each table was typically shared by 2-4 runners. And I struck gold when Matti decided to sit next to me 🤗. I knew Matti from a few other races, so having a familiar face right there from the start was absolutely brilliant.

I also caught up with Mads — my colleague from LEGO 🥳. Almost a year ago I convinced him to sign up for this, his very first backyard ultra. So this was finally the moment of truth for him too 😄! He came prepared with his own tent, which he later put to very good use during the night hours and early morning when he needed to sleep.

During the race

At 19:30 the Race Director kicked off his pre-race briefing. He even made us take an oath — something along the lines of acknowledging we knew what we were getting into, and that yes, theoretically we could die from it 🤣. You know, the usual stuff 😆. Then, just before sending us off, he transformed into a full-on ultra-running music DJ 🎶🎵 … hip hop style 😎😉. Brilliant way to get the energy up!

And off we went — straight into the night on the 6.7K yard/loop. I ran with Mads for a while, but we got separated at some point when I had to make a bio break 🚽. The sheer number of runners out there was something else: 235 starters — the biggest backyard crowd I’ve ever been part of. You might think that’s chaotic, but it was actually great; fantastic energy, and everyone was mindful about not causing queues on the single-track trails.

During the night I was noticeably less chatty than usual. I think it was simply down to needing to concentrate on not tripping over roots and branches 😬. The route is 100% trail — absolutely delicious, but in the dark it’s occasionally quite technically demanding to navigate safely.

Fun fact: with just a few minutes to go before race start, it began to rain 🌧️. Of course it did 🤣. The gentle rain then continued on and off throughout much of the night. Honestly, it wasn’t terrible — just a bit wet and a few muddy patches on the trail, but nothing catastrophic.

Throughout the race my energy strategy was simple: a baseline of 40g carbs per hour, plus “whatever would go down” 🍬. Concretely, that meant either a SiS Energy Gel or half a bottle of SiS energy drink 🥤, plus some chocolate-fuelled bread and small cakes 😆. My electrolyte strategy was roughly 500mg sodium every two hours (plus some potassium, magnesium, etc.) ⚡. I believe the energy strategy was sufficient — but I may need to increase the electrolytes a bit in future races.

At around 07:00, the long-awaited daylight finally arrived 🥳🤩. What an absolutely unbeatable feeling that is. Suddenly the whole route opened up — running along and around the lakes, the uphill hikes and downhills — all properly visible. The requirement to carefully watch every footstep became so much less demanding, and the whole experience just elevated instantly.

After 12 hours (08:00) we celebrated 50 miles. After 15 hours (11:00) we celebrated 100K 💪🏻. And by then I was definitely starting to feel the effort. The particularly tough thing about this route is the 100 meters of elevation gain and loss per loop. The relentless cumulative downhill started leaving its mark on my quads, and I wasn’t the only one noticing — I could hear fellow runners grumbling about exactly the same thing 😆. Honestly, I had completely forgotten that was such a challenge from the previous years. And to make it worse, I hadn’t done much elevation-focused training in the past six months, so it probably hit harder than it otherwise would have.

After around 18 hours I genuinely felt done. I actually texted my wife to say she could come and pick me up — I was ready to stop. But after texting with her, I decided I’d at least push to round 20 to match my 2025 result. My legs were trashed and I started to doubt that I would make the 60-minute cutoff in the later rounds.

I set off on round 20 … and somewhere along the way, a thought hit me: “If this is going to be my last round anyway, I might as well just let go and run.” So I did — I pushed through the pain and picked up the pace. And here’s the bizarre thing: the faster I ran, the more the pain vanished. I came in faster than any previous round 😆🤣. Completely absurd.

That left me with only one logical conclusion: if I could do that, then surely I could squeeze out one more round and set a new PB with 21 loops. So that’s exactly what I did. (Though I’ll be honest — I ran round 21 slowly, with legs like bricks 😅.)

I started round 22 … but went straight from the starting line to collect my DNF medal 😆. I also received a specially made Wayout Backyard t-shirt from “ELSK” … because I was among the last twenty-something finishers 🤗.

I’m happy I walked away with a new backyard PB — 21 loops, beating last year’s 20 🎉. That said, I had bigger ambitions going in. But on the day, 21 was what I had. There was absolutely no doubt — I was done.

After the race I went back to the shared tent, sat down on my camping chair, and closed my eyes for 30–50 minutes until my family came to pick me up and drive me home 🙏. Some fellow runners had leftover pizza slices that they generously donated to me — so that’s what I was busy erasing from existence on the way home in the car 🍕😄.

Recommended?

As always: 130% yessir!! 🤩

Wayout Backyard Ultra is a wonderful, wonderful race. Everything is fantastic: race information, a beautiful (yet slightly tough) route, great facilities (toilets, camping, food, venue), an incredible atmosphere (party vibes, happy folks, shared tent energy), milestone celebrations, social media coverage … you name it. There’s a reason I keep coming back year after year — it’s just that damn amazing 🤩.

I will absolutely be back next year. And who knows … maybe 22+ loops? 👊🏻

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️