iStockphoto / Onnes
Backyard ultramarathons have really caught on in recent years with members of the running community who want to punish not only their bodies but also their minds. The first-ever ‘last man standing’ $1 Backyard Ultra in NYC was held last weekend in Manhattan and it made history along the way.
The concept is: run a lap within an hour and then do it again the next hour, and so on until there is only one person left standing. It is a ‘last man standing‘ competition and runners can fall out from not completing the lap (usually around 4 miles) within the specified period of time or by tapping out themselves.
So unlike a 100 or 250-mile ultramarathon, a backyard ultra requires that you keep going until you cannot physically take another step, or you are DQ’d.
$1 Backyard Ultra Marathon In NYC
The first-ever $1 backyard ultra went down in Manhattan over the weekend. It was the brainchild of two gentlemen: Victor Zeitoune (@vic_zee) and Austin (@austinoffthegrid).
For this particular $1 Backyard Ultra, competitors would put $1 in a jar for each lap they ran and the last man (or woman) standing got to keep all the cash. They also received prizes along the way like a t-shirt for running 2 laps and a camping chair for running 4 laps.
In a recent Instagram post, Austin explained more about how the $1 Backyard Ultra in NYC came about. Austin said the idea for the $1 Backyard Ultra came about when he and Vic “thought of a silly idea over burgers one day and made it happen.” He added that “underneath that, at least for me was a desire to share a sport that’s reshaped and changed the trajectory of my life.”
Pushing the limits in lower Manhattan
Praising the event, Austin said “I’m blown away by the number of people who set distance PRs this weekend. blown away by the number of people who stepped up to break through their barriers of ‘perceived impossible.'”
This ultra marathon took place in lower Manhattan. The course was a 4-mile loop from the Westside Highway in West Village down to the Staten Island Ferry in Battery Park, and back.
Competitors had 1-hour to run that 4 mile loop from the West Village down to the lower tip of Manhattan and back. If they did it in under an hour they could run the next lap. They’d drop a dollar in the jar and set off again.
Winning the first-ever $1 Backyard Ultra in NYC was @runwithkieran. He ran for a whopping 25 hours and 102+ miles until he was the last man standing and got to keep the jar full of $1 bills.
Is he rich now?
The short answer is ‘no,’ he is not. In an Instagram post, the official @onedollarultra account shared that the jar accumulated $395 in total.
With that much money in there, it came out to an average of 6.9 laps per competitor or just shy of 28 miles ran (on average) by everyone who participated.
There was $30 extra in the jar, not included in those averages, from competitors started late and ran a few extra laps just to participate.
Ultimately, $395 is a sizable chunk of cash. But it is a LOT cooler as a trophy.
Having that huge jar of $1 bills on your mantle as running trophy for winning the first-ever $1 Backyard Ultra in Manhattan would be a lot cooler than spending that $395 on a meal in lower Manhattan after the race. So I sincerely hope he kept the cash.
How does 102 miles compare to other backyard ultras?
Last month, the Dead Cow Gully ‘Last Man Standing’ race took place in Texas. It was a very similar format to this one in Manhattan but without the caveat of putting a dollar in a jar for every lap.
The winner in that race made history, running 495.87 miles over the span of 5 days.
Running 102 miles on concrete throughout lower Manhattan is an incredible achievement over 25 hours. But it does pale in comparison to Aussie Phil Gore who ran nearly 500 miles in 5 days.