The Story of Will Hayward and Big’s Backyard Ultra

This summer, I am running a race known as a “backyard ultra.” The basic premise of this race is that participants will run 4.167 miles every single hour. Participants will continue running 4.167 miles each hour for as long as they can keep going, with the last person standing being declared a winner.

Sounds kind of crazy, right?

The race that I am running is called the Ode to Laz, set as a tribute to Lazarus Lake. If you know Laz, you probably know him as the founder of The Barkley Marathons, a 100+ mile race through the hills of Tennessee.

For those that have watched the documentary on Netflix about The Barkley Marathons, we have learned a couple of things about Laz and his race. First, we know that the race is extremely difficult. Even though the race has been going on for 30+ years, there have only been 15 finishers to date. We also know that Laz is an extremely eccentric figure. For instance, the entry fee for The Barkley Marathons is $1.60 plus socks, cigarettes, or a license plate.

Big’s Backyard Ultra

What most people don’t know is that Laz also hosts another race called Big’s Backyard Ultra. This is an event that is run in Laz’s backyard and named after his dog, Big. This race is kind of like the world championship for backyard ultra runs. It has also attracted some of the top ultramarathon runners in the world over the past several years.

Last year, Big’s Backyard Ultra was won by Maggie Guterl. She ran 4.167 miles every hour, for 60 consecutive hours. In other words, over a two and a half day period, she covered 250 miles, while only sleeping for 7 or 8 minutes at a time.

Obviously, Maggie is a true competitor and a great champion for Big’s Backyard Ultra.

After she won the race, I read a lot about Maggie and listened to a few podcasts that she did. Although I found Maggie to be extremely hardcore and motivating, she wasn’t the person who I found the most fascinating at this race. For me, the most fascinating person in this race was the second place finisher, Will Hayward.

The story of Will Hayward

Even though a woman had never been the overall winner at Big’s, Maggie Guterl finished 7th overall in 2018 and was one of the favorites during 2019.

However, the second-place finisher was a random, 51 year-old guy named Will. Will had done some hard runs before, but he definitely wasn’t a championship caliber ultramarathon runner (or so we thought). As a matter of fact, he is probably best known for his “death spiral” pictures in Sports Illustrated. Not only did Will look like he was going to drop out of the race, but he actually was planning to drop out at many different points.

But Will ran 245.83 miles.

Will probably should have aimed to run something like 100 or 120 miles. But instead, he kept going even when people were failing all around him.

My backyard ultra

As a beginning ultramarathon runner, I don’t have a very good idea about how I will do in my backyard ultra race. I know that the longest I have ever ran is 62 miles. I also know that the winner of last year’s Ode to Laz race ran 104 miles.

So it makes sense that I will probably end up running somewhere around 50, 60, or 70 miles.

But then I think about Will.

He wasn’t a veteran of dozens of backyard ultras. He was a much more experienced ultramarathon runner than me, but he still hadn’t run anywhere close to the 245 miles that he ran at Big’s Backyard Ultra.

However, Will stretched his limits and ended up breaking through his comfort zone on his path to 245 miles.

My goal in Ode to Laz

So what should my goal be in this race? Should it be 63 miles, which would be my longest run ever? Should it be 50 miles, or 12 consecutive hours of racing? Or maybe my goal should be be to run for a full day and complete 100 miles.

I think that I would be happy if I ended up completing any one of these three goals. However, I decided to set my goal a little bit higher because I am so inspired by Will and his incredible performance.

My goal is 30 hours, or 125 miles.

Just like Will, I shouldn’t be able to run for so long and I will probably end up failing at this goal. So why do I think that I will be able to run for 125 miles?

The short answer is that I don’t think that I can run this far. I am actively seeking failure by setting such an audacious goal. However, just the act of setting this huge goal means that I will probably go farther than would have been possible otherwise.

I could set a goal of running 12 miles, 25 miles, or 40 miles. I probably would even be able to succeed with any one of these goals, but then I would stop when I met the goal.

Setting a crazy goal of 125 miles means that I am pretty much guaranteed to fail. However, it also means that I will be happy with my failure.

Everyone has something huge that they really want to do. However, sometimes this accomplishment is so big that we are afraid to do it and even afraid to think about it. With money, maybe it’s retiring at age 50 or paying for our kids to go to college. With health, maybe it’s running a 10k, bench pressing 200 pounds, or losing 40 pounds. Or maybe there is another huge, impossible dream that you have.

Whatever it is, just remember the story of Will Hayward. Sometimes, the impossible can become reality when we work towards it.

So what can Will inspire you to do this year? Let us know in the comments.

And, as always, thanks for reading!

~Nathan

Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?

• You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
• You can get motivated and get out of debt.
• You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.

But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!