⏵ Course guide · Sacramento backyard ultra
The Bad Ass Backyard Ultra hands you a 4.16-mile loop and one hour to complete it, over and over, until only one runner is left standing. I will walk you through how the format actually works first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a tight hourly turnaround, plus free calculators to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official race website. Check the current year details and registration status before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.
There is no finish distance in a backyard ultra. Every runner completes the same 4.16-mile loop, then waits for the next hourly bell, and the race only ends when everyone but one runner has failed to start or finish a yard.
Each loop, called a "yard," covers 4.16 miles with about 30 feet of elevation gain at Dry Creek Parkway, just north of Sacramento. That is close to flat by trail standards, which puts the emphasis squarely on pacing discipline and recovery between loops rather than technical terrain.
You must be in the starting corral at the bell, with warnings at 3, 2, and 1 minute out and no late starts permitted. Once the bell rings, you get no assistance until you complete that yard, and you cannot leave the course except for restrooms. No artificial aids, including trekking poles, are allowed, and slower runners must let others pass.
The last runner to complete a full yard wins. If no one can complete one more loop than everyone else, there is no winner at all. Every other participant is technically recorded as a DNF, no matter how many yards they banked, which is the defining, sometimes brutal, logic of the format.
Since every yard must fit inside one hour and the course barely climbs, the real skill in a backyard ultra is running each loop just fast enough to bank real recovery time before the next bell, for as many hours as it takes.
Running a 4.16-mile loop in 40 to 45 minutes early on might feel easy, but it only banks you 15 to 20 minutes of rest before the next bell, and that gap shrinks as fatigue accumulates over many hours. A race-time estimate built from your training helps you find a loop pace you can genuinely hold for a long day, not just the first few yards.
Because there is no overall finish line to save effort for, think in terms of surviving the current yard and the recovery window after it, not the event as a whole. A grade-adjusted pace target still helps on the modest terrain, but consistency across dozens of repeated efforts matters more than raw speed on any single loop.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Since aid is not allowed on course after the bell rings, all your fueling has to happen in the window between finishing one yard and starting the next, which shrinks as the hours pass.
Aim for roughly 200 to 300 calories in the gap between yards, built from foods and drinks you know your stomach tolerates under repeated stress. Practice this exact routine in training, since a backyard ultra punishes any fueling plan that takes longer than your recovery window allows.
Sodium in the 300 to 500 mg per liter range is a reasonable starting point, and a late March morning near Sacramento can run cool early with warmer stretches by midday, so build flexibility into your plan for however many hours you end up on course.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your target loop count, and a repeated hourly format with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.
⏵ Train for it with Summit Line
Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness and a hourly loop format that rewards consistency over speed. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for sustained repeated efforts, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It is a Backyard Ultra: every runner must complete a 4.16-mile loop, the "yard," within one hour, then a new yard starts on the next hour whether you are ready or not. Warnings sound at 3, 2, and 1 minute before each start. Miss the bell, and you are out. The race continues until only one runner is still completing yards, and that person is the sole winner. Everyone else is officially a DNF, regardless of how far they went.
You must be in the starting corral at the bell, with no late starts allowed. Aside from restroom breaks, you cannot leave the course until you complete a loop. No non-participants, including runners who have already been eliminated, are allowed on the course, and you get no assistance or aid after the bell rings until you finish that yard. Artificial aids, including trekking poles, are not permitted, and slower runners must yield to those passing.
Because you get a fixed window between the end of one loop and the start of the next, your entire fueling strategy has to fit inside that gap, not spread across the loop itself since aid after the bell is not allowed. Aim for roughly 200 to 300 calories and 300 to 500 mg of sodium in the minutes you have between yards, adjusting as the hours accumulate and your stomach tolerance shifts. Build a baseline hourly plan with the free ultra fueling calculator, then rehearse the tight turnaround before race day.
There is no set finish distance. Your total mileage is simply 4.16 miles times however many yards you complete before either dropping or being the last one standing. A strong field regularly pushes well past 100 miles (24 yards), and the format is intentionally open-ended rather than built around a target distance.
The 4.16-mile yard at Dry Creek Parkway carries about 30 feet of elevation gain, essentially flat by ultrarunning standards, which is typical for a backyard ultra format where the terrain is rarely the limiting factor. What actually ends most runners’ days is the hourly restart discipline and accumulated fatigue, not the climbing.
B.A.B.U. is an affiliated Backyard Ultra event, which means finishers are eligible to earn a spot representing a National Team at the Satellite Team Championships and the World Individual Championships, both hosted at Big’s Backyard Ultra in Tennessee. The race is listed on BigsBackyardUltra.com as part of that affiliated event network.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/bad-ass-backyard-ultra">The Bad Ass Backyard Ultra course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/bad-ass-backyard-ultra" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Bad Ass Backyard Ultra course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The event details, rules, and format come from public sources and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.
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