⏵ Course guide · Backyard ultra, Sheyenne National Grasslands
The END-BACKYARD Ultra is a last-runner-standing race on the Oakleaf Trail in the Sheyenne National Grasslands: a 4 mile, 880 foot loop, on the hour, every hour, until only one runner is left standing. I will walk you through the format first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a race measured in consecutive hours, not a single finish line. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official END Racing event page. Check the current year details before you commit. Race logistics can change year to year.
Forget a finish line at a fixed distance. Every runner covers the same 4 mile, 880 foot loop on the Oakleaf Trail, starting precisely on the hour, and the race simply continues until everyone but one runner has failed to complete a yard.
All competitors must be in the starting corral and start together at the bell, no late starts allowed. Each loop must be completed within that hour to count as a finished yard, whatever time is left over after you cross the line is yours to eat, change gear, or rest before the next bell. Miss a start or fail to finish within the hour, and you are out.
The official rules specifically call out no artificial aids of any kind, including trekking poles, which is stricter than some backyard ultras that allow poles late in a race. Common aid stations are permitted on course, but no personal aid or crew support is allowed during the loop itself.
The field is capped at 50 runners, and the event provides parking, campsites, and vaulted toilets onsite, so crew and support logistics are straightforward even though personal aid is not allowed on course.
The real skill in a backyard ultra is not running the loop fast, it is managing the hour around it. Every minute you spend running is a minute you do not get back for eating, resting, or preparing for the next bell.
A comfortable, easy effort that finishes the 4 mile loop in 45 to 55 minutes leaves real recovery time before the next bell, while pushing the loop in 35 to 40 minutes early on burns effort you will want back in the later yards. Use a race-time prediction to sanity-check what a given loop pace does to you across many repeated hours.
Backyard ultras that go well can extend past 24 hours, sometimes into a second or third day. Have a plan for sleep management, gear changes, and mental strategy for the overnight hours even if you expect to be out earlier than that, because the format rewards whoever is best prepared for the scenario they did not plan for.
⏵ Free tools to plan your effort
A backyard ultra gives you a real advantage most ultras do not: a scheduled break every single hour to eat and drink, as long as you manage your loop time well enough to leave room for it.
Since the loop only takes 45 to 55 minutes at a sustainable pace, most of your fueling happens in the leftover minutes before the next bell rather than while running. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour of total elapsed time and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, adjusted upward for late-August North Dakota heat, and use that recovery window to eat real food, not just gels.
If the race extends into the night, appetite often drops even as your body still needs the calories, so have a simpler, easier-to-tolerate overnight menu ready. Warm food and drink can help both fueling and morale once temperatures drop.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight and a late-August North Dakota day 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 training plan built around YOUR fitness and the sustained, repeatable time-on-feet a backyard ultra demands. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the durability hour after hour of loops asks for, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It is a backyard ultra, a last-runner-standing format where every runner completes a 4 mile, 880 foot loop starting precisely on the hour, every hour, on the Oakleaf Trail in the Sheyenne National Grasslands. Anyone who fails to start the next loop on time, or fails to finish a loop within the hour, is out. The race continues until only one runner has completed a yard that nobody else could match.
Every runner starts each loop together, at the bell, precisely one hour after the last loop began. You must complete the roughly 4.17 mile loop within that hour, however fast or slow, and be back in the corral in time for the next bell. There is no early finish credit and no rest beyond whatever time you have left in the hour after finishing your loop. Per the official rules, the winner is simply the last runner to complete a loop, so the race continues, hour after hour, until everyone else has failed to finish one in time.
The next edition starts Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 7:00am CDT. There is no fixed finish time since the format runs until only one runner remains, so the event could realistically finish that same evening or extend for days depending on the field.
The physical distance is manageable, a 4 mile loop is not a hard effort on its own, but the format is brutal because you get almost no real rest: whatever time you do not spend running the loop is spent on the clock for the next one, eating, changing gear, or trying to sleep in small windows. Multi-day backyard ultras become genuine sleep-deprivation challenges as much as running ones, and the no-trekking-poles rule means you are managing that fatigue on your own two legs the whole way.
A capped field of 50 runners on a single loop keeps the logistics simple and social, which makes it a reasonable place to try the format for the first time. Go in expecting to learn the format's real lesson early: managing the hour around the loop, not the loop itself, is what determines how long you last. A realistic first goal is to survive several yards and treat finishing as many as you comfortably can as a genuine win, rather than expecting to contend for the overall.
Because you get a full hour for a loop that likely takes 45 to 55 minutes at an easy effort, fueling can happen mostly in the minutes after each loop rather than while running, which is a real advantage over a straight-through ultra. Aim for a steady intake of real food and fluids between loops, roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour of total elapsed time and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, adjusted for late-August North Dakota heat. Build your own numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/end-backyard-ultra">The END-BACKYARD Ultra course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/end-backyard-ultra" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="END-BACKYARD Ultra course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The date, rules, and course details come from the official END Racing site and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.
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