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⏵ Course guide · Columbia River Gorge backyard ultra

Lastest Not Fastest Course Guide

Lastest Not Fastest is a last-person-standing backyard ultra on Hamilton Island beside North Bonneville, Washington, in the Columbia River Gorge. There is no finish line. You run a 4.13 mile loop with 103 feet of gain on the hour, every hour, until you are the last one still moving. I will walk you through the loop and the format first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a race that never tells you how far you are going, with free calculators along the way.

⏵ At a glance

Lastest Not Fastest quick facts

Date
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Location
Hamilton Island, beside North Bonneville, Washington, in the Columbia River Gorge
Format
Backyard / last person standing: a 4.13 mi loop on the hour, every hour
Distance
Open-ended; keeps going one loop at a time until one runner remains
Loop
4.13 miles, 103 ft of gain, mostly flat with one climb of about 30 ft
Cutoff
Per loop: finish in under 60 minutes and start the next loop on the hour, or you are out
Bib pickup
Saturday, 7:30 to 8:30 AM (photo ID required)
Organizer
Go Beyond Racing (Portland, Oregon)

These facts come from the official Go Beyond Racing race page. The backyard format has no set distance and rules can shift year to year, so confirm the current specifics before you plan anything. This is a different race from the unrelated "Bonneville Backyard Ultra" run by another organizer in the same area.

The loop and the format: where it is won and lost

Forget elevation profiles and finish splits. At Lastest Not Fastest the course is the same 4.13 mile loop run over and over, and the race is really a contest of who can keep doing that the longest. The loop is flat, scenic, and forgiving. The hard part is the clock and your own head, not the hills.

The loop: 4.13 miles, 103 ft, on the hour

Every hour, everyone starts the 4.13 mile loop together. Finish it in 40 minutes and you get about 19 minutes to rest, refuel, and deal with your feet before the next start. Take 50 minutes and you have just 9. Take 60 minutes or longer and you are done. That 14:32 average pace sounds easy on paper, but the math is the trap: a slow loop early costs you rest you will desperately want later.

The route runs alongside the Columbia River before heading into forest near the Bonneville Dam, passing a few historical markers along the way. About halfway around, you cross a road and take on the course’s one real climb, roughly 30 feet high, before wrapping around the south end of North Bonneville into open fields on the island’s western end and finishing back near the parking lot where you started.

Crew, aid, and the start-finish area

Crew is optional here. The last-person-standing format means you do not strictly need support, and plenty of runners do it solo. But because you return to the same start/finish area every hour, it is easy to set up your own aid station with your preferred food, and having a friend there to help you reset quickly between loops is a real advantage when the hours stack up.

One rule matters more than any other: you must start each loop on the hour with everyone else, and you cannot leave the course during that hour to rest at your car and come back later. It is fine to carry aid with you and pause somewhere on the course, but you have to stay on it while you do.

Pacing strategy for a race with no finish line

Pacing a backyard ultra is not about a goal time, because there is no goal distance. It is about picking a loop pace you can hold for as long as it takes and protecting your rest window.

Pick a loop time you can repeat all day

On a flat, 103 ft loop like this one, the target is a comfortable, repeatable pace that leaves you real rest every hour, not a pace that feels good on loop one. Many runners aim for something in the 40 to 45 minute range early to bank 15 to 20 minutes of recovery, then adjust as fatigue builds. Use a grade-adjusted pace to dial in what effort actually holds up over many hours on mostly flat, runnable terrain.

The number-one mistake is treating an early loop like a race and burning effort you do not need to spend. All that buys you is a slightly longer rest at the cost of legs you will want later. Run it boring and consistent. That is the whole strategy.

⏵ Free tools to plan your loops

Fueling and the mental game, loop by loop

A backyard ultra can run long, so fueling is not a single race-day plan, it is a routine you repeat every hour. The start/finish area is your aid station, and the runner who keeps eating on schedule outlasts the one who is simply fitter.

Eat every loop, before you feel like you need it

Because the loops are short and the effort is easy relative to a straight-through ultra, your stomach can usually handle real food here, and you should use that. Aim for a steady stream of carbohydrate every hour, and keep sodium and fluid topped up the same way rather than waiting until you feel depleted. Stage your food at the start/finish area so it is in your hand the second you finish a loop, because decision-making gets harder the longer the day goes.

The mental game builds as the hours stack up

On a gentle, mostly flat loop like this one, the real test is not the terrain, it is repetition and the ticking hourly clock. Break the day into single loops rather than thinking about how long the whole thing might go. Get back to the start/finish, sit down, eat, deal with your feet, and tell yourself you only have to do one more loop. Then do that again.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight and a repeating-loop effort 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 kind of relentless time-on-feet a backyard ultra demands. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the durability the format asks for, and rehearses your fueling so the loops become something you execute, not guess at.

Start free →Explore the demo

Lastest Not Fastest FAQ

How does Lastest Not Fastest work?

It is a backyard ultra: a last-person-standing format where every runner heads out on a 4.13 mile loop at the top of every hour. Finish quickly and you bank the leftover minutes to eat and reset before the bell. Finish slowly and you get almost nothing before you have to go again. Take 60 minutes or longer and you are done. There is no fixed distance and no finish line. Runners keep going, one loop at a time, until a single person is still moving when everyone else has stopped.

How hard is Lastest Not Fastest?

The loop itself is gentle, just 103 feet of gain over 4.13 miles with one climb of about 30 feet, so this is not a vert-heavy race. The difficulty is entirely the format: the same loop over and over with a hard hourly deadline, and the fatigue and sleep loss that build the longer it goes. A 40-minute loop banks you nearly 20 minutes of rest. A 55-minute loop leaves you almost none, and that gap compounds fast over many hours.

What is the course like at Lastest Not Fastest?

The loop runs along the Columbia River before heading into forest near the Bonneville Dam, passing historical markers along the way. About halfway, runners cross a road and take on the course’s one real climb, roughly 30 feet high, then wrap around the south end of North Bonneville into open fields on the western part of the island before finishing back at the start/finish area near the parking lot. It is scenic, runnable, and repeatable, which is exactly the point of a backyard course.

What is the cutoff at Lastest Not Fastest?

Every hour is its own cutoff. Runners start each loop together on the hour and have 60 minutes to complete the 4.13 mile course. Miss that window, or fail to start the next loop with everyone else, and you are finished. There is no overall time limit because there is no set distance, just a repeating hourly deadline that keeps going until one runner outlasts the field.

How should I fuel for a backyard ultra like this?

Because the loop is short and the effort is easy relative to a straight-through ultra, your stomach can generally handle real food better here than in a flat-out race. Use every loop as an aid stop: eat a steady amount of carbohydrate each hour, keep sodium and fluids topped up, and set up your own aid at the start/finish area since crew is optional but the format rewards having food and gear staged and ready to grab. Decide your eating plan before hour one, because by hour ten you will not want to think about it.

Is Lastest Not Fastest a good first backyard ultra?

The gentle, mostly flat loop and generous 60-minute window make this a reasonable entry point into the backyard format compared to hillier or more technical yards. The real test is still the format itself: repeating the same loop under a hard hourly deadline for as long as the field lasts. If you have run a straight ultra before and want to try last-person-standing racing without also fighting serious elevation, this is a fair place to start.

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This guide is independent and for planning only. The format, date, course, and entry rules 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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