Backyard Ultra Record: Over 124 Hours of Running

124 loops, 831 km, five days ⏱️

Merijn Geerts and Ivo Steyaert each completed 124 loops in Retie 📍, in Belgium, covering roughly 831.5 km (516.7 miles) after five days and four hours of running. Geerts is 52 and Steyaert 56: two veterans who know the last-one-standing format inside out. Their performance beats their own shared 2024 benchmark by 13 loops, and sets the bar very high for the next generation 📋.

One loop, one hour, until it breaks 🔁

The principle of the backyard ultra fits in one sentence: you run a 6.706 km loop, and you set off again at the top of the next hour 🕐. Each lap measures exactly 6.706 km, which makes exactly 100 miles in 24 hours. Anyone who doesn't start a loop is eliminated. Beware of the shortcut: 124 yards correspond to 124 hourly race slots, not 124 hours of continuous running ⚠️. Between two loops, athletes only have the time they managed to save. A runner who finishes a loop in 50 minutes gets 10 minutes to eat, change clothes and close their eyes 😴. That's where the race is truly decided.

Why there was no winner in Belgium 🤔

The rule is strict: to be declared the winner, you must complete a loop alone, after everyone else has dropped out 🥇. Neither Geerts nor Steyaert started the 125th loop, which ends their joint performance with no individual winner. It's not a first for them: they had already stopped side by side after 101 loops in 2022, then after 110 loops in 2024 📆. Their decision also sealed the world ranking. They were the last two runners still in the race on the planet, and kept going 17 hours longer after the Americans stopped ⏳.

Phil Gore dethroned after one year

The previous world record belonged to Australian Phil Gore. He completed 119 loops, more than 790 km and nearly five days, in 2025 at Dead Cow Gully in Queensland 🌏. Five more loops means five extra hours spent restarting legs that no longer respond. Among women 👩, the benchmark remains unchanged: 95 loops, or 637 km, by Britain's Sarah Perry at the Big's Backyard Ultra individual world championship in October 2025.

In the final nations ranking, the United States wins with 1,120 loops, ahead of Australia (1,069) 🥈 and Belgium (1,058) 🥉. France finishes 6th with 889 cumulative loops, after a 5th place in 2024 📈.

Want to try the format? 🎯

You don't need to aim for 124 loops to get a taste of it 😉. Most French backyards run between 20 and 50 laps 🔁, and many runners come to see how long they can last, not to win. You'll find upcoming dates on the trail calendar 🌲, and the ultra-trails one 🏔️.