Timed races

Pick a loop, any loop: 1 km, 5 km, 10 km, whatever. Add a fixed duration: 3h, 6h, 12h, sometimes 24h straight ⏰. The idea of a timed race can be summed up in one sentence: cover that loop as many times as possible before time runs out 😄. No mileage announced at the start, no medal calibrated for a specific distance. Just you, a clock, and a lap count that’s only revealed at the finish 🏁.

This format gave birth to an even more radical variant: Backyard races. Invented in 2011 by the American Lazarus Lake (Gary Cantrell), its principle eliminates rather than times: each runner must complete their loop before the next start signal, or be knocked out ❌. Rest time between loops then becomes the only luxury granted, until only one survivor remains ☝️. American Megan Eckert currently holds the women’s record in the discipline: 583.4 km covered in 87 hours without interruption 🤯.

In a classic timed race, on the other hand, no one is eliminated: everyone manages their own clock 🕰️. This freedom hides a formidable trap, because without a finish line to anticipate, it becomes tempting to start too fast, carried by early-race energy (until the following hours come to collect their due) ⚡️. The real skill here isn’t speed, but the art of dosing your effort when you don’t know where the end is, accepting to slow down long before you’re exhausted 🥱. Organizers, volunteers and spectators stay posted in the same place throughout the race, creating rare closeness: you pass the same encouraging faces every time, lap after lap 🫂.

In Le Faouët, in Morbihan, the 24h Trail de Bretagne keeps competitors moving on a hilly loop of 6 km and 220 mD+ around the Sainte-Barbe chapel, with mandatory night sections on the 6h, 12h and 24h 🕛 formats. Walking becomes the go-to for many competitors at the 24 heures de Villenave d'Ornon, in Gironde : four timed distances coexist on the same loop of 1,100 meters, solo or as a relay. You also have the Trailwalker Oxfam, in Dieppe, which pushes the logic even further by doing away with the notion of solo altogether: teams of four walkers commit together to cover 100 km in under 30 hours, in support of the Oxfam charity 💝.

The atmosphere changes, but the mechanics remain identical on the other side of borders ✈️. The Baku Ultra Endurance, in a public park in the heart of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, has you running under the lights of the Flame Towers with the Caspian Sea as a backdrop 🌊. In the district of Morges, in Switzerland, the Hybrid Ultra takes up the Backyard mechanics on a 6.7 km loop to be repeated every hour for 24h. The promised reward at the finish: a different Swiss specialty at each recovery hour, between fondue and raclette 🫕. At the gates of the Moroccan Sahara, near M'Hamid El Ghizlane, the 24h du Loup imposes yet another format: 4 km to be covered every hour, for 24h, in complete self-sufficiency, with no notion of ranking 🫣.

One question remains to settle before you sign up: aim for an introductory format of a few hours, just to test the mechanics of the concept without leaving too much leg there, or dive straight into the deep end of the 24h, which generally separates the curious from the committed? 🤔

The Finishers calendar of Backyard races is waiting for you if the “elimination” version of the format intrigues you more than the “everyone runs their own race” version 🤓.