Okay, I like running as much as the next guy.
Assuming the next guy is a 250-pound retired account with bad knees.
But some people really like running. They are willing to run, basically, for three days straight, without sleeping.
In 2011, a man in Bell Buckle, Tennessee named Lazarus Lake (actually, his name is Gary Cantrell) invited some crazy athletes to compete in a “last one standing” footrace on his forested property. Big’s Backyard Ultra. Named after Cantrell’s dog.
The format of the race:
Competitors run a 4.167 mile loop trail (commonly referred to as “a Yard”) every hour, on the hour, as many times as they can, and must finish each Yard in less than an hour. There’s no pause in the race to allow for sleeping. Every hour, on the hour, another 4-mile loop.
Runners drop out of the race, one by one, as they become exhausted and sleep deprived, until only one runner is left to complete the last Yard.
4.167 miles is 1/24th of 100 miles, so in 24 hours, a runner completes 100 miles.
There’s no finish line. Only crazy runners who are ultimately “finished.”
This past Saturday, October 17, about 55,000 competitors in 67 countries around the globe began running 4.167 mile loop trails at the same moment, at 7am CDT. This was Big’s Backyard Ultra World Team Championship 2026. National teams of 15 runners each, completing an average of more than 100 miles per runner in a effort to win a global contest.
From what I can tell, the craziest runners in this competition will run more than 80 “Yards”. Running one “Yard” per hour, that will take more than three days.
You can follow the race finalists this morning (Monday) who have been running since 7am CMT on Saturday.
Big’s Backyard Ultra World Team Championship 2026.
I remember when I told Darlene that I wanted to have a career writing humor columns for an online news website. I can still hear her response.
“Are you crazy? No, I shouldn’t phrase that as a question. You are crazy. Do you have any idea what that job would likely pay?”
I honestly didn’t have any idea.
But I stood my ground.
“I can’t go another day at my job,” I told her.
I was working as a night auditor at a local motel. So technically, it would be “another night at my job.”
“You’re crazy. You just got a raise,” she protested.
That was true. From $16.75 an hour, to $16.95 an hour.
I just didn’t like being called “crazy”. I have an uncle who is really, actually crazy, and I knew I was way, way more sane than he was.
But just how sane was I? Because I did quit my night job and responded to the classified ad for a humor columnist for an online news website.
This all happened while Darlene and I were still married. But just barely married, as it turned out.
I bring this up because different people are crazy in different ways. Some people are willing to run a 4-mile course every hour on the hour, for more than three days straight, without any chance to sleep. These people are not getting paid to do this. They are doing it purely for the glory of it.
I believe the winners get a printed certificate in the mail.
I’m writing for the Daily Post, and considering how little I am paid, it might as well be “for the glory of it.”
In either case, it doesn’t pay to be crazy. Especially when there’s no finish line.
But… the glory of it…
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.