Tag: Multi Day

update on the 2020 golden ticket races:
we now have 39 races that have requested to be considered for golden ticket races in 2020.
these represent 11 states (US) and 2 provinces (canada)
as well as 23 countries.
races that i know of that are not yet on the list are in singapore and japan.
as soon as i have enough information i will add those.

there is no charge to the races to be golden ticket events at this time.
we are just trying to help the backyard concept to flourish.
as it turns out, these are great everybody races.
they require less resources 
and a smaller space than your typical ultra,
and make a great venue for people to pursue personal goals in terms of distance.

in addition, they are just fun events.
rather than the entire field splitting up,
and only seeing a few people around your own ability
(or no one!)
the runners get to spend a lot of time running together,
even runners of disparate ability.

and we all know it is also an ideal venue to test the limits of your will to win!

so i am attaching the file of those races.
anyone who can help me fill in the missing information
(designated by ???)
i would appreciate it.
anyone who would like to add a race for consideration,
please send me the information,
and we will add it.

i am not sure of the exact method we will use to select the races,
but we are going to try to restrict it to one per country,
or region in the US and canada,
as we would like the golden ticket availability to be as evenly distributed as possible.
but don’t hesitate to add your proposed event just because one has already applied in the same country or region.
we will try to be fair and transparent with the selection process,
which will take place in august.
the one limitation would be the time of year,
as the bigs takes place in the middle of october.
any time after that would be for the next big’s,
and we don’t want to give out golden tickets too close,
because we want the winners to have a fair opportunity to recover and go for the championship.
september would be out,
and probably at least the latter part of august.
i am looking to get more input from people who have run top level backyards as to the recovery required before attempting another top level performance.

while there is no charge to be a golden ticket event,
the races have been paying the entry fee for their winner to enter the big’s backyard world championship.
and the south africa race has proposed to actually hold two events,
with the winner who has the highest total getting not only the golden ticket,
but also having his way paid to the big’s!
(i think that is pretty well a “state of the art” proposal!)
any race that can pull off something like that will obviously receive primary consideration.

the growth potential of the backyard ultra is hard to pin down.
they first became popular as an everyman event in sweden,
which now has about 30 backyard ultras and a population of only 10 million.
and they seem to be popping up everywhere else now.
pretty remarkable growth,
considering the first one was only held 6 years ago.

so now i will attach the excel file containing the list of races.
if i knew facebook better, i could probably guess where it will show up!

File HERE