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Imagine time-lapse vision from a drone hovering above the Dead Cow Gully course, high enough to take in the entire 6.7k loop. Visualise what that would be like. At 7am, a huge, living, breathing organism leaves the homestead.

It pours out down the farm track towards the gully which gives the race its name, morphing from a starters’ corral shaped blob into something more akin to a teardrop, as the front runners stream away from the main pack.

At around the 40 minute mark those frontrunners return to where they began and disperse to different parts of the race precinct, more accurately described as a race paddock.

As the top of the hour approaches, this organism, made up of almost 250 separate entities this year, coalesces again in the corral before repeating the process, pouring out down the track in an ever-narrowing stream, flowing along fencelines and through the gully before once more returning to the homestead and breaking into its component parts.

And the pattern repeats, this living, breathing, sometimes running, sometimes walking organism gradually shedding parts of itself until only two distinct elements remain, then one.

That’s how Dead Cow Gully founder and race organiser Timothy Walsh sees the race. “I see it as one collective group achieving something,” he told me. “People peel off, but it’s still the one thing.

“If you did an aerial shot, a time lapse, you'd just see the one thing going around and [as a runner] you're a part of that. So even when you get knocked out, I still think you're still out there in some sense, your spirit's still out there.”

[If you’re not familiar with the backyard ultra format, or Dead Cow Gully as an event in itself, it might be worth reading my account of my run there this year or the piece about preparations for that run.]

It’s a beautiful way of thinking about the race. While the efforts of the winners of this backyard ultra are often mind-blowing - twice the world record has been broken here - it’s the collective endeavour, and the sense of camaraderie that it creates, that really sets Dead Cow apart.

That, and the fact it’s unashamedly grassroots. Walsh says this is part of the race’s charm. “It's like you're turning back the clock. That's what it feels like… It doesn't feel commercial and it's old school,” he says.

It’s not just the runners who enjoy the event, the crews seem to love the experience as well. “There are a lot of things that all come together. It's the scenic course. It's the family farm. It doesn't feel commercial. It's the lack of phone reception.

“You have all these things that come together so it just feels like a good, old-fashioned, family thing you may have had 20 or 30 years ago.”

Non-runner

Walsh is an accidental race director. He’s a former high school English and humanities teacher who only started running when he stopped drinking in 2019. “When I gave up alcohol, I decided to join the local Parkrun. You do your 5k, you get a bit fitter, then you do your 10k and you look at these greater distances,” he says.

“I signed up to a few Run Queensland events. And I really liked what [Run Queensland boss] Brett Standring was doing at Run Queensland. I liked the energy.” But the welcoming and energetic vibe that characterises Run Queensland events wasn’t evident everywhere.

Walsh was training for a backyard ultra - the Clint Eastwood in Brisbane. That race takes place on Oxley Common on a roughly Y-shaped course, which Walsh described as pretty repetitive.

The event was fine, but on his way home, the realisation struck Walsh that if he could emulate Brett’s energy, he could create an even better backyard ultra experience.

“I was driving back and I thought, ‘My parents have 1,600 acres. Surely I can measure out a loop.’ On the drive home, I just sort of had this feeling, this overwhelming feeling, that I had to measure that course immediately.

“So as soon as I got home, I started measuring the course. I'm trying to work out a loop, and I got to the gully. I walked through the gully - it was pretty wild at the time - and I said to my parents, ‘Do you think people would run through there?’ They said, ‘Oh, I don't think so.’ And I said, ‘That's a pretty good name for the event, Dead Cow Gully.’

“Within two weeks, I’d formed a company called Dead Cow Gully. And you know how you have thoughts and ideas, but you don't act on them? I had a feeling and I pulled the trigger.

“When I was mowing the track, it was just me with this idea. I'm like, ‘I wonder if people from Brisbane would come out here and run the track.’ It was me, just dreaming on the lawnmower.”

To test the theory, Walsh started by hosting training runs. “I could see everyone was enjoying it. And once photos went up on Facebook, everyone's like, ‘Where is this? How do I sign up?’”

That gave Walsh the confidence to push ahead. He sold 200 tickets to the first event in 2021. But like many businesses at that time, Dead Cow Gully fell foul of a COVID lockdown.

The race had to be postponed for a month and while people were sympathetic, more than half requested refunds. Walsh had spent the money from those registrations to establish the event, and as a result he went into credit card debt to get Dead Cow off the ground.

“To be honest, I didn't even want to turn up and do the event. It was a sinking feeling… I thought it was only going to be half as good as what it could have been.

“But then when I was signing people in at registration, everyone was so happy to be there. They were stoked... And I changed my mindset during registration and I'm like, ‘Okay, this could be good.’”

Year one saw an epic showdown between Ryan Campbell and John Pearson - two men with excellent trail running pedigree. Campbell came out on top, completing 44 loops. He’s become a mainstay at the Gully, competing every year, winning twice.

This success helped the race sell out in 2022, but Walsh had loftier ambitions.

Big guns

Ahead of the 2023 race, Walsh knew backyards taken hold in the WA trail running community, and the big dog in the West - and the Australian record holder - was a firie called Phil Gore. But how could he convince Gore to make the long trek east to take part in what was still a relatively new event?

Walsh decided to go all in on the 2023 event to try to establish Dead Cow as an umissable event. So he decided to pay the expenses of some big name runners in order to attract a strong field.

“I wanted to get a big gun from overseas, and Harvey Lewis at the time was the man. So I thought if I get Harvey out, if I lock him in, it's going to bring Phil on board. And it's going to bring all these other people on board,” he says.

It was a gamble, and in monetary terms, it was a loss-maker. “I would have lost easily 10 grand on that event. Maybe more,” Walsh says. “But I thought, ‘If I get all these guys in one spot, maybe something special will happen. And maybe that's a good long-term investment for that event.’”

For those of you who are unfamiliar, 2023 was the year Phil Gore and Sam Harvey broke the then backyard world record of 101 loops. It was an extraordinarily dramatic race, with Harvey producing a super-human effort to get to 101 loops, allowing the much fresher Gore to take the record.

“So I lined up a documentary filmmaker. We didn't know what was going to happen. And as it progressed, we looked at each other and we thought, ‘We’ve got gold here.’ We couldn't have scripted it better. And if we hadn't filmed it, you wouldn't believe it. The drama. The Hollywood script.

“Phil broke the world record, that made like headlines. Then the YouTube documentary came out and that really fed on itself and now it's kind of got a life of its own. We've broken the record twice now.”

The world record went again at Dead Cow in 2025, in another epic showdown between Gore and Harvey - Gore again coming out on top with an astonishing 119 loops. But despite this success at the top echelon of the sport, it’s not what motivates Walsh.

“It's not necessary about the record,” he says. “I think the most important thing for me is the feeling people have at Dead Cow. It doesn't feel commercial. We’re not trying to plug something, there’re no banners with sponsors. It's very simple.” And it’s that simple charm that makes it special.

Strength to strength

Walsh’s efforts have seen Dead Cow well and truly ensconsed in the trail running calendar. In 2026 there were almost 250 starters, from all over the world, and at least twice as many people on top of that in the precinct crewing and supporting runners.

He’s largely a one-man band, and Walsh has achieved this without sacrificing his original aspiration to create an event full of energy and free from commercial influence. “It feels unique and I guess since I'm a non-runner, I didn't have a preconceived idea of what an event should look like.

“I think if I'd been a runner running for four or five years, I'd probably have set ideas in my head, but I've only been to a few events as a runner,” he says. It’s not all fun and games though - the event and the lead-up are highly stressful.

“Every aspect [of race organisation] is down to me. I get a little bit of help. My parents get involved four days beforehand and they do the toilets, which is huge. But there’s no big team or committee,” he says.

“It's a really crazy period. High stress, pressure cooker… For me, it's type two fun. But you know, when it's all over, I can reflect on it.” And he says the entire event is stressful for his parents, who have the property to themselves 51 weeks of the year, but have to welcome hundreds of strangers during race week.

I asked Walsh for his favourite Dead Cow memories. Given it’s produced some iconic moments, I thought an anecdote featuring Gore or Harvey or Campbell might come to mind. But typically, his response was more about the everyday runner than the extraordinary.

“It's the people coming in at the last minute [on any given loop]. When the crowd parts,” he says. “And look, you probably never get that again in your whole life, to have a whole crowd cheering for you as you come on through.

“I think often in life and in work, you just don't feel valued and appreciated. You don't get many thanks. At this event, though, everyone's cheering for you. Everyone wants the best for you. And that's what keeps people coming back.”

It’s worked on me. Dead Cow Gully is already in my calendar for 2027. And I'm confident there will be a band of Fat Cannon runners joining me for the ride.

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around the country.