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It’s now five weeks until my “A-race” for this year, the Dead Cow Gully Backyard Ultra, and I’m deep in the planning phase. This week, a frisson of excitement has been added to those preparations because I was able to tune into the live stream during the closing stages of Sydney’s Backyard Ultra.

As always, it was the human stories on show in Sydney that hooked me. This time, it was the duel between the eventual winner, Tim Kacprzak, and the assist, Jack Hanley.

These two were a study in opposites. And one point, towards the end of the event, @sydneysbackyardultra posted to their Insta account videos contrasting the vibe in the two camps.

Hanley was, if you can believe this, smoking a cigarette and singing along to the AC/DC anthem Thunderstruck. Meanwhile, Kacprzak was a model professional, using a massage gun on his quads. (You can click on the Insta image below to see them in action.)

At this point they were both north of 70 yards. Kacprzak ended up taking the win with 75 yards - that’s more than 500k in a little more than three straight days’ running. Durries aside, Hanley’s performance was pretty amazing, given his previous best backyard effort was 33 yards.

Ultimately it may just have been the miles in his legs that got Kacprzak over the line, because Sydney’s Backyard Ultra is arguably not even the most demanding “race” he’s won this year.

Earlier in the month, Kacprzak completed the Hardcore Harry’s Last One Standing Challenge. The concept is simple - on 1 January this year the 300+ competitors all ran 1km. On every subsequent day, they added a kilometre. And eventually there would be just one person left.

On 3 April, after 83 days and more than 3,500k, that person was Kacprzak. Hanley has also completed an impressive Hardcore Harry’s challenge. He ran 50k a day for 50 days while still working as a landscaper, raising awareness for mental health and wellbeing program Out of the Blue.

Full circle

Watching Kacprzak win took me back to the YouTube doco that started my low-key obsession with Dead Cow: Breaking Point. It tells the story of the 2023 race, which featured the first world-record breaking head-to-head battle between Phil Gore and Sam Harvey.

But it also featured the back stories of a number of runners taking part, including Kacprzak and his son, Ollie, who was then 14 years old. The elder Kacprzak has clearly kicked on to bigger and better things, but so has his son.

The two of them now host Better by Next Week, a podcast about “running, mindset and the human experience” which operates on the philisophy that progress, not perfection, is the goal.

That’s certainly the philosophy I’ll be taking into Dead Cow. This is my first crack at a backyard ultra and it’s been interesting preparing for something new. On the surface it seems pretty straightforward, but there is actually a lot to think about aside from running around in circles for hours on end.

Firstly, the training is completely different. I’ve starting practicing running a 6.7k loop starting and ending at my house, where I’ve set up a makeshift aid station in, appropriately, my backyard.

This hasn’t been without its challenges. I live in the foothills of Mt Coot-tha in Brisbane. The flattest 6.7k loop I’ve been able to create around home has more than 130m of elevation.

I’ve not been to Dead Cow, but judging by the videos I’ve seen, it looks pretty flat. So I’m just telling myself that will make the race loops feel easier than the training loops.

The logistics are also taking some time to plan. Dead Cow is run on a working cattle property outside Nanango, about 2.5 hours north-west of Brisbane. We’ll be camping on-site, so we need to take all the paraphernalia that involves.

We’ll also need to set up our race marquees, hoping to nab a spot not too far from the start-finish line to maximise efficiency in between loops. The “race precinct” itself opens at 6am the day before the race - so getting there, with all the right gear, as close as possible to 6am will be the aim.

Then, perhaps most importantly of all, there is the race planning. The creation and maintenance of these spreadsheets has become an artform. Like all well-executed missions, planning is at the heart of success in backyard ultras.

After Sydney, Kacprzak senior took us through his plan on Insta. His spreadsheet includes the time of day, whether the loop is run during daylight, or at night and how fast he intends to run (slow, medium or fast).

There are columns for food and liquid - both what he plans to eat and drink and what he actually got down - one for supplements like salt tablets and one for toilet breaks.

This sort of planning is critical. At the start of each lap, you need to know what pace to run in order to get to your marquee with enough time to do whatever it is you need to do. That could be changing shoes, applying lube or brushing teeth.

Slow loops conserve energy, medium allow time to eat and perform other tasks and fast loops allow time for micro-naps, which are essential for the elite end of the field - maybe not so much for me!

Once the plan is written, your crew is in charge of executing it. And I’m lucky to be taking a gun crew to Dead Cow. All in all there’ll be eight of us. The entire Fat Cannon Run Club Trail Division will be there, including Michael Scott who will also be running - which means we are entitled to two 3m x 3m marquees, thankfully.

My wife Caron and daughters Alex and Charlotte will also be there along with our friend Kylie, who runs trails and is interested in seeing how a backyard ultra operates.

So the task for the next five weeks is to continue to ramp up the volume in the legs, and get the logistics and race planning down pat so on race day, 30 May, there is nothing left to chance.

I may not get to 75 yards, but I’m sure it’s going to be a great weekend!

See also…

I’ve written quite a bit about backyard ultras in the past year:

• Phil Gore: Stinky. 'Not quite human.' Backyard ultra GOAT

• World record broken as Gore and Harvey reprise 2023 at Dead Cow Gully

• Will the world record become another victim at Dead Cow Gully (again)?

Watch the doco

This is the video that started it all for me…

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.