Laz Lake up to 60 yards in his own Backyard Ultra as he prepares for 1,000-mile walk

Laz Lake, the man who created the Barkley Marathons and the Backyard Ultra, is now 60 yards into his own virtual version of the latter as he builds up to his latest epic walking challenge.

Laz – aka Gary Cantrell – is no stranger to epic endurance challenges under his own steam as well as putting on races that have captured the imagination of a global ultrarunning audience.

He’s completed a transcon – a coast-to-coast across America – in the past and in the last couple of years is aiming to do another, walking from Delaware in the east to San Francisco on the west coast which is a distance of around 3,000 miles.

Now in his seventies, he has ended up splitting it into three sections and the last 1,000 miles section will be beginning shortly – from the Colorado / Utah border to the Pacific.

Going strong in Horsens Backyard Ultra

Before that – and hopefully as part of it – he has entered the walking version of the virtual Horsens Backyard Ultra. Starting on January 1st, competitors follow the Backyard Ultra concept of repeating ‘yards’ of a 4.167-mile (6.706 km) loop.

Normally that’s one an hour on the hour, with the winner the last person standing.

However the Horsens is one a day, every day, inside two hours rather than one – again until there’s just one person left.

Laz is still going early in March and it won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that means he also had to tick them off during this year’s Barkley Marathons which started unusually early in mid-February.

The fact there were no finishers and it was all over inside 48 hours made that task a little easier – he did one as soon as the Barkley started on Valentine’s Day, the second as the clock ticked past midnight on day two and then the third after it was all over and before packing up for home.

‘The goal is the 1000 miler’

He’s continued that progress since and, writing on Facebook in his own unique style, penned this latest update:

“60 yards!
.
“this was to be a test.
the 28th of february is the one day that requires 2 yards
(one for the 28th and one for the missing 29th)
.
“seeing as this was a backyard,
it seemed imperative that i perform the two yards on a true backyard schedule…
.
“albeit two hours per yard instead of one.
i was sort of looking forward to it,
altho there was a little trepidation over the timing.
.
“i have been ramping my distance up this month
with the thousand miler now only 4 weeks away
sore legs giving a little extra realism to my daily yard.
.
“a couple of days ago i had considered backing off a little
to assure myself of cruising thru the double.
but that was not a good plan.
the goal is the 1000 miler.
the yard a day is only to see how far i can get…
.
“altho each day makes it a little harder to think of missing the next!
none the less, training for the thousand is the number one priority.
a thousand miles doesnt sound like much,
but it is really far!”