2025 Big’s Backyard Individual World Championship

    Photo credit: Jacob Zocherman 

A 270 Mile Run that Feels Like Failure

Maybe the title of this race report tells you all you need to know. Big’s Backyard, the Individual Backyard Ultra World Championship, did not go as I had hoped this year. I’m not saying that 270 miles isn’t far or not something to be proud of, but I did have some much larger backyard goals that I fell short of. By mileage alone, this backyard performance still ranks as my third best following my run at Capital 2022 (75 yards) and Big’s 2024 (88 yards). However, when it felt like I still had fuel in the tank, but tapped out at 65 yards primarily due to one nagging issue that seemed to just continually get worse, I’m not sure how it can’t feel at least somewhat disappointing.

 

At the start of the race, all positive at this point!

I want to move on to focus specifically on my race experience this year at Big’s, but before doing so let me give a brief description of the “backayard” race format for anyone reading who may not be familiar. Basically, it is a race of attrition without a set distance. The race continues until only one runner remains. Hence, these races are also referred to as “last person standing” races. So how are runners eliminated? By not completing a 4.167 mile lap every hour on the hour. Every hour all runners start a lap and must finish before the end of the hour. If they finish early, they must wait until the start of the next hour to start their next lap. With that caveat, this race prevents any runner from building a lead, more or less taking away the advantage of speedy runners. The cycle of on the hour lap starts continues indefinitely until all but one runner has opted to not continue running or has timed out. The last runner remaining must run one complete lap more than all other runners within the hour time limit before being named the winner. This leaves the possibility that there could be no winner (which has happened) if several runners go out for a lap and they all time out.

Day one of the race went about as well as any backyard has gone for me. I felt more nervous than normal the first few hours, but I think that was just due to energy of the event and the amount of attention it draws. Having multiple media people running around taking pictures and live streaming the event makes me a little uncomfortable. That combined with knowing the big goals I hoped to achieve and how far off they seemed made me more anxious than I usually am at races. Thankfully though, I had my faithful and dependent crew chief Jaron Holmes there with me again this year to pull me back to Earth and make sure I didn’t forget to have fun. The best joke he came armed with this year that I remember: “Why did the lizard go to the doctor? He was suffering from EREPTILE dysfunction!”

 

Jaron Holmes and Scott Snell before the start of the race.

After 11 hours of running trails and chatting with runners from around the world and my teammates from last year, it was time to switch to the road course for the first night of running. For the most part I was happy for the change of surface and scenery. However, there were forecasts of storms and rain overnight which I was not so happy about. I was hoping the rain would be light or just a quick drenching rain that would pass through, soak everything, and then leave. Unfortunately, it was neither of those. There were heavy rain showers over a good part of the night and into the morning hours. I had a light rain resistant jacket that soaked through within minutes of the first of a series of downpours. I switched to a heavier, nonbreathable raincoat which kept me a bit warmer in the cold rain. Being soaked and cold wasn’t the worst of the storms for me though. I knew that would end and I would dry off. The sun would come up, and I would warm up again. The worst of it was when we were approaching the time to switch back to the trail course. The race organizers made the first of a series of announcements concerning the wet conditions of the trail. At first the announcements left some room for hope: “we may stay on the road for a few extra hours if trail conditions are too wet.” The room for hope of going back to the trail at all for day two started to fade as we continued running the same 2-mile stretch of road out and back, hour after hour, into the second day. For 37 hours straight, 154 miles, that’s what we did. Two miles of road, out and back, repeatedly for two full nights and the day between them.

 

Jon Noll and Scott Snell enjoying a little rest between yards on day one.

My major issue during this race seemed to start during the second night. After the rain had stopped the morning of the second day I switched to dry shoes and socks thinking my feet fared pretty well for how long they were soaked. It was at some point during the second night that my feet just started aching terribly. At one point during the night, we popped my shoes and socks off to inspect and see what we could do. I had a few blisters and a bad case of trench foot. I’m guessing it was for the most part due to my feet staying wet for too long. We drained blisters and taped my damaged toes hoping it would help resolve the issue or at least stop it from getting worse. I’m not sure how much our efforts helped to improve the situation, but it at least felt good to try to fix the issue. As the night wore on, my foot issue seemed to just get worse. I thought about quitting before the sunrise but at some point something flipped in my mind, and I just accepted the fact that my feet were jacked up. I don’t remember it, but Jaron told me later that I just stood up from my cot and said “F it! I’m just going to suffer” and for the rest of the night my demeanor completely changed. As I struggled through the remaining dark hours of the second night, I just looked forward to getting back to the trail and off the road.

 

 Jon Noll and Scott Snell enjoying the weather.

It felt like such a relief when we got back on the trail for day 3 after being on the road for so long. And amazingly, my feet felt fine once I got off the road. The third day of running on the trails was one of the best days of backyard running I’ve had. My feet felt relatively good for having run 200 miles. My legs felt good. And most importantly, I was happy to be there doing what I was doing. Maybe I was just enjoying myself too much because the third day just flew by and before I knew it we were getting ready to switch back to the road course, a change I found myself not looking forward to. It’s a bit odd for me not to look forward to the change of courses during a backyard race. Usually that change is something positive for me. It’s a change of scenery. It’s a target to build towards in a race with no end. This time it was different, most likely because of how long we had spent on the road already.

The first couple yards on the road course felt ok. However, things went downhill quickly after that. All the foot issues I was battling the previous night seemed to come back with a revamped intensity. I tried to tap into the mindset that I had had the previous night of just suffering through it, but this time was different. At some point during the night, I convinced myself that even if I did endure and make it through the night and then still hang on to make it to the 100-hour threshold I so wanted to reach, there was no way I’d be competitive at that point with my foot condition. In short, I had convinced myself I had no chance of being the last one standing, so why even try.

 

 Michitaro Mizuno "Bagman" and Scott Snell.

I went out on my 66th yard expecting to time out but finish one more yard over the time limit. As I headed out, I noticed Harvey Lewis and Jon Noll running together doing a run/walk strategy for the night yards. I had a last-ditch effort of trying to hang with them hoping it would flip something in my head to get me motivated again. It was after the first or second time that they shifted from run to walk or walk to run that I realized how much worse my feet felt when I started or stopped running. I switched to just walking soon after and watched the crowd of runners pull away from me down the road into the night. I knew I was done at that point and tried to enjoy one last introspective walk on the road night course as I shuffled along in the dark.

 

 Laz presents Scott Snell with a commemorative race coin.

It’s somewhat paradoxical how a performance can be something to be proud of, yet you still feel disappointment about it. I tend to feel that way about backyards regularly. When the feelings were still fresh, I wrote a post about this idea. I feel it is a fitting way to close this race report.

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No filter Friday: 

Running 270 miles in a single go over the course of 65 hours isn’t easy and should, under most circumstances, feel like a big accomplishment, something most would be pleased with. That’s how far I ran and how long I lasted at Big’s Backyard this year and even though it was my third best backyard performance, I still hobbled away feeling disappointment with my  performance. I think it was starting show on my face in this picture during the 59th hour. I share this not because I’m seeking any kind of consolatory words or “attaboy”s from anyone, so I truly hope it does not come across that way. I share it for the raw honesty in the fact that it is ok to feel disappointment when you achieve something that may be a respectable feat, but falls short of your intended goals. It is alright to be disappointed with landing amongst the stars when you were shooting for the moon. Grinding out a solid performance and feeling disappointment are not mutually exclusive. Maybe it’s all just due to my personality or some ultrarunner mentality that has infiltrated my being. Maybe it’s just a side effect of the backyard format itself, to always push to go farther and longer. I don’t have the explanation for the how or the why of them, but I am willing to share my feelings as I expect I’m not the only one.

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One final note I want to add before I sign off for this report is to give a special thank you to my Mom for the "runner" pasta she sent me. The "runner" pasta and meatballs made for a great last meal at home before I started my trip to Bell Buckle this year. Thank you Mom, love you!

Scott Snell
4 December 2025