If you’re not familiar with the backyard ultra format, the concept is simple: runners complete loops of a four-mile course within a one-hour time limit, every hour, until only one runner remains. But a duo in New York City gave this format a creative, cash-fuelled twist: runners had to drop a dollar in a jar for every lap they ran, and the final runner got to take home the entire pot.
Dubbed the $1 Backyard Ultra, the event was founded by two NYC runners, Victor Zeitoune and Austin Lo. The idea, they say, came to life like all the great ideas, scribbled on a napkin, over burgers. “Underneath that, at least for me, was a desire to share a sport that changed my life,” Lo shared on Instagram.
The race took place in Lower Manhattan, the loop stretching from the West Side Highway in the West Village to the Staten Island Ferry terminal in Battery Park and back. In typical backyard ultra format, runners of the $1 ultra had one hour to complete each 6.44-kilometre loop. Finish within the hour? You put another dollar in the jar and go again.
To keep things fun, runners earned quirky prizes along the way: a T-shirt after two laps, a camping chair after four.
The eventual winner, Manhattan’s Kieran Calderwood, logged 25 laps over 25 hours, racking up more than 102 miles (164.8 km) and hobbling away with a jar full of $395 in crumpled singles. The world record for the backyard ultra format was set a month ago at the Dead Cow Gully event in Australia by Phil Gore, who completed 119 laps (798 kilometres).
Whether Calderwood spent his winnings on one NYC dinner or kept the jar as a trophy, we don’t know—but the bragging rights are priceless.
One thing’s for sure: this ultra-urban, ultra-creative format has legs. And we’re here for it.
