In the curious world of Backyard Ultra running, everyone except the winner is classed as a DNF (Did Not Finish) and must ring the Bell of Shame, and a Yard is one lap of the 4.167-mile course that must be finished every hour until only one competitor is remaining!

The Suffolk Backyard Ultra route includes 75 feet of elevation in 4.167 miles. The odd distance makes sense when you discover that 7 Yards = 29 miles (approximately a marathon); 12 Yards = 50 miles; 24 Yards = 100 miles, and 25+ Yards is for The Big Dogs. Suffolk's Backyard Ultra course at Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, near Thetford, is a thing of beauty, as seen in this 2025 video...

This year's Suffolk Backyard Ultra champion from 375 entries is Jan Voorspoels from Belgium, who completed his 49th Yard (204.19 miles) just before 1:00pm on Monday, 9 June, having started his epic challenge at noon on Saturday, 7 June 2025.

Jan averaged 50:42 for his 49 laps. His fastest lap was 44:43 (slowest 58:09), so he only had around 10 minutes to rest and refuel per hour for more than two days and nights! Such awesome consistency and endurance finally saw off his last remaining rival, Nima Jahaveri (Switzerland), who did not complete his 49th lap after injuring his achilles tendon 12 hours earlier and soldiering on in pain for 200 miles.

The leading Brit was Tobias Taylor on 42 laps (175.02 miles), followed by Andy Imms on 40 laps (166.68 miles) and Nicholas Cutts on 35 laps (145.85 miles), one lap behind USA runner Dave Kwiatkowski (150.02 miles).

The 11th athlete to DNF set a world record! Kevin Munt (pictured above) was timed out on lap 31 but his 30 completed laps (125.01 miles) was a world best for an over-65 male runner, beating the previous best by two laps (8.33 miles) – a truly glorious failure to finish!

The women's Backyard Ultra was a close race. Lithuania's Evelina Snezko completed 28 laps (116.68 miles), one more than Britain's Alice Clilverd (112.51 miles) despite the latter runner's faster average pace. Bulgarian Lyuba Bozhilova completed 25 laps (104.18 miles) before declining lap 26.

Suffolk hosted England's first Backyard Ultra in 2021 – as reported in runABC South – and the event has grown in stature ever since, attracting a world-class field of ultra enthusiasts.    

Full results are at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo of Kevin Munt courtesy of Challenge Running on Facebook