Most Insane World Record of 2023 || Big's Backyard Ultra (4 Days Of Death)

Thanks to Conversations by the Woodpile for Livestream footage.

Absolutely ridiculous

[Spring]

The winner, vegan ultrarunner Harvey Lewis, is a school teacher in Ohio who famously run commutes to and from work. After finishing the 450 miles on Tuesday he traveled home to Ohio on Wednesday and then the 47yo ran (run commuted) to school like normal on Thursday. Legend.

[JeffWurst]

The race is over as soon as he completes one lap beyond 2nd place. He's not allowed to continue. Thus, we know Ihor Verys reached his limit at 107, but we have no idea how much farther Harvey could've gone. I love how the results board on Ultra Signups lists everyone but Harvey as a DNF--Cruel.

[florentraynaud]

This deserved to be on the main channel. Amazing race !

[adamturner]

Harvey is an absolute legend and all-round great guy. Had the pleasure of being on his crew when he came over to Australia for our National championships where he ran a then PB of 90 yards before he broke the world record set at the same event by Phil Gore (102 yards)

[jameskerr]

This was a unique event in it was the best of the best running. One thing key about a backyard ultra is you can only go as far as the assist (2nd last one to bow out) can go, so if you don't have a strong field then you may not be able to push to your limits.

[SuperFuzzyDunlop]

I can't wait to enter all this crazy shit when I hit my midlife crisis!

[itsbotirlll]

I’ve met Gary personally! He lives in the same town I do, and he hosts races around where I live all the time. Pretty cool guy

[CSalisbury]

This is a really tough form of ultra - the constant stop-and-start means you're always either getting cold or warming up. Not to mention, it's a killer mentally to get yourself moving again. Massive kudos

[Ougagagoubou]

Hope to see more ultra marathon coverage!

[robertfurman]

Imagine running more than 700km and still being placed 2nd

[AnnaMeredith-em]

I like that everyone gets a DNF
except 1 runner

[robjcurran]

Irish runner Keith Russell managed 74 yards (nearly 500), then travelled back to Ireland, landing home on Saturday morning, and ran the Dublin Marathon Sunday morning (yes, one day later), in a personal best time of sub 3 hours… absolutely nuts!!!!

[TerjeMathisen]

Even though everyone else is listed as DNF, Ihor Verys is in fact credited with the "assist", since you cannot run more than one loop more than the assister.

[JaySizz]

Cool to see this on your channel. I will just mention... since you stated that Big's Backyard is unlike any other race in the world... there are currently more than 400 Backyard Ultras around the world that have sprung up since Laz originated the concept.

[frankcanzanella]

In 1996 I ran the NYC Marathon in around 3:52 minutes. I then walked across town to get to my health club to shower . Then I went to my NYC taxi and went to work picking up passengers. I was wearing my finishing medal around my neck. I met during the night a group of people, one of which had also run the marathon. He said he was also an ultra marathoner. That the second time he attempted a 100 mile race they had to pull him off the desert. Maybe he had attempted the Death Valley ultra 135 mile race.

[spencergambrell]

imagine putting this on strava. Just every hour you post a 4 mile run. People would see the first few and be like "ok". Then they'd see them keep coming and be like "what?" Then "Holy cow"

[spdun]

you should make another video going into the history of Phil Gore (old record holder)

[bev]

Not to diminish Harvey's phenomenal accomplishment, I still find it kinda sad that runner up Ihor Verysll is rarely if ever mentioned. I feel that all backyard ultra records should be shown WITH the second place runner who effectively "assists" the winner for all but one loop ... Ihor ran 107 loops with Harvey after all = 446miles!!!!

[MakoTheFrog]

Anyone interested in this please go watch "BREAKING POINT | A DEAD COW GULLY DOCUMENTARY" here on youtube, it's one of the best sport documentaries i've ever seen and I'm not even a fan of running, theres a part at the end where a man called Sam Harvey is about the break the world record, he is wrecked, sleep deprived, starving, has pneumonia and probably a million other things wrong and he is slumped in a chair waiting for the next loop to start, his mother stroking his face and begging him not to put his health at anymore risk and he just keeps telling her "it's okay". He has just ran 420 MILES! and STILL has the determination to push on. It's one of the most inspiring things i have ever seen. It had me in tears.

[kwd-]

I would suffer more from the sleep deprivation than the running exhaustion.