Old Tom Backyard Ultra draws nation-wide attention

The eyes of the endurance running world were on Blumenort last week, as the Old Tom Backyard Ultramarathon exceeded all expectations.

The event, in just its third year of existence, saw a pair of runners battle for 55 hours to set a new season-best for Canadian events. Backyard ultramarathons feature runners completing a 4.1 mile lap every hour, with participants starting a new lap at the top of every hour. The winner is the runner who completes a lap on their own.

Race director Stephan Reimer said he didn’t expect the event to develop into such a competitive one so soon. The first year’s winner completed just 26 laps, with last year’s champion finishing 35 to win.

“When you organize this, the goal right away is to become the top backyard in Canada,” Reimer said.

“In year three, to have someone set the mark of the year so far is pretty special.”

The Old Tom Backyard was featured in the CBC’s national news broadcast. The event, which takes place across properties just outside of Blumenort centred on the Reimer farm, has quickly become a favourite for runners across the province and beyond.

Reimer thanked his neigbours for allowing the track to run through their properties, the volunteers and corporate sponsors for helping make the event one of Canada’s best so quickly.

“I think what people love on top of everything is that small-town, family feel,” Reimer said.

“There’s something so grassroots-y about having this thing on a farm… A lot of (runners) have never even been on a farm, so this feels like quite an adventure.”

Aaron Webb, Austin Sedgwick and Nick Burmey were the last three runners standing, as the trio made it through the heat and humidity of hours 30-35 July 5, where temperatures reached over 30 degrees with massive humidity.

“That was the most insane part,” Reimer said.

“To go as far as having the top result in Canada, with the conditions that we had… It was wild weather and that they came out on top is insane.”

Defending champion Webb had to drop out in the middle of the second night of competition, leaving Sedgwick and Burmey to battle it out. After enduring a massive rainfall Sedgwick finally dropped out during lap 55. He made it onto the course but couldn’t stay at race pace.

“Once they got to 40, both Sedgwick and Burmey made a decision they would run through the night together,” Reimer said, adding “the gloves came off,” after the 48-hour mark.

“What’s most impressive is that the two last guys did 16 hours all by themselves. That is almost unheard of in the backyarding world. Once third place drops, it’s usually done after five hours.”

Even after there was one runner left on track there was still drama to be had, with Burmey sprinting into the final section of the track to beat the clock by 90 seconds. In backyard ultras, a runner must complete a lap on their own to be declared the winner.

Burmey had dropped a piece of clothing, which would be grounds for disqualification for leaving things on the course, so had to backtrack a quarter mile and pick it up before continuing his final lap.

To make up the time, Burmey pounded out a six-minute mile pace, just beating out the clock to win the event.

“If he doesn’t finish we have no winner,” Reimer said.

“He came out of the bush in a full sprint… It was a crazy, wild finish but I’m so happy for him that he got it done and we could all celebrate. It was quite a party afterwords.”

Winning the event gave an automatic qualification to Team Canada for the upcoming backyard ultra world championships, with Sedgwick’s 54 lap “assist” performance more than likely good enough to qualify as well.

Having such a high finish should continue to help the Old Tom Backyard attract runners. Because the event is won by the final person to complete a loop, top runners are hoping to attend events where they will be pushed to the limit to find a victory.

“You could be the top backyarder in the world, but if you go to a backyard that’s done in 20 hours, that’s as far as you can go,” Reimer said.

“Now we’ve put ourselves on the map.”

Jessica Drakul was the final woman eliminated at the event, lasting 27 laps.