2020 Quarantine Backyard Ultra Race! Official Race Discussion Thread

Bob Hearn wrote:

Tron wrote:

This is from a Personal Peaks rule page..look at last point..maybe regular backyard races mean you have to go but here it just states be on treadmill:

This is the critical part:

2) Starting Corral

Your starting Corral is the field of view on your camera running Zoom. (If you aren’t using zoom, then designate a spot in the entryway of your home, backyard etc. and use that to begin each loop)

Participants must be in their starting corral at the bell, and must leave immediately to start their loop.

https://personalpeak.ca/quarantinebackyard/guide/

Thanks, that is clear...but having something to the contrary on their own website isn’t great...especially for a non English speaker.

Anyway, it would be interesting to hear what he was actually thinking when just standing on the treadmill. Was it he didn’t know the rule? Was there a lag?

Did you bother reading your 3rd to the last point of what you posted tron?

That states that you must start your treadmill at the bell.

reed wrote:

TryAthlete wrote:

My question is, what is the most practical way to train for this event? Or do you just wing it because there is barely any incentive to actually be good at this besides just the clout?

nobody in their right minds trains specifically for this. even the all-timers who have gone over 250 miles mostly did it at Big's Backyard Ultra to try to qualify for Barkley Marathons.

not that people don't take it seriously, it's just that there's nothing that can adequately prepare you.

Not quite - this bears most resemblance to multiday running, and Johan Steene (CR holder at the Backyard) came in a a very experienced multiday runner that year, with no need for a special ticket into Barkley.

tron? wrote:

Did you bother reading your 3rd to the last point of what you posted tron?

That states that you must start your treadmill at the bell.

So why’s the last point there? Not great communication when two different interpretations within 2 sentences

Disappointing result, but I think we can find frustrating calls / outcomes in any sport or area of life we value, and your (dis)like of this call in a small niche of the sport (DMR anybody??) should have no bearing on your interest in any other part of ultrarunning.

birdbeard wrote:

That was stupid. Mike was fine with continuing running.

Yes and they didn't even have the guts to honestly answer his question. He repeatedly asked why the other guy was still running on the treadmill. And they didn't full explain it.

And then the feed conveniently cut out. Did it ever come back up? For all we know, the czech guy is still running.

In a response to the FB by peak saying he did start on time, he wrote that his tablet was delayed and he waited for the start.

FB post and didnt start on time*

Yeah trying to link Radek's comment to this post, but it's on there.

rojo wrote:

birdbeard wrote:

That was stupid. Mike was fine with continuing running.

Yes and they didn't even have the guts to honestly answer his question. He repeatedly asked why the other guy was still running on the treadmill. And they didn't full explain it.

And then the feed conveniently cut out. Did it ever come back up? For all we know, the czech guy is still running.

If we're being honest, the race announcers did not have a firm grasp on the rules, and did not give themselves enough authority to make important easily anticipated calls from the outset. The rules were clear. Whether to grant an exception under the circumstances is a different matter. Honestly, the call surprised me, and I wouldn't have ruled that way (note, I agree with you), but I get the other wise of the equation. As far as Mike goes - I'm a big fan, truly, but his questions at the end reflected a) a misunderstanding about how these races work b) poor communication from the race announcers, who were, to be fair, severely sleep deprived and invested at that point as well, and likely not firing on all cylinders.

I might add, and I do actually note these things, I don't think either runner was wearing VFs...

facebook post wrote:

In a response to the FB by peak saying he did start on time, he wrote that his tablet was delayed and he waited for the start.

Here is the full text of what Radek posted on facebooko.

[bRadek wrote:

My tablet was delayed and I wait for the start. Btw. If I looked for strava.com for confirmation Mike’s run. He not start evevy loop directly in start hour. It is ok???

A Hungry, Violent Mob wrote:

They brought Radek back to talk to him and then killed the feed and said it would be back in 2 minutes. It isn't.

This is awful. Awful.

That was very suspicious to me. They didn't want to let him protest the call.

So obviously in a normal backyard ultra this wouldn't have happened. Just the fact that everyone is physically present and able to hear each other would have prevented any possible claims about lag or being unaware that it was time to go. You either go when it's time or you choose not to.

But this was not the only example of rules that are easily and naturally followed in a real backyard ultra not being followed in this virtual edition. For example, just like in the Barkleys, once a runner sets off for a lap they are not allowed to receive any aid from anyone. But there were definitely some times when I saw Radek's crew handing him things like a fresh towel mid-lap. And there were also some borderline cases of passing cups like right after the bell, and I think I may have seem some mid-lap bottle refills by the crew. Not to mention it's a little unfair that Mike had to carry his hydration in a vest while Radek could just set his on the treadmill. I don't think Radek & crew were intentionally cheating, but they definitely did break the rules multiple times. In a real backyard ultra there would be no confusion or tendency to forget and accidentally hand someone something mid-lap.

rojo wrote:

facebook post wrote:

In a response to the FB by peak saying he did start on time, he wrote that his tablet was delayed and he waited for the start.

Here is the full text of what Radek posted on facebooko.

[bRadek wrote:

My tablet was delayed and I wait for the start. Btw. If I looked for strava.com for confirmation Mike’s run. He not start evevy loop directly in start hour. It is ok???

#freeradek

I'm sure Mike knew that also and it's probably why the RD cut the feed. Such BS.

Did you even watch the other feeds? Most of the lap runners had a support crew and Radek had a camera focused on him the whole time, Mike did not. How the hell can you say if Mike had more or less support when he was off camera?

This all reminds me of 2018 Hardrock 100 when Xavier inadvertently took water/ice from support crew 10 miles from the finish. He was in first place, hours ahead of anyone else, and the race directors dqed him cause somebody snitched and took a picture. Later that year, he went on to win UTMB. I already smell a Spartathlon win for Radek.

Yes he got aid during laps, but this was explicitly allowed in this format:

4) Loops

Because we are unable to enforce the usual backyard rule of no aid on course, runners are permitted to receive aid during loops, whether that be while on the treadmill, or running loops/out and back

I think I understand what happened... Radek was *not* watching the Zoom call on his tablet; his Zoom session was on the laptop pointed at the treadmill, where we could see him. If he was watching the FB live stream on his tablet, *that* was very laggy, as anyone watching it could tell. I have to say that's on him, sad as it is. He needed to have the sound up on the laptop so he could hear the bell, or have his crew follow and tell him.

SteelTown's comment about the possibility of granting an exception under the circumstances is well taken. Especially since they told us in the elite briefing that if we had any technical issues, do *not* stop running, have crew contact them and they would try to help sort it out — they did not want someone's race to end due to a technical glitch. Unfortunately that's exactly what happened, but they were between a rock and a hard place. And agreed, Mike was not clear on the rules at the end, wanting to continue on solo to break the record (which would not be a "record" even had the race continued).

Anyway, I have started a thread about the finish of the race for people who weren't following this thing and are never going to come to page 20 of a thread. You can find it here.