A backyard ultra is a type of an ultramarathon race until the last person remains. A runner must complete a distance of 4.167 miles every hour within an hour, for example, if the race starts at 10 am, then the individuals have until 11 am to complete 4.167 miles and stand at the start line to start the 4.167 miles distance again. Participants can complete the distance earlier than one hour but can’t start until the new hour begins. This continues until everyone but one person quits or does not make the one-hour mark. In certain circumstances, there may be no winner if everyone does not make the one-hour cut-off time.

The Last Human Standing race is Rhode Island’s only Backyard Ultra, and I had a chance to run in it this year. It was held on Saturday, June 12, 2023, at West Greenwich, RI—for those familiar with the area; it’s located near Big River Management, which has miles of trails—on private property. This was its third event since its inception on November 19, 2021—it went from noon to 10 p.m. with temperatures of 35℉ (1.6℃). I’m so glad the race director changed the race from fall to late spring.

Last Human Standing race is a low-key event and only has the capacity for a total of 25 participants, however, because of it being so low-key, there were only 12 people signed up this year—maybe more next year because of this article, yikes! More competition. This year the race started at 10 A.M. on a sunny beautiful morning with the temperatures being in the 70’s.

What I loved about this race is that it was very low-key. Because there weren’t many participants, all the runners received VIP treatment. The race director and volunteer(s) always, from the very beginning, catered to all of our needs—I never got out of my chair, everything was brought to me. Believe it or not, one of my favorite parts about this race was the outhouse, it was one of the nicest outhouses I’ve ever been to—it even had phone chargers for every type of phone— that definitely beats out the porta potties that are usual at ultrarunning events like these.  

As a local—15 minutes away from my house—The Last Human Standing race was a great opportunity to train for bigger races that were coming up, especially it being fairly early in the season. I met really cool people—like another local YouTuber like myself—that I’ve seen later on trails or other races. 

This year was a special year for this race because we set the record of 15 hours until The Last Human was Standing, which was not me, however, I got the honors of being the assist (second place). The race also had somewhat of a navy seal feel by having the person who either quit or failed to complete the distance within the allotted time had to ring the bell like they do in BUDS (Basis Underwater Demolition Seal Training) when they quit. 

I had a lot of fun running The Last Human Stand backyard ultra and I encourage everyone to signup. Signup is through https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=101822. Registration usually opens up in March, so sign up! I know I will!

Check out my YouTube Video of this race:

Check out another perspective of this race from a Youtuber I met during this event: