Interesting Hot Takes from Satellite World Championships and River-Run Backyard Ultra

Two backyard ultras on the same Waipukurau loop: one an elite team championship, the other our own community race. Here’s what stood out.

By Kendall Peacock 

Two backyard ultras, two very different races, and plenty to unpack. One brought together the 15 best backyard runners in New Zealand in a team format. The other is our own River-Run, where everyday runners line up to find out what they’re made of. Here’s what happened, and what stood out to me from both.

The Results

Satellite World Championships (NZ)

•     Sam Harvey: winner, 77 yards (around 516 km)

•     Theo Atkinson: assist, 76 yards (509 km)

•     Daniel Beswick: 71 yards

•     Brion Matthews: 70 yards

•     Matt Radford: 68 yards

•     Macee Latimer: first female and a new New Zealand women’s record, 67 yards (449 km)

•     Julia Chamberlain: second female, 48 yards (321 km)

River-Run Backyard Ultra

•     Dave Bishop: winner, 44 yards (295 km), looking mighty fine and mighty strong throughout

•     Jared Webb (Australia): assist, 43 yards

•     Dionette Sakova (Australia): first female, 40 yards (268 km)

•     Daniel Evans: 32 yards

•     A group of three on 30 yards

Hot Take 1: A Team Race and a Community Race Are Different Beasts

The World Champs being a team event changes the dynamics. When you put the 15 best lappers in the country on the same course, the race doesn’t really start until you get close to 48 yards. That’s when a couple of the old stalwarts of the team succumbed to the fragilities of running an ultra.

What was outstanding to see was how they helped each other along the way. The focus shifts from the individual to the team, and that changes how people operate.

River-Run is special for a completely different reason. It’s all the people in that 0 to 15 yard range, trying to put out their best. Watching people fight through to find their limit is awesome, and it’s what makes the event.

Hot Take 2: It’s Not the Pain, It’s What You’ll Put Up With

The biggest difference I noticed at an individual level was how the top athletes could fight beyond normal niggles and pains. They put aside the issues that would stop the ordinary runner.

At River-Run, a lot of people stopped because they were sore and didn’t think they could continue. I don’t believe either group was hurting more or less than the other. The difference is in the mentality: what they’re willing to put up with and fight through to get where they want to be.

Hot Take 3: That Toughness Can Be Trained, and This Year’s PBs Prove It

The ability to fight through is definitely something that can be trained. In backyards, PBs normally climb in jumps of around 5 to 10 yards at a time.

The Satellite World Championships were an outlier this year. Here’s what the team did against the PBs they qualified with:

Every one of them smashed the usual step. Theo pushed his boat out a long way: 47 yards past his previous best. He was probably never challenged when he made the team, and when someone finally pushed him, he found a whole lot more.

The exception is the winner. Sam Harvey’s PB is 118 yards, set at Dead Cow. His 77 here was nowhere near his ceiling. Under backyard rules, the last runner standing completes one more lap and the race is over. With no one left to keep going with him, Sam had no chance to extend toward his best.

Hot Take 4: Simplicity Wins

The World Champs athletes were simple in their setup and processes. They stuck absolutely rigid to their food, their fuel and their heat management.

At River-Run, I saw a lot of amateur athletes with too much variety. They didn’t really know what they were taking or why, and they drifted through. Following a few basic hydration and fuelling rules would have simplified their setup and let them go a lot longer.

Hot Take 5: The Heat Got Into Heads, Not Just Bodies

Everyone struggled in the heat. At the World Champs, the first full day got very hot from around 12 to 4 pm. At River-Run, both afternoons were very hot, and the first morning was quite warm as well.

A lot of athletes hadn’t fully considered how they’d manage their temperature. Even more telling was how many let the heat get inside their head, instead of treating it as something to be overcome that would pass.

Hot Take 6: Train to Run Faster, Not Slower

The average athlete at both events lapped at around the 50-minute mark, and had very good success doing it. That leaves about 10 minutes each hour to eat, drink, sort out feet and get back in the corral. The winners did something different.

That’s curious, because a lot of backyarders, me included, train to run slow laps and pace accordingly. I’m now convinced the better approach is to build aerobic fitness and the ability to run faster. The better athlete you are overall, the quicker you can get around a lap, and the more rest and recovery you bank. So I went looking at the data.

The Winners by the Numbers

Sam Harvey’s official splits and heart rate from the World Champs, and Dave Bishop’s GPS file from River-Run, tell the same story. Both races were on the same Waipukurau loop, so it’s a fair comparison.

Sam: Economical for 77 Hours

Sam slowed by only about 3½ minutes a lap across three days: 42:28 on average for day one, 44:27 on day two, 45:23 on day three and 45:58 for his final five laps. Over the same time his running heart rate dropped from about 126 on day one to around 113–118. He wasn’t working harder as the race went on; he was getting more economical.

With a 1am start, the time of day barely touched his effort. His heart rate stayed between 117 and 121 whether it was night, morning, midday or evening. On day one he went the other way to everyone else in the heat, running his two fastest laps, 36:20 and 35:25, at 3pm and 4pm, at heart rates of 137 and 142. He paid for them with effort and bought more than 23 minutes of rest each time to cool down.

His slowest laps, 63 and 64 at 3pm and 4pm on day three, weren’t a fade at all. He was running with teammates Macee Latimer and Milan Chick as Macee chased down her New Zealand record, and his heart rate sat at just 114 and 108. Even the winner was racing for the team. And with the race almost done, he could still pull out a 40:31 on lap 76.

Dave: Attack, Back Off, Finish Strong

We didn’t have live timing at River-Run, but Fast Dave Bishop’s GPS file shows how he won it from a 9am start. He averaged about 40:10 a lap, banking around 20 minutes of rest every hour.

On day one he attacked the heat, running laps of 36 to 38 minutes between midday and 5pm at heart rates of 127–135. On day two he did the opposite. From 9am to 2pm he deliberately eased into his slowest block of the race, 43 to 45 minutes a lap, and his heart rate dropped to 111–113. On a hot second day, giving up a few minutes of rest to keep his core temperature and effort under control was a smart call.

Then he wound it up. From 1am his laps got steadily quicker: 39:20, 39:10, 36:30, and finally a 29:30 winning lap at 4am at a heart rate of 136. He had plenty left when Jared Webb stopped.

What It Means

Both winners lapped well under the 50-minute norm. Both spent extra effort in the day-one heat to buy rest, eased off when they needed to, and saved something for the decisive laps. Speed gave them options. That’s the case for training backyarders to be fitter and faster, not just better at running slowly.

I’ll keep digging into lap data across more runners and formats, so watch this space.

Wrapping Up

Two races, one common thread. The difference between the elite field and everyone else isn’t how much it hurts or how hot it gets. It’s preparation, simplicity and the willingness to fight through, and all of that can be learned.

Huge congratulations to everyone who toed the line at both events, whether you ran 5 yards or 77. See you out there next time.