At Bubba’s Backyard Ultra, challenging terrain puts a unique twist on an already twisted event.
By Nate Weitzer
At Bubba’s Backyard Ultra, the course is your competition.
Volunteers and race directors encourage participants to push through aches, blisters, nausea, sleep deprivation, and anything else that pops up while running 3.5-mile loops through the New Hampshire woods for hours on end, because the spirit of the event is to provide people with an opportunity to see what they can do.
A backyard ultramarathon requires runners to start and complete a loop every hour until only one person is willing to continue. Typically that means finishing the run in 45 to 55 minutes, allowing for valuable minutes of rest before heading out on the next lap. Most runners have a crew ready to assist with refueling, foot care, and other needs so they can even grab a few minutes of sleep between laps.
Held on the property of White Mountain Ski Company owner Andrew Drummond’s childhood home in Conway, New Hampshire and named after his father, Bubba’s is shorter than the official backyard lap distance (4.167 miles) in which 24 laps total exactly 100 miles, but the rugged terrain makes up for it.
This October saw record-setting performances with the most runners yet surpassing the 24-hour mark, a new women’s record of 48 laps (168 miles) set by Katie Melsky, and a new overall record of 53 laps (185.5 miles) set by finisher Lukas Janulaitis.
“This format lends itself to a unique experience,” said Drummond. “Having people of all ages and abilities come together to line up, lap after lap, is one thing I love about this. The style allows people to [set a personal best], to challenge themselves, and really it’s an enabler. So if you’ve been intimidated by distance or time, now you have the framework to help achieve audacious goals.”
Of the 99 people who started Saturday morning at 10 a.m., 90 surpassed the marathon distance, 57 topped 50 miles, and 26 (including nine female participants) broke the 100-mile mark by completing at least 29 laps.
Just two weeks removed from a record-setting thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail (52 days, 18 hours) Lyla Harrod, of North Woodstock New Hampshire, understandably complained of tired legs after 24 hours of running. An experienced volunteer told her that wasn’t a legitimate excuse to stop, so Harrod pushed on for six more laps.
“I was in so much pain, but I’m glad I kept going,” said Harrod, 38, who has also set records on the White Mountains Direttissima and Bay Circuit Trail of Massachusetts. “It’s nice to be at an event where people tell you to keep going instead of just patting you on the back. A community that pushes itself is a strong community.”
Melsky, 27, started the event in serious discomfort, nursing a sore throat that left her unable to get any food down other than popsicles, cough drops, and a couple sips of Tailwind between laps.
After getting knocked out at 20 laps last year due to hip pain (related to an injury suffered during her Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2022), she seemed in danger of quitting around the same lap due to consistent vomiting and dry heaving. With help from members of her Boston-area run club, Northeast Trail Crew, she chewed antacid tablets and pushed through lap 40, reaching her goal of doubling last year’s total.
Still, she wanted to press on until she “timed out” or missed the cutoff for the next lap, rather than refusing to start a lap.
“Whenever you want to stop at Bubba’s, the volunteers ask if you’re sure,” said Melsky. “I didn’t want to be asked. I wanted it to be definite that I was done.”
Hiking fast rather than running on lap 41, she heard a one-minute warning from the start/finish line, and picked up the pace in time to start lap 42. The adrenaline propelled her all the way to lap 49, in which she timed out, leaving Janulaitis and the “assist” Aaron Copeland to duke it out.
Too exhausted to drive back to Lexington, Massachusetts Monday night, she stayed nearby and helped sweep the course on Tuesday, completing her 50th lap of the long weekend.
“I think I haven’t found the limit of what I can do, which is scary,” Melsky said. “Because I did as many laps as I did sick, and hardly eating, so I’m curious and also a little bit scared to see what I can do as a completely healthy version of Katie.”
Prior to last October, Ed Clifford was the only finisher at Bubba’s with five consecutive victories from 2019-2023. Clifford, 60, still runs ultramarathons and backyard ultras, but decided to be a spectator at Bubba’s the past two years, allowing Danny Mejia to finish with 43 laps in 2024.
With both Mejia and Clifford in attendance late Sunday, Janulaitis, 24, pushed through the night into Monday afternoon to secure the finisher’s axe (the Bubba’s trophy). Showing no signs of weakness through his stoic facade, the Gorham, New Hampshire resident also won the shop’s Last Skier Standing event this past February with 71 laps at Black Mountain of Maine, and is now the only person to finish both endurance events.
“It’s such a different vibe from most ultras,” Clifford said about Bubba’s. “This is maybe the most mindful course, where every step is important. But I lean into that mindfulness. I’m never thinking about what’s coming or what’s behind me. It’s a really cool feeling.”
“You’re playing the game, too. You always want to project this image of invincibility, so even if you’re hurting, you don’t show it. You want to project inevitability.”
While competitors are focused on the course, spectators and volunteers can enjoy the annual antics of Bubba’s between laps.
For the fourth straight year, Drummond hosted a beer mile Sunday afternoon, and the three-time champion placed second behind Eli Converse, of Cambridge Massachusetts. As the event dragged into a second night, friend of the shop Chris Pagoda showed up in a unicorn mask with chicken nuggets, then went dancing on the course amidst glowing lights to mirror the hallucinations some runners were likely experiencing.
Race directors Monte McIndoe and Drummond are always looking for innovations to keep the event fresh and exciting, adding a five-number lottery system to bet on the best combination of results, a practice they plan to expand next year with 50-50 raffle tickets.
When registration for the 2026 event opens January 1, many of the initial sign-ups will be repeat participants. Because despite the intense pain and fatigue inevitability incurred by going deep into an ultramarathon, most runners want to keep going until they find their true limit.
Nate Weitzer is an avid trail runner, backcountry skier, and mountain climber living in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, where he writes for multiple publications. Over the past 20 years he’s thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, climbed Mt. Rainier, Adams, Baker, Hood, and skied off multiple volcanoes. Weitzer has summitted the NH 48 in all four seasons, finished the ADK 46er list while working trail maintenance in the Keene Valley area, and completed the Colorado 14ers over the course of four summers. He’s written about the inaugural White Mountains 100 and ultrarunner Lexi Jackson for Northeast Explorer.
