Quarantine Backyard Ultra – Pre Race Announcements

At last count, we have 2413 participants, from 65 countries! And we here at Race headquarters (HQ) would just like to start by thanking every one of you for support and participation in this event.

For us, it has already been such an incredible experience, and we have been blown away by the response from all of you. We knew that this event would be good… but we had no idea it would be this BIG!

We’ve LOVED seeing all of your Start line photos, and the bibs you’ve created! Are unbelievable! Please keep it up! We look forward to getting to know you all a little better over this weekend. So keep the pictures coming!

Also, we would like to thank you for being patient with us as we’ve sorted through the many kinks and hurdles we’ve had along the way. The support and understanding from all of you has been absolutely wonderful. For something that started as a way to bring the community together in a time when we must isolate, I can tell you, we have never in our lives felt more connected, more supported, and less alone than we have over these past two weeks. And that is because of all of you.

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We’d also like to thank the one, the only, Lazarus Lake. For coming up with these crazy ideas and inspiring a new generation of runners to achieve entirely new and impossible things. And of course to his wife Sandra, for making it all happen.

We must also thank Dave Proctor. For inviting, encouraging, and sometimes coercing a phenomenal group of world class athletes into doing this crazy thing. And of course, to all of the elites for agreeing to join at such short notice, for inspiring thousands around the world to join you, and for allowing the world to watch as you endeavour to do the impossible.

We’d also like to thank the team of volunteers who have made this happen! We couldn’t have done this without you.

In particular, we’d like to of course thank, Dave Proctor for the inspiration and vision and stacking the elite field. Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard of Take Roots Consulting for all of your help navigating the crazy world of media and for making us join Twitter. Thank you Daniel Bowie of DB Visuals for all of his work with the race clock and setting up the first ever virtual Backyard timing system! And finally, Ryan Kershaw for all your help with the massive amount of communications we’ve had to sort through.

And the countless other volunteers who have stepped up and helped us pull this all together. Thank you!

And most importantly, we’d like to thank Tech Support…. Specifically… Gmail tech support, Zoom tech support, YouTube tech support, GoDaddy tech support, WordPress tech support, and Bluehost tech support for all of the hours of beautiful music, followed by the minutes of prompt service! We couldn’t do it without you!

Two weeks ago, we never would have thought we’d be international race directions but… with the help of some incredible talented and dedicated friends (a little tech support) here we are.

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We’d like to just do a run down of the announcements, a couple rules and we’ll get you on your way!

First, if you are fundraising for anything, please do not forget to submit your information into the fundraising page on the Personal Peak website! You can do this at anytime this weekend, just go to the donations page, and click the link.

Second, when you finish your race, make sure you log off of the Zoom call and submit your results when you are finished. You can follow the link in the email we sent, or just find the DNF page on our website. Then be sure to take your DNF photo with the number of laps you completed so we can see how you did!!!

Third, we will be making announcements in the last few minutes before the whistles each lap. If you miss anything, we will be posting the announcements on the blog of our website, so check there if you miss anything.

Fourth, HAVE FUN! and when it comes to the technological aspects of all of this, do your best! Everyone has different access to technology and internet, and different community restrictions and so on, so we simply ask that you do your best. And if you have ANY problems, just keep tracking. Keep racing. Keep starting your laps at the top of the hour, and keep tracking.

Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY we would like to reiterate the reason we are all here. Health and Safety! We as a global community have never experienced anything like the current COVID-19 situation. It is incredibly serious. Make sure you follow the local restrictions in your area. and DO NOT do anything that will burden the health care system. When in doubt… call it quits. Play it safe. You know your physical limits. Do NOT go past them.

Lets get started!

Ashley & Travis