Cobscook Backyard Ultra

BCR Kwinam Park all smiles as she finishes strong on a beautiful stroll in the park! Photo by E. Mauricette

2022 Cobscook Backyard Ultra

2022 - 3 teams and 6 solo ultra runners. Many club members showed up throughout the day running a few laps with all the crazies. Photo by E. Mauricette

2022 Results coming soon

Coming back in April 2023!

Registration

No entry fees, easy 5K loop, just a stroll in the Park! If you want to spend Sunday 24 April in the beautiful Cobscook Bay State Park running and walking your first, or a different kind of, 50 Km Ultra with a great group of people, then why not sign up and join the fun? Or bring 1 or more friends and split the distance between you as a team entry.

If you can run/walk 3.1 miles in 1 hour then do it again next hour, and then again for 10 laps in total, then you can finish a 50K in 10 hours. Or if you don't think you can do it all alone, find a friend or two and divide it up as a Relay Team of 2 or 3, just so long as one team member completes each lap.

We’ll follow modified Backyard Ultra protocols – starting at 8am do one 5K loop, then do the 5K loop again at 9:00am, then again at 10:00am etc. through to starting the last lap at 5:00pm. When you finish a lap you'll likely have time to spare before the next one starts, so take a break, grab a drink/grub and wait for the next hour to come round. We will have a 5 minute warning bell before the start of the next lap. If you are not on the start line on the hour, because you haven’t finished the last lap or you've fallen asleep or whatever, then you are finished at however many loops you have completed. The event ends after 10 hours so the furthest you can go is 50kms.

Teams - in addition to individuals we will allow teams of 2 or 3 runners to compete. So long as one of your runners is on the start line on the hour, and completes the loop, your team can continue. This means you can participate without having to run all 10 laps, or even if you need to run off to do something else for a couple of hours. It's up to you to organize your team.

This is a Fatass style event – no fees, no aid stations, no support, no medals or awards. Just satisfaction for you (or your team) in completing the distance and a great sense of camaraderie as we all push ourselves.

You will have to pay Maine State Park day entry fees though unless you have an annual pass: Residents - $4: Resident Seniors (65 or older) or under 5's - Free; Non-residents - $6; Senior non-residents - $2; Children 5 - 11 years old - $1.00


Timing:

We’ll have a clock and a timing sheet on-site – write down your own loop times.


You should Bring your own supplies, canopy, chairs, etc. be prepared for the weather conditions. Also, please consider bringing something to share - we'll put out a shelter and table for this. There are multiple outhouses along the course but no running water or showers.

Because the park is closed to vehicles until 15 May you will have to park outside the park gate on South Edmunds Rd. and carry your stuff from there to the Start/Finish area where we’ll all set up – it’s about 200 metres. You can bring a cart or wheelbarrow. We’ll also run 1 vehicle as a shuttle between 7:00am and 7:30am, and again after 6:00pm.

The course is on vehicle free park gravel roads and will be well marked with arrows at every intersection. We’re still tweaking the loops to get to exactly 5K but the basic layout is below. Strava thinks there’s about 250 gentle elevation change per lap. Course map found here.