It was a warm Saturday morning in October, and on a 50-acre farm just north of Bell Buckle, Tenn. (pop. 425), 46 runners gathered at the starting line, preparing to run one of the quirkiest, yet most arduous, of races. Called the Big Backyard Ultra, the race required contestants to run a course that spanned 4.167 miles, over trails etched out of the farm, every hour.
If you finished faster than an hour, you got five or 10 minutes to rest or eat or go to the bathroom before the next round. If it took you longer than an hour, you were out.