One “yard.” Exactly 100 miles every 24 hours, if you survive that long.

The bell rings. You're in the corral or you're out. Whatever time remains is yours to eat, rest, and recover.

There is no finish line, only a last one standing. Everyone else records a DNF, and total yards toward the series crown.

To show up on the official Master Circuit Standings at the end of the season, you have to support the community and toe the line. You must record completed yards (loops) at a minimum of two of our four circuit events to qualify for the series championship.

Singly-run events will bank points, but your name won't unlock on the master leaderboard until you hit that second starting corral.

Points are being awarded retroactively to every 2026 participant, at each venue's full weight. If you toed the line at Rodeo this spring, your loops are banked at 1.5x. If you ran Austin's Backyard in May, yours are banked at 1.1x.

That means you are one start line away from unlocking your name in the Master Circuit Standings. Big Bastrop on October 10 or the Gulf Coast finale in February gets you there.

Backyard ultras don't care about your finishing position or your pace, so your score is based entirely on your distance, weighted by the venue. At Big Bastrop and Gulf Coast, every loop you finish before the 60-minute whistle earns exactly 1 point. At Austin's Backyard, every loop earns 1.1 points, thanks to the extra climb and that late-May sun.

Full transparency, both directions: the Austin's weight is a deliberate round-up from the 1.08 our elevation formula returns. And on Gulf Coast, the formula actually returns 0.86 for the flat coastal course, but no circuit event scores below baseline, so it's floored at 1.0. Flat is a different kind of hard, and the wind doesn't show up in an elevation profile.

Not all trails are created equal. Because of the terrain, elevation profile, and sheer physical toll of the Rodeo Backyard Ultra, we are weighting this event heavily: every single completed loop at Rodeo is worth 1.5 points, including the loops already banked from this spring.

To reward the deep-mileage battles that happen when the field thins out, we throw extra weight to the final two athletes left in the corral:

Note: these bonuses are flat additions to your final score and are not affected by the Rodeo multiplier. Retroactive 2026 winners and assists receive their bonuses too.

If you ran Rodeo or Austin's this year, you're already on the board and one race from the leaderboard. Big Bastrop on October 10 is your unlock. Then it all comes down to the coast: the season ends February 13 at Matagorda, where the river runs out of land and the crown gets decided. The finale is flat, fast, and worth every yard you have left.