EVERY HOUR ON THE HOUR
A 'Backyard' Ultra is a simple event.
It's a loop course of 6.71km.
There are only 2 rules.
1. At the start of every hour you must start.
2. You must cross the line before the end of that hour.
Fail either, you're out.
The only other way out is to quit.
West Aussie Phil Gore holds the world record in the event.
119 loops - that's 5 days straight and 798km in total.
Participation in a Backyard Ultra is only 10% about running.
It's 90% about asking yourself some very difficult questions.
The format has a way of being a metaphor for life.
It's a surprisingly short leap from the dusty track of an ultra to the soil of a vineyard.
The mindset is almost identical. The lessons you learn out there, in the quiet hours when you're questioning everything, are the same ones the land teaches you season after season.
As long as you can complete the loop in under an hour, you are tied for first place.
The only reason to stop is because you choose to. The race becomes a long, repetitive, and brutally honest conversation with that voice in your head that tells you to quit because it's hard.
In farming, 'quit' doesn't just visit you on a long run.
It’s the voice that whispers to you when a late frost wipes out your flowering buds.
It’s the roar of a bushfire or hailstones the size of golf balls.
It’s the silence of mildew or a long drought.
The market price for grapes. A new pest could arrive.
There are a thousand legitimate, logical reasons to stop. To quit.
THE CONCEPT OF INFINITY
A standard race has a finish line.
It's a defined, concrete goal.
A backyard ultra has no finish line. The goal is simply to continue.
This removes the comfort of a known endpoint and forces you into the present moment.
Each loop is its own victory.
You're not running to something; you're simply running.
A farm is never finished. A vineyard is never "done." Harvest isn't a finish line; it's just one point in a loop that immediately begins again with preparing the soil and vines for the next season. It is the definition of a long game.
The work is cyclical, relentless, and has no end.
You have to find satisfaction not in completion, but in the continuation of the cycle itself.
EGO GETS YOU NOWHERE
Speed is almost irrelevant.
The fastest runner and the slowest runner who finish the loop are equal.
This neutralizes the ego. All you can do is be consistent, patient, and resilient. The race rewards stubbornness over talent, humility over pride. It’s a format where you discover that your greatest strengths might be things that don't show up on a stopwatch.
The vineyard is the ultimate ego-checker. You can be the most celebrated winemaker with the most advanced theories, but the land doesn't care. It does what it wants. An ill-timed hailstorm doesn't care about your brand's reputation.
Success isn't about one brilliant, heroic decision. It’s about the stubborn, unglamorous, repetitive work. Walking the rows, checking for mildew, fixing irrigation lines, pulling weeds. It's about consistency and diligence. The land rewards the stubborn farmer far more than the flashy genius.
Loop 1 was easy.
On loop 7 and 8 I was hurting. Stomach churning. Legs burning.
On loop 10, knees screaming, I almost missed the cutoff time.
On loops 13 and 14 I experienced a drug-like high. Endorphins pulsing.
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In farming and in life, you will have bad days.
Bad years, bad seasons.
But good days and good seasons always follow.
And they eclipse the bad 10x.
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The mind willing but the body unable to go on.
Vinteloper is in it's 17th year.
Are we at our limit?
We are battle-hardened.