Weekend at REDS
Red's Backyard Ultra Recap
I spent the weekend at Red’s Backyard Ultra, watching a field of very tired people repeatedly decide to chug along the path day and night in hopes of running the farthest they had ever run. One by one they met their limit until Barry Keem was crowned the last man standing after 73 yards. Brandon-Lee “The Crow” Grech pushed him all the way through 72 of his own yards, and Margie claimed the top female spot with 42 yards. In a sport built on accumulated fatigue, mountains of snacks, almost zero sleep, and strange levels of good humor, I honestly felt completely at home here with the kind of people who are the embodiment of the statement "allergic to average."
Weekend At Red’s
If "Weekend at Bernie’s" taught us anything, it’s that a pair of sunglasses can hide the fact that someone has completely stopped blinking for the last 4 hours, and a dead body can apparently pose for a photo, hold a drink, and even waterski with a surprisingly minimal amount of assistance.
Red’s Backyard Ultra had a similar energy, except the walking dead were technically still alive, and nobody was allowed to carry them around until they voluntarily withdrew from the race. Everyone was very much alive, just increasingly sore, sleep-deprived, weathered, and somehow still keen for “just one more loop.”
That is the basic Backyard Ultra deal. Every hour, runners head out to complete a 6.71 km loop ( known as a yard) and return before the next hour begins. Then they do it again. And again. And again. All day. All night. For several days.
The race does not finish because of a set distance; it finishes when only one person can get back out for another yard.
Ultra runners have a particular way of making this look almost normal. They’ll laugh about their feet, joke about the fact they have not slept properly in days, and act like moving through another night on tired legs is just a minor inconvenience. They compete against themselves until only one man or woman is left to run the final lap alone.
Barry Keem: Last One Standing
Barry Keem was that man at Red’s this year.
He completed 73 yards, setting a personal best, taking out the 2026 Red’s Backyard Ultra Silver Ticket event, and securing a place on the Australian Team for the 2026 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships. Seventy-three yards is more than 489 km of accumulated running, one 6.71 km loop at a time, with the clock always waiting.
Barry is no stranger to Red’s. He won the event in 2023, returned as an assist in 2024, and came back this year to stand alone once again when it mattered. That kind of history cannot be bought with a flashy finish or a big speech. It comes from turning up, learning the game, getting humbled by it, and then turning up again.
There is no real victory lap in backyard running. There is just the final yard: getting out of the chair, leaving the corral, and finishing the loop after your last mate has finally had enough. That is what Barry did.
You can follow Barry and his coaching work on Instagram at @team_keem_coaching
The Crow Did Not Stop Fighting
Right behind Barry was Brandon-Lee “The Crow” Grech, who took the 2026 Silver Ticket Assist after an enormous 72-yard performance. In backyard terms, the assist is not simply second place. The assist is the person who keeps the race alive, keeps the winner honest, and makes every extra yard necessary.
Brandon came to Red’s chasing a chance to put himself in the frame for the Australian Team. He ran 20 yards farther than he ever had before, reached a new personal best, and left with the kind of result that puts him firmly in the selection conversation.
There was no big chest-beating about it. That is not really the Backyard way. Just another exhausted runner who dug in deep, went out when the bell sounded, and kept doing the hard bit long after most people would have happily declared the weekend over.
The Crow may have landed at Red’s, but he also made it clear he is far from finished. Follow him at @brandonleegrech
Margie’s 42-Yard Weekend
Then there was Margie, Red’s 2026 Top Female, who completed 42 yards and showed exactly why she has become such a respected part of the Backyard and Frontyard community. Forty-two yards is roughly 282 km of running, built one patient hour at a time.
Margie arrived with years of racing experience behind her, including multiple wins and a World Team Satellite National Championship appearance. But the details that matter most at a Backyard are rarely the ones on paper. It is the willingness to step out again when your body is asking for a chair, a blanket, and a quiet drive home.
Loop after loop, hour after hour, she kept going. That is the whole story, really. No fuss. No big performance. Just a tough runner doing what tough runners do until the race finally says enough.
You can follow her at @ultrarunnermargie.
The View from the Recovery Tent
Ezra Dingo was the first person to bring ALLEVIATE and ALLEVIATE PRO into the ultra-running world after he found our products at a farmers market in Mullumbimby, NSW. He introduced me to Backyard Ultras and suggested I call Red herself and see if there was room to setup a little recovery-zone tent at this year's Red’s Backyard Ultra. She gracefully obliged.
Since I was busy at an event on Saturday, I arrived on Sunday evening somewhere in the middle of yard 33, after the race numbers had dwindled from 140 down to 50-something competitors. I had no real idea how long a Backyard Ultra could run, but I was prepared to work around the clock and offer my assistance as much as possible without getting in anyone's way.
The plan was simple. I would offer free applications of ALLEVIATE and ALLEVIATE PRO to runners dealing with the usual ultra-running collection of tight calves, sore legs, tired feet, blisters and general post-yard discomfort. Natural Artform’s ALLEVIATE formula combines magnesium with botanical oil extracts and DMSO, and is relatively unheard of among these race crews, so I intended to be there to answer any questions while demoing the product and helping with what I call "recovery on the go." I was there not to replace the event medic, diagnose injuries or make medical calls, but to support the athletes and their crews and hopefully not do TOO good a job and cause the event to drag on till Friday.
I came in with a medic’s mindset and the experience from having completed Army SFAS (special forces assessment and selection) twice, once with broken feet. I quickly found myself working mostly with Ezra’s crew. While Ezra ate, his wife swapped his garmin watch, race gear, and his team packed his electrolytes, refilled water bottles, etc.
It felt like being part of a pit crew, except the car had been running all night, had not slept properly, and was about to head out again for another 6.71 km loop.
Ezra’s own 58-yard personal best gave me a front-row seat to what this sport demands. It was not glamorous. It was tired runners, organised crews, swollen feet, gear changes, food, hydration, brief quiet moments and a bell that kept bringing everyone back to the corral. It was also one of the best introductions to a sport I could have asked for.
The Part You Miss Online
Photos show the runners moving through the course, but they do not always capture the full scene: people wrapping themselves in blankets between yards, crews quietly sorting food, runners shuffling around camp with a thousand-yard stare, and the strange burst of life whenever the next hour rolls around.
At Red’s, nobody looked particularly fresh by the business end. That was the point. Yet the mood stayed good. People laughed. They checked in on each other. They gave the runners their space when needed and their support when it counted.
That is what makes this format different. It is savage, but it is social. Everyone is sharing the same simple problem: finish this loop, recover what you can, then get ready to do it all again. There is nowhere to hide, no time to bluff, and no shortcut around the work.
More Than A Finish Line
Red’s was a Silver Ticket event, meaning Barry’s win earned him automatic selection for Australia’s 2026 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships. The World Team Championships are scheduled for 17–23 October at Integral Energy Recreational Park in Kembla Grange, the same home ground as Red’s.
That adds real weight to the weekend, but it does not change the simple thing that makes a Backyard special. Every runner who made it through another hour had to earn it. Barry earned 73. Brandon earned 72. Margie earned 42.
By the end, the legs were cooked, the sleep debt was serious, and the stories were already getting better with every retelling. Classic ultra-running behaviour. A bunch of exhausted people, half joking about the pain, half proud of having pushed through it, and all of them already wondering when they can do it again.
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