2024 Report

All the Yards and Watermelon Symmetry at Furbutt Backyard

With near perfect temps for July and endless watermelon slices, Furbutt did not disappoint this year. We had 77 starters and four finishers for the 24-hour, 100-mile distance - Zach Weinberger, Nick Ingvoldstad, Keavy Baylor and Dennis Chavez.

So many stories to recount here - This is the first sub 24-hour finish for both Zach and Nick (who incidentally both just ran their first hundreds at MMT in May); this is the first 100-mile finish for Keavy Baylor who now also has the women’s course champion title as the last woman standing; and Dennis finished his last yard in 32:58, which we believe is epic in the most epic way possible (plus he also ran 18 yards at last year’s inaugural Furbutt).

While our four finishers kept us riveted and inspired yard after yard, we recognize that many runners came out and set personal records and did more yards than they anticipated doing. As Zach Weinberger says, “It was sooo much fun meeting other people who came out to set a distance PR for themselves. So many first marathons, 50k, 50 mile and I’m sure 100k records set.” We can confirm that there was a lot of awesome out on that trail this past weekend.

And there was also a lot of awesome at the start/finish with perfectly symmetrical watermelon slices compliments of Tom Calla. In between being wow-d by all the runners, we were wow-d by the volunteers who sliced and diced and served up all the pickle juice cocktails that our electrolyte-deficient runners could handle.

Ernest and Dannah Vardaman set the bar high for endless energy and support, problem solving skills on the fly and just all-around good people vibe that really made the difference at this run, there just aren’t enough thank yous to thank you enough.

And Jeni Dwyer and Laura “Pants” Berlin helped to bring us some fresh energy in the wee hours of Sunday morning with a new playlist that we couldn’t stop raving about (hat tip, Rob Colenso) and tales of the hunt for tortillas in the middle of the night. I honestly don’t know how anyone has that much energy at those crazy hours but I’m here for all of it.

With Quatro, Tom and Ernest checking my trail marking skills (I got a solid “C”) and Bad Mike working his timing magic, I truly felt like we had the dream team out there.

But it’s all about the runners. Kudos to our two youngest runners - Isaac Clarke (who ran the fastest loop among the entire field of runners in 31:53), and Ben Tidwell who set out on a loop just as the Blue Bunny ice cream truck showed up and inspired him to divert his running plan, and yet still he managed to finish five yards / 20.83 miles.

Now for the thank yous, and oh my there are so many…

Thank you to the Hoka and Asics shoe reps who let us check out their latest models. Thank you to all the runners for being so generous with your aid station contributions, which gave us enough leftover for a VHTRC training run this coming weekend and more than likely another fat ass in the coming weeks. We can’t thank you enough! Plus, a special thank you to Colby Jurgensen for bringing those delicious slider rolls that we used to make ham and cheese sliders… Those were for sure a runner favorite!

Thank you to everyone from the club who came out to support our runners - Sarah Smith (Director of the Capital Backyard Ultra who brought special ice cream sandwich treats!), Tom Corris, Bob Gaylord, Jeff Reed, Lou Brooks, Heather Moldofsky, Sam Neakrase, and anyone else I missed. The club was ready with birthday cake to help celebrate Sam’s husband, Nick Neakrase. Birthday boy Nick was spending his special day getting in some special yards, and Sam ran a yard with him before he called it a day.

Thank you to my glitter-y girlfriend Denise Freeman for telling so many people about this run, and convincing John Calabrese to come out and run some yards even though he had to deal with a lot of heckling from me (as usual).

Thank you to Ryan Jackson, outdoor recreation planner (you know you want a title this awesome!), for the Lower Potomac Field Station, for all her support leading up to and during the run, as well as the post run sweep in the John Deere trail mobile … That was the most fun I’ve had after being awake for 24+ hours ever! Skip down to see some of the photos and videos that she shared from the first yard of the event.

But the true story of this run was watching so many different runners come out to have fun and get in some yards. From the first few yards, with Cynthia Robb crossing the finish line first making it look way too easy to Carl Bligan and his game face to the many runners who were staging friendly competitions among their friends.

I am inspired by so many of you and appreciative that you chose to spend your weekend with us at Furbutt. I wish everyone could have been there to see those four runners in the bleak hours continue to encourage one another and help one another hour after hour until they all crossed the final finish line.

And once they did, mayhem broke out with a final burst of energy and dance party among the crew who not only ran so many yards but then crewed yard after yard. I still wish I got a picture of Adam Rasmussen hanging off the side of his hammock with his eyes closed as he clapped and woot-woot’d as the runners came in. But this video of Adam and Dani Sevel having a Surfin’ Safari Dance Party will have to suffice.

So many people shared their sentiments about the run with me, that I wish all of the volunteers and all of the VHTRC had heard directly. But I will say that the net net is that this club is special, and this run was filled with a lot of special moments. Thank you to the VHTRC for the opportunity to make Furbutt proud, and thank you to everyone who made this weekend very special indeed.

A 2 minute Furbutt Backyard Tour, courtesy of Tudor Novac.

Furbutt Backyard Photo Gallery on Google Photos

Final results (courtesy of official event timer Mike “Bad Mike” Dobies) for the 2024 running of the Furbutt Backyard event. His link allows you to view much greater detail regarding each runner’s individual run accomplishments than the results grid below.

Videos of runners during the first yard at the turn off the Thompson Creek Loop trail on to the Wood Thrush Loop trail and making their way back to the finish on the Mustang Trail. Videos courtesy of Ms. Ryan Jackson.

There is plenty of room on this results page for additional reports and links to public collections of photographs. If you have either, please share them with RD Tracy.

Mark your calendars for the Third Furbutt Backyard, to be held once again on the final weekend in July (July 26-27, 2025). Entry will open on the traditional Tuesday after Memorial Day, which in this instance is May 27, 2025. After all the fun we had in 2024, you know you don’t want to miss out!

Photos

Results

Final results below scraped from those posted by official event timer Mike Dobies. See link to his results page above to find much more additional runner data.

Scroll below the results grid for the runners who participated in the 2024 Furbutt Backyard and you will see the (more important) list of the runners who put on the event!

Volunteers

Thanks to the volunteers below for their literally tireless efforts to put on this year’s event.

A special note of thanks to the Spiritual Mother of the Furbutt Backyard, Sarah Smith. Sarah puts on the nationally-acclaimed Capitol Backyard on the same course over Memorial Day weekend (and beyond). It was her idea for the Virginia Happy Trail Running Club to put on a backyard event, and then to give it the 24 hour cap to keep it more manageable for all concerned. She also graciously dropped by in the heat of the mid-afternoon portion of the race to provide a cooler filled with ice cream bars to all the runners (save one who shall remain Q-nameless) who were still participating after the 50k threshold had been reached.

Thanks also to the VHTRC’s Bored for their decision to host this event and for providing the support of the club to the RD and the runners, allowing this free run to occur.