How I Survived My First Backyard Ultra (and Why Bee Fast Was a Game-Changer)

I'm Jonty, the guy behind Bee Fast, and this is the story of how I survived my first backyard ultra : the Airport Carousel Backyard Ultra, with a little grit, a lot of Bee Fast gels, and an ankle that barely made it through.

Signing Up Last Minute

I signed up one week out with pretty minimal training (starting to sound a bit like a Goggins story, right?).
Got my gear sorted the night before and made sure to catch a solid sleep.

Race morning was mild. I registered, set up my gear, and applied some Gurney Goo to keep the hotspots at bay.
For anyone new to the backyard ultra format: you get one hour to complete a 6.7km loop. You have to be back in the start corral before the hour’s up, or you’re out. Simple... but brutal.

My strategy was to complete each lap in 48–51 minutes, giving myself enough time to eat, recover, and rest between rounds.

Laps 1–6: Settling In

Tracey, Cory, and I set out steady, averaging about 51 minutes per lap (7:25/km pace).
It was hot, and my body was fighting for a rhythm. Tight hamstrings kicked in early, but the goal was just to keep moving.
Unfortunately, Cory bowed out around lap 5 due to heat exhaustion and cramping — a tough reminder of how hard these events are.

Laps 6–12: Into No Man’s Land

The next block of laps felt like no man's land.
Mentally, you just had to stay locked in and tick them off.
Nutrition was on point — I stuck to my plan of smashing one Bee Fast energy gel per lap, giving me 31 grams of clean carbs each time.
Tracey finished strong to lap 10 and then called it a day.

Laps 12–18: New Territory

Crossing the 100km mark was a massive milestone — the furthest I'd ever run.
The night laps actually felt good. I found a second wind and dropped my lap times closer to 48 minutes, giving me more time to eat, stretch, and chill between loops.

Laps 18–24: The True Battle

This is where things got real.
Somewhere during these laps, most of the field dropped away until there were just three of us left.
I was fighting a nasty ankle injury, tendon inflamation that got worse with every break.
Starting each new lap became a mental and physical war.
Rain started hammering down, too, just to spice things up.

I decided four laps from 100 miles that I would push to that magic number and then call it.
That last lap to hit 160km, was pure survival.
Honestly, no Rogaine, no adventure race has ever hurt like that did.

The Aftermath

As soon as I finished, my body basically shut down.
I had a bath, passed out mid-soak, and woke up with my ankle wrecked.
I couldn’t walk without assistance.
Got it scanned and luckily no fracture but got strapped into a moon boot for a week.

Recovery was slow but steady.

How Bee Fast Helped Me Go the Distance

One Bee Fast energy gel every lap 24 gels total across the event.
That was the plan, and it worked perfectly.

The clean honey-based carbs kept my blood sugar rock solid, no crashes and no dramas.

When you're 18 hours into an ultra and your body starts craving your fuel, you know you’re onto something good.

I genuinely believe Bee Fast made the difference between tapping out early and hitting that 100-mile milestone.