Drake Landing residents shouldn’t be alarmed this weekend if they see a woman running along the same route for hours and hours on end.
She’s not casing out homes, she’s not lost or confused, Britt Ivan is competing in the virtual last person standing Quarantine Backyard Ultra.
“I have a loop planned and I want to run outside as much as I can,” Ivan said. “I might have to run for a lap or two inside just to get things charged up – like my watch will die faster running outside."
Ivan will be one of more than 1,000 people running in the virtual backyard ultra which starts June 11 at 7 a.m. The format has runners completing a 6.7km loop every hour. The winner is the last runner standing who can complete the 6.7km loop in each proceeding hour.
Participants will compete from around the world. Each runner will post his or her lap on a Strava or Garmin device, or when running on a treadmill, take a photo and send in their results.
The global event takes plenty of work, with two of the four organizers, ultra-marathoner David Proctor and Daniel Bowie, living in Okotoks.
They were also involved in the April 4 Quarantine Backyard Ulra which was won by American Mike Wardian, who finished at 63 laps.
The event was written up by Sports Illustrated and a video of Proctor running on his treadmill is on SI’s website.
Proctor will compete in the July 11 run on a treadmill from his Drake Landing home.
“I am going to be commentating while I am running,” said Proctor, the race co-co-ordinator. “I will do the whole thing on the treadmill and I will answer all the Facebook live comments as they come in… It’s going to be a big production, we will have all these special events and interviews along the way.”
Proctor, who holds several Canadian running records, is presently training for his 2021 attempt to break Al Howie’s record for running across Canada. The proceeds from that run will go to the Canadian Rare Disease Foundation.
Making sure the wheels don’t turn off in the complex production of the Quarantine Ultra, is Bowie with DB Visual Productions, who is producing the event from his Okotoks home.
“I will be the host and Dave will be the co-host,” Bowie said. “We have projected we will have close to 1,500 people registered by July 11…The broadcast is being done from my garage.”
Bowie is a running enthusiast. About eight years ago he vowed to run one marathon per month. He hit 90 marathons in 90 months in June.
This will be Ivan’s second quarantine backyard — she surpassed all her goals when she ran the first one.
Ivan ran 100km on April 4 – her previous longest distance was the Calgary half-marathon (21.1km) in 2018.
“My goal was to run a marathon this year and next year I would run a 50km run for my 50th birthday,” Ivan said.
The format was ideal for her to set a PB in terms of distance.
“Because there is no finish line you can make whatever goals you feel at the time that will work for you,” Ivan said. “My husband (Jeff) and I would cross of these milestones as we got there.
“At 50 miles, you are only three more laps (of 6.7km each) until you are at 100km.”
She ran the distance on a treadmill and stopped at 100km – a touch more than 15 hours of running. A sore foot was a factor in her stopping.
She estimated she ran each lap at around 48 minutes.
“I was trying to keep the pace so I could go for hours,” Ivan said. “The good thing about this time, I will be outside and you will change your speed. I found on the treadmill at 50km, I had to speed things up to lengthen my speed a little bit, so I think I will find it a little easier outside.”
She’s not the first Ivan to be recognized for running. Son Alex won a bronze medal in the lung-burning Senior boys 400m at high school provincials in 2012 with the Foothills Falcons.
There is no charge to enter the July 11 Quarantine Backyard Ultra. For more information go to quarantinebackyardultra.com
