What to Eat During a Backyard Ultra: A Complete Fuelling Guide

So you've signed up for a backyard ultra, you've maybe started training, and now the big question's hit you. What on earth do I actually eat out there? And it's a good question, because I'll be dead honest with you, fuelling is the thing that ends more backyard ultras than tired legs ever do. Your body will keep going for a long, long time if you feed it right. If you don't, it doesn't matter how fit you are, you're done.

I learned this the hard way and the good way both, and I've also crewed these things and watched what actually works when someone's 20 hours deep and falling apart. So let me save you some of the trial and error. For the full training side of things I've got a whole separate guide on how to train for a backyard ultra, but this one's just about the food and drink, because it deserves its own post.

Why fuelling a backyard ultra is its own weird thing

Most ultras, you're moving more or less constantly and you graze as you go. A backyard is different because it's stop-start. You run your loop, then you get this wee window, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, sat in your chair before you're up and out again. So all your eating happens in these little pit stops, hour after hour after hour, often when the last thing on earth you feel like doing is eating.

And here's the bit that catches people out, and it caught me out at a race called Rasselbock. In the night hours your appetite just vanishes. You go off solid food completely. At Rasselbock I managed a banana and a packet of Hula Hoops over about 30 miles of night loops, I was aiming for 30-plus yards and I stopped at 20, and a big part of that was I just hadn't fuelled. Lesson well and truly learned.

How much do you actually need?

Right, the numbers, and then I'll make them practical because numbers on their own don't help you at 3am.

The general guidance for ultra running is somewhere around 30 to 90 grams of carbs an hour, or very roughly 200 to 400 calories an hour. Where you land depends on your size, your pace and how deep you're going. If you're aiming for a handful of loops, the lower end is grand. If you're planning to go through the night and beyond, you want to be training your gut to take on more, up towards that higher end.

One genuinely useful thing worth knowing is that if you're pushing the higher amounts, your body absorbs carbs better when you mix your sugar types, glucose and fructose together, rather than hammering just one. It's why a lot of proper endurance fuels and drinks use that combination. You get more out of the same amount of food without your stomach kicking off.

But here's the thing I most want you to take away. The runners who finish consistently eat more than the runners who drop. That's it. That's the headline. Fuelling early and often, before you feel like you need it, is the whole game.

The one rule that changes everything: no stoves

This is a big one and it's specific to a lot of backyard ultras, mine included. At Beecraigs there are no open flames or camping stoves allowed on site at all, it's a Park health and safety thing, no exceptions. So you cannot be firing up a wee stove between loops.

Now, that's different from hot water. A lot of events, mine included, provide hot water on site for tea, coffee and the like. So you can still have warm food and drinks, you just can't be cooking over a flame yourself. That's an important distinction, because as you'll see in a minute, warm food is an absolute hero in the wee small hours. Do check your own event's rules, but assume no cooking with a flame, and find out whether hot water's provided so you can plan around it.

What I actually ate (and would again)

None of this is fancy. That's rather the point. This is real food that goes down easy and doesn't need cooking.

Bananas. Loads of them. My absolute staple, easy on the stomach, proper energy, and there's a reason I start my own race with a bite of one.

Medjool dates stuffed with marzipan. This is my wee secret weapon and folk always laugh until they try it. Dates are pure quick energy, the marzipan makes them feel like a treat, and they're dead easy to get down even when you're not hungry.

Salted crisps. Hula Hoops, whatever you fancy. When you've been sweating for hours you're crying out for salt, and something savoury is a blessed relief when everything sweet has started to make you feel a bit sick.

Satsumas and watermelon. These are my palate cleansers. There comes a point where you cannot face another sweet, sticky thing, and a cold bit of fruit just resets your whole mouth and makes the next lot of food possible.

A homemade carb drink between loops. Carbs and electrolytes in liquid form became a total game-changer for me, especially at night. You can buy something like Tailwind, or honestly, you can make your own for a fraction of the price, I've got a whole post on my homemade carb drink that does the same job with two things from your kitchen cupboard. Which brings me to the most important tip in this whole post.

A homemade energy gel. Easy to make, store in resuable baby food pouches! And a whopping 90g natural carbs in each pouch. Check the recipe here.

Solids by day, liquid by night

If you remember one thing, make it this. During the daytime loops, eat your solid food, get the proper calories in while your stomach's still willing. Then as the night comes in and your appetite disappears, switch to liquid nutrition.

This was the fix for my Rasselbock disaster. Since I started leaning on liquid carbs through the dark hours, drinking my fuel when I couldn't face chewing anything, it's kept me going when I'd otherwise have wasted away to nothing. You can almost always drink when you can't eat. So plan for it, and treat the night as a liquid-fuelling shift.

The hero foods, especially for the night hours

Right, this is the good stuff, the bits I've seen work an absolute treat from crewing as well as running. When it's the middle of the night, it's cold, you're wrecked and you can't face another sweet gel, this is what saves people. Warm, plain, comforting, carby food. It's a total game-changer for morale as much as fuel.

Instant mash pots. Sounds mad, tastes like heaven at 3am. Just add the hot water that's provided on site, and you've got warm, salty, easy carbs that go down when nothing else will. One of the best things you can have in your kit.

Custard and rice pudding. Soft, sweet, comforting, carby, and they slip down when your stomach's had enough of chewing. You can get them in ready-to-eat tins and pots so there's no cooking needed at all, or warm through if you've got hot water. Proper hug-in-a-bowl stuff.

Hot, sugary cups of tea. Never underestimate this. It's warmth, it's fluid, it's a hit of sugar, and it's a psychological lift all in one. Watching a broken runner perk up after a sweet cup of tea is a beautiful thing. Bring your own reusable cup, mind, a lot of events including mine don't do disposable ones.

Flat Coke. An absolute ultra classic and for good reason. Let it go flat so it's not fizzy on your stomach, and you've got sugar and a wee bit of caffeine exactly when you need a lift. Heroes in a bottle in the back half of a race.

Salt and vinegar crisps, or anything vinegary. This is a proper insider tip. That sharp vinegar tang cuts through the sweetness fatigue like nothing else and resets your palate. Some folk even swear by a wee swig of pickle juice, the vinegar and salt combination seems to help settle the stomach and some people find it helps with cramp too. Sounds grim, works a treat.

Rotate everything so your gut doesn't quit

The other trap is flavour fatigue. Eat the same sweet gel every hour and by hour ten your stomach will flat refuse it, they call it gut shutdown and it's grim. So mix it up constantly. Sweet then salty. Solid then liquid. Warm then cold. Chewy then soft. Sweet gel one hour, salt and vinegar crisps the next, a warm cup of tea after that. Keep giving your body something a wee bit different and it'll keep accepting food far longer.

Practice it. Please, please practice it.

I cannot say this loudly enough. Do not try any of this for the first time on race day. Your gut is trainable, and the only way to know what you can stomach at hour fifteen is to have been there in training. This is exactly what a simulation run is for, do a few back-to-back loops, eat like you would in the race, and find out what works while it doesn't matter. Everyone's stomach is different. What's magic for me might sit like a brick in you. Find your own foods in training and you'll toe that start line knowing exactly what to reach for.

The short version

Feed yourself early and often, before you think you need it. Aim for a steady stream of carbs every hour and don't let yourself fall behind. Eat solids by day, drink your fuel by night, and lean on the warm comfort food, mash, custard, sweet tea, flat Coke, when the dark hours hit. Rotate sweet and salty, solid and liquid, warm and cold, so your gut never gets bored and shuts down. Assume no cooking on site, but check if hot water's provided. And practice the whole lot in training so nothing on race day is a surprise.

Do that, and you'll still be turning up to that start line long after the folk who forgot to eat have crawled into their tents. Because in a backyard ultra, the last one standing is very often just the one who kept eating.

Right, go practice stuffing a date with marzipan. You'll thank me at 2am.

— Kayleigh 🍌

Want to fuel the rest of it too? Here's my homemade carb drink (cheap DIY race fuel), my homemade honey energy gel recipe and my electrolyte drink for runners, all perfect for the long haul. And if you've not read it yet, how to train for a backyard ultra covers the build-up, and how to crew a backyard ultra is well worth a read for whoever's handing you those bananas.