In the small town of West Point, Iowa, you can hear a colorful voice chanting over a loud speaker, “We will do it . . . just one more time,” every hour, until only one runner remains.
Since 2021, the Broken Anvil Backyard Ultra has seen its runner participation increase year after year and in 2024, 87 runners toed the line. Starting under the lights of a soccer field before the Midwest sunrise, the race started at 7 a.m. on Saturday, September 21.
The Broken Anvil is a repetitive 4.167-mile looped course, starting every hour on the hour. The 2024 edition of the race began with a corral full of eager legs, as athletes traversed a paved bike path, scooted through the whispering pines trail around the campground, and finished back where they started. Each participant was greeted with a mandatory fist bump.
The fist-bump protocol was established at the first event in 2021 when COVID wasn’t quite a distant memory. Knocking knuckles has stuck around for the remaining years and has become a staple of this Midwest grinder as most runners require the gesture to continue to the next loop of the race.
When hour 5 arrived, there were still 66 runners on the course. The sun was beginning to flex with temps reaching the mid-80s (and in Iowa, this is warm with a lot of humidity in the air).
The Broken Anvil isn’t a flashy race. The aid is minimal as it is mainly stocked with the race director’s favorite items: water, pickle juice, coffee, quesadillas and when night falls, some ramen noodles. The runners were there to survive, and as the sun faded in the west, Mother Nature decided to open up the skies and let out a few thunderstorms (another typical aspect of summer Iowa weather).
Aunica Krier (left) and Whitney Carlson (right) created a new experience during every loop. Photo: Austin Roe / Mile 90 Photography
Then, there were six. Dividing the runners, three women and three men gathered in the corral as the wind picked up as the rain continued. As the hours went by, the race found a last woman standing in Nicole Morningstar who completed 20 loops for a new women’s record of 83.3 miles.
The final two athletes would run together for 4 hours until the Last Runner Standing was crowned victorious. As the sun came up, Stormy Hild completed loop 25, setting a new course record and beating his own record with a distance of 104.2 miles.
The Broken Anvil Backyard course is set on 86 acres in Pollmiller Park Lake on 80% paved bike paths/roads, 10% crushed gravel and 10% trail/grass paths. With only 175 feet of elevation gain and loss per loop/yard, this course allows athletes to push a bit more.
Full results here