Backyard Ultra in New Town (Oct 10 8:00AM)

The Second Annual Backyard Ultra marathon in New Town, Missouri will be held October 10th, 2026. Event registration will start at 7:00 AM, and the race will begin at 8:00 AM. The event will consist of a 4.17 mile loop and runners will have up until the next hour to be back in time to start the next loop. Registration for the event is $25 to cover costs, but to run each loop you must put a dollar into a race jar. The winner of this last person standing race will receive half of the jar, while the other half will be donated to MSMDS charity. Each participant that completes a lap will be given a custom NewTown Ultra DNF token. First place for both Men's and Women's divisions will also receive a race unique prize that is yet TBD LOL.

New this year, we will also have a Rucking division.  Based on complex math algorithms, race director input, and somewhat sheer coincidence, we have settled upon this distance being a 2.6 Mile route which would get a rucker to 100K in 24 hours if they go all day and night! It will follow the same backyard rules, have the same registration/start time, follow the same dollar a lap buy in, race prize for the last person standing, and unique prize for the Men's and Women's winners.  This is a weighted ruck, the women's division will have a 20 pound weight minimum, the men's division will have a 30 pound weight minimum. 

Race location will be at the amphitheater in New Town in Saint Charles, Missouri. https://maps.apple.com/place?coordinate=38.836652,-90.494863&name=Marked%20Location&map=h

This is where registration and start of each lap will be. There is an area with bathrooms and where runners can set up their area in between laps for refueling, relaxing, and making friends. There are multiple restaurants, coffee shop, ice cream shacks around that will have food available as well. The race will have volunteers staffed until 12pm Sunday, October 11th which would mean ~116.8 miles for runners, ~72.8 miles for ruckers! If two runners are still going at that time, accommodations will be made to keep the race going since we would love to see two make it that far!

With the $25 covering the cost of coins and other race related expenses, we ask you consider donating to a cause that is near and dear to our hearts. Multisystemic Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome (MSMDS), an ultra-rare genetic disease affecting only 70 patients worldwide, mostly children. 

Braxley is who we are running for and she is two of our racers amazing warrior niece. Braxley is a fun, loving and sassy 3 year old. She enjoys coloring, tumbling and playing with her dogs, brother and cousins. Braxley suffers from a rare disease called Multisystemic Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome, or MSMDS for short. A life threatening condition caused by mutations in the ACTA2 gene.

MSMDS is an ultra-rare genetic disorder that affects the smooth muscle cells throughout the body--including those in the vascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and urinary systems. Children born with ACTA2-related MSMDS often face serious, debilitating complications such as early-onset strokes, aortic dilation with risk for dissection or rupture at a young age, periventricular white matter lesions, chronically dilated and fixed pupils, chronic interstitial lung disease, hypotonic bladder and recurrent urinary infections. Many do not survive past early childhood. For those who do, the journey is filled with constant medical intervention, high-risk surgeries and a deep uncertainty about the future.

There is an amazing team of doctors and researchers working on gene therapy to help patients like Braxley. They were prepared to start a clinical trial in February of 2026. Due to cuts from the federal government, the team never received the grant to move forward. They're now in limbo of waiting on if/when they will receive the grant. Because of how quickly the disease is progressing for Braxley, she does not have the time to sit around and wait. There's hope that there's help out there, but it's an arms length away. We need champions who will support funding for research. Please consider becoming one of those champions. The lives of children and families living with ACTA2 related MSMDS depend on it.

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/ali-and-nate-hodson

This year we have also added a link to t-shirts! Orders need to be in by September 27th but all proceeds go to Braxley the Brave! https://braxleythebravenewtown.itemorder.com/shop/home/

Please sign up and tell your friends that we would love to see the run one or 21 loops and push themselves to new heights!