Race screen
Ahead or behind, without reading a number.
The band fills with how far round the loop you are. The red mark is the clock. Past the mark you are banking rest. Behind it you are spending it.
BackyardPace manages every loop, recovery window and start time, from your wrist or from your phone. Stay focused on the only thing that matters: the next lap.
Race from your Apple Watch, or from your iPhone alone alongside a Garmin, COROS or any other watch.
Every loop starts on the hour.
Finish the loop, recover, and go again.
Miss the bell and you're out.
The hard part isn't the running.
It's the maths. The clock-watching. The nutrition reminders. The fatigue creep. The 3am decision-making. The constant mental load of managing a race format that punishes every lapse in focus.
How much time have I really got?
BackyardPace removes that mental load.
Any watch, any brand
Most of a backyard field runs Garmin or COROS. BackyardPace does not ask you to change that. Choose iPhone at race setup and the whole race runs from your phone: yard timing, recovery countdowns, lap logging, and the decision about whether you go again.
Your watch records the run exactly as it always has. The phone sits at base and runs the race.
BackyardPace does not connect to or control your Garmin or COROS watch. The two simply run alongside each other.
Racing in an Apple Watch?
Enter your race start time on the phone. BackyardPace sends the schedule to your watch and takes over from there.
The watch becomes the race engine. Lap timing, recovery countdown, heart rate and GPS, all running on your wrist, independent of your phone.
The phone becomes your crew dashboard in the tent. Lap time graphs to see trends, and how much buffer your runner has. Now you have the data when they're starting to fatigue and can help keep them going.
This is important because race-day reliability matters. Once the gun fires, the watch carries everything. Your phone can stay charging in the tent.
What you see on your wrist
Tap a part of the watch, or a label
Your race screen
Four choices. Change either tile mid-race, straight from your wrist. No phone.
Est rest turns red when the pace you are running will not make the cutoff.
New in 1.15
The band fills with how far round the loop you are. The red mark is the clock. Past the mark you are banking rest. Behind it you are spending it.
A buzz and the time out loud at three minutes, two and one, then GO. During the yard it calls your distance. Eyes shut, still informed.
Time and pace, right where you need them before you decide how to run the next one.
The phone at base is useful without picking it up. No unlocking, no finding the app.
Personal best at the top, then races, yards, distance, time on your feet, average pace and heart rate.
Found on real runs. Fixed before the next one.
How it works
Enter your scheduled race start time. That's it. BackyardPace sends the race schedule to the watch and you're done with the phone.
The start begins exactly on schedule. No manual start. The timing is derived from absolute time, not a countdown you can accidentally pause.
Yard time (counting up), Heart Rate, Yard distance remaining (estimated), which yard you're on and the actual time. A clean screen that keeps you informed without demanding attention.
BackyardPace switches automatically to the recovery view. Your window is on screen. Rest, eat, move. The next countdown is already running.
The next lap begins automatically. You leave. The watch tracks. This is how it runs for as long as you can keep going.
On the hour, every hour
No manual trigger. No wondering if you pressed start in time. The lap begins exactly when it should, derived from the scheduled race start time, not a countdown you can accidentally pause or restart.
The bell rings. The mark sweeps. You run.
Race-day reliability
Your phone is useful before and after the race, and for music, messages and crew coordination. But it should not be the thing keeping the clock alive.
BackyardPace is designed so the watch carries the race once the start time is set. Fewer distractions, fewer failure points, and less dependence on having your phone in your hand at the exact wrong moment.
Not another running tracker
Garmin, Strava and Apple Fitness are brilliant at recording runs. BackyardPace is built for the race itself: the hourly starts, the recovery windows, the last-runner-standing structure that no general running app knows how to handle.
| Apple Workout | Garmin | Strava | BackyardPace | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Records a run | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backyard Ultra lap structure | — | Limited / manual | — | ✓ |
| Recovery countdown per lap | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Hourly start logic | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Watch-first race execution | Partial | Device-dependent | — | ✓ |
| Built for last-runner-standing events | — | — | — | ✓ |
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Built by a Backyard Ultra runner
BackyardPace was built from first-hand experience of the format: long hours, repeated starts, mental fatigue, recovery pressure and the constant need to solve one lap at a time.
How much time do I have?
Am I slowing?
Am I ahead or behind where I need to be?
When do I need to leave?
Can I keep my phone away and just run?
These aren't hypothetical product features. They're questions every Backyard runner asks at some point during a race. BackyardPace is the attempt to answer them clearly, reliably, and without adding cognitive load to an event that already demands everything you have.
This is not a generic run tracker with a timer bolted on. It is a tool built for the specific demands of Backyard Ultras.
Pricing
No subscription. No locked race-day essentials.
Buy once, race forever. No subscription, no locked race-day essentials. Tap through to the App Store to see the price in your local currency.
Last runner standing · 24 yards · 160.9 km
Out now
BackyardPace is live on the App Store. Race from your Apple Watch, or from your iPhone alongside any other watch.
Download on theApp StoreOne-time purchase. No subscription. No locked race-day essentials.
Follow along
Race clips, gear notes and the story behind BackyardPace. Follow @backyardpace on Instagram.
