Woohoo!! 2026 Riverhead ReLaps Backyard Ultra is all done, with our last person standing Matt Redford from Napier taking it out with 38 laps/hours (248km). An awesome effort with Matt fighting lap after lap with last years winner Connor Aldridge for 6 laps by themselves. Taking turns at looking fresh and slightly jaded and who came in first. They both left lap 36 looking good but Connor returned 30 minutes later from a weird direction to DNF. His body able and willing but his mind too distracted this time. Awesome effort Matt - he gets his name engraved on the eighth plaque on the big clock trophy, got a bunch of sponsors goodies. got a take home a medium clock trophy and the prestigious silver ticket coin which gets him into the NZ team for the BYU world team champs in October.
Thanks everyone for coming to this years event. 👍🏻👍🏻
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@neversecondnz@never.second@thisiszero22@curranz.newzealand@curranzsport@hallertau_nz
We have our 2026 Last Woman standing!! @the_happy_triangle Diana Osavlyuk started lap 31 but returned a few minutes later to finish with 30 laps/hours (201km) and was the 3rd person left standing. Diana finished every lap with a smile and was usually first into the corral each hour and looked like she was never going to stop! So good!!
Second woman was Michele Dean @_shelly_sue with 26 laps and 3rd women was Naomi Louisa @naomilouisa_
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@neversecondnz@never.second@thisiszero22@curranz.newzealand@curranzsport@hallertau_nz
Start of the 33rd hour
213km cpmpleted by these two southeners
Connor Aldridge Christchurch and Matt Radford Dunedin .
Day 2 of Riverhead relapse backtard ultra 😎
All eyes are watching to see who will get the silver ticket to the New Zealand satelitte team
Who loves this shit ?! We dooooooo 💯 🤓
Here are the runners starting lap 9, all of them have now completed an ultra and are continuing on to bigger numbers. There are 90 runners left lapsing as night is nearing!
The 2026 Riverhead Backyard Relaps is well underway now with runners out on lap 8 which will get them to nearly 54km of completed! We’re into ultra territory now!
Follow along on the video livestream on the @runnerswithbeards YouTube page or the live results on our website to see who will take out the win
7th year of RIVERHEAD RELAPSE BACKYARD ULTRA is under way as of 0900 this morning.
Another soldout event for His and Hers Endurance Kits 💪😎
Thank you to all our hires 🙏 and good luck to all the runners looping the forest this weekend .One More Lap !!!!
Some important links ! 👇
Participant List - /389172/participants
Live Leaderboard - /389172/results#1_CF06FC
Live stream - /@RunnerswithBeards
Neversecond NZ
ZeroTwenty2 SportsCo
Hallertau Brewery
CurraNZ
Next up : We are taking bookings for Blue Lake 24hr ( 7 kits left ) September 2026
That’s right the NZ NOMAD RUNNER PODCAST is headed north this weekend for the @riverheadbackyardrelaps 🤟🤟
I’ll be hitting up the Instagram livestreams on @nz_nomadrunner every 6 hours ish (or when any other key shit happens!) starting from 8:45am this Saturday.
Expect up close and personal insights, loose interviews, commentary and event updates.
Can’t wait to be there with yas!
Livestreams will be on @nz_nomadrunner Instagram and I’ll put out a more accurate timetable closer to event day so keep your eyes peeled 👀
#backyardultra #riverheadforest #runnz #runningnz #trailrunningnz
“The hardest part of the course is between your chair and the starting corral” - Laz Lake.
#backyardultra #paincave #ultrarunning #ultramarathon #runningreels
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW RIVERHEAD RELAPS COURSE FOR 2026
Our event director has been hard at work scheming away and we are excited to announce a change to the Riverhead Relaps Backyard Ultra course for 2026. The changed course will mean runners start with a single trail forest loop that takes them back past the start line for a round of cheers from spectators to send them on their way. Some of you may have got a taster of this at Rage Against Riverhead in November. Later, after crossing Barlow Road no longer will there be a hill to climb as the brilliant beast has removed it for us! And despair no longer because the fondly named loop of despair has been shortened, you will thank us for this in the middle of the night. Out with the old in with the new also means out with 20m of elevation compared to last years course to come in at only 75m now. And surprise surprise the new course measures in at a total of, you guessed it, 6.7km. The course has never looked better and we are pumped to see everyone there in a couple months. Entries are open and filling up fast!
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If you want to nerd out on the details of this new course you can find it linked in our bio along with a link to register for this event
