Some of the island’s bravest, or some might say craziest, runners are about to push themselves through the pain barrier by racing for more than 24 hours.

A team of 14 endurance runners will be competing in the Backyard Ultra World Championships at Clearwater Beach from 9am on Saturday, with the unique nature of the competition meaning some of the team will still be running at 9am on Sunday.

The Backyard Ultra rules dictate that runners must run a 4.167-mile loop without outside aid every hour until just one person is left standing, with the contest finishing only when a lone individual completes a loop on their own after their team-mates have dropped out.

Each nation competing at the World Championships race in their own country but organiser Andy McComb has no fears of unscrupulous behaviour or dishonesty.

“Some of it comes from the culture of endurance racing,” McComb said.

“When we run our annual event here, which we have done in the last two year, people come out whether they want to run one loop or 24 loops, but when you get to this level of the national team, particularly when you look at other countries, you have people running for a couple of days or more.

“That endurance ultra-running culture is definitely about honesty and they are people who wouldn’t see any benefit in cheating in any way. They actually wouldn’t want to run anything shorter than the proper distance.”

The race starts at 9am in St David’s on Saturday and McComb is expecting the Bermuda Backyard record to be broken this weekend.

“I’m actually expecting at least one person to beat the Bermuda record, which is 25 hours, because there is added incentive in this race,” McComb said

“All the winners of the different country backyards, and this constitutes our national championships despite it being a team event, as long as they run at least 24 hours then they will automatically qualify to run in next year’s individual world championships.

“That is an added incentive for our guys to keep going this year. They need to support each other and run as a team but when it gets to the death then there is individual incentive to be the last person standing.”

Ultra runners must experience a unique mix of pain and pleasure as the hours roll on and the legs start to scream, with mind over matter a key component.

“I don’t know exactly where the threshold is but it’s probably 16 to 18 hours and then it really is just fortitude,” McComb said.

“Your body does seem to tell you that you can’t do any more but if you’ve done enough endurance racing you know that’s not true. It’s about conquering your own self doubt and keeping going.”

It’s not just the runners in it for the long haul, with family, friends and race volunteers all gearing up for a stamina-sapping weekend and for some of the runners this race comes hot on the heels of a number of international marathons.

“A number of our runners have just done some big recent events,” McComb said.

“Fabri Alvera ran the Berlin Marathon a couple of weeks ago, Phillip Woollins ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend, so we’re hoping those are just warm-ups and they are recovered well enough to do this for Bermuda,” McComb said.

“Everybody will be running from the start and doing the maximum they can do before they drop out. As we’re expecting it to go overnight we do have a core team that will be up overnight and until the conclusion.

“We’ve planned up until about 30 hours but if we get to 30 hours we’ll be somewhat winging it and calling around for reinforcements.”

After just two years and two Backyard Ultras being held in Bermuda it is quite an achievement for the island to be able to field a team at the world championships and McComb is urging the island to come out and back the runners.

“We would really encourage people to come out at any time to support the team and help them to do their best,” McComb said.

“Our backyard runners have only experienced the event for two years and we’re extremely proud to have been able to assemble a Bermuda team and enter the World Championships.

“We’re also very excited about the possibility of having somebody go to the individual World Championships next year where they will be running with the world’s endurance running elite.”