The Philippines’ Jingle Balls Backyard Ultra (JBBU) was the first backyard ultra to be held in the Philippines. The first edition was held in December of 2019. The December 2024 event will be the 4th edition of the event and will be even better than previous years.
JBBU is held in the mountain town of Baguio (or the “City of Pines” as it’s commonly known), on the Philippines’ Luzon island. The former US military camp of Camp John Hay (CJH) is the venue. Baguio is particularly popular with local and international tourists due to the cooler weather conditions year round.
- The route is 95% off-road and mostly single-track trails. There are minimal road sections.
- The route is well clear of vegetation and overgrowth in order to allow easier and safer running conditions and better visibility of the trail terrain. This provides more space for overtaking along the route and better counter flow conditions near the turnaround point where competitors will be moving in opposite directions.
- Some areas of the trail have been improved so that the overall trail will be less technical allowing smoother running conditions.
- Electronic timing is used to ensure accurate capture of loop/lap times.
Our goal at Intrepid Spirit is to provide a safe, friendly encouraging environment for people to connect with trail running and enjoy the outdoors, trails and mountains and take on a challenge that otherwise might have seemed unreachable. The Backyard Ultra “sole survivor” format is certainly different to many other types of running events. Not only will you have to manage your loop/lap times but you will need to fight the desire to want to stop and eventually, the sleep demons.
