# BackyardPace: Backyard Ultra — Race companion for any watch > Race companion for any watch (iPhone/iPad app by Timothy James Dove.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/backyardpace-backyard-ultra/id6792262364 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Timothy James Dove](https://appshunter.io/developer/6792262366) - Category: Sports, Health & Fitness - Price: $4.99 (on sale, was $12.99) - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.6 · 11 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-07-31 - Data updated: 2026-10-07 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/backyardpace-backyard-ultra/id6792262364/reviews.md ## What is BackyardPace? Keep the watch you already race in. BackyardPace runs from your iPhone at base while your Garmin, COROS or any other watch records the run. Or race it from your Apple Watch. Either way it handles the yard timer, the recovery countdown and the next start, so you can stop doing arithmetic at 3am and think about one thing: the next yard. THE FORMAT Finish the loop before the bell, recover, then go again. The last runner standing wins. Everyone else records a DNF, no matter how far they got. Recovery matters more with every hour that passes, and that is the part BackyardPace takes off your hands. RACE FROM IPHONE No Apple Watch needed. Yard timing, recovery countdowns, lap logging and the go-again decision all run from the phone, so you keep using the watch you already trust to record the run itself. The phone sits at base and runs the race. The corral clock sits on your lock screen, so you can read it without picking the phone up. BackyardPace does not connect to or control your Garmin or COROS. The two run alongside each other. Your watch records the run. BackyardPace runs the race. RACE FROM APPLE WATCH Set your start time before the gun and the watch becomes your race computer. Yard time, recovery countdown, heart rate and distance remaining, all on your wrist. The phone can stay charging in the tent. Every yard, split, GPS route and heart rate is written to Apple Health. AHEAD OR BEHIND, AT A GLANCE A band runs around the edge of the race screen showing how far round the loop you are, with a red mark where the clock is. Ahead of the mark you are banking rest. Behind it you are spending it. No number to read, no arithmetic, no thinking. REST YOU ARE EARNING While you are running, BackyardPace shows the rest your current pace is buying you. Push and the number grows. Ease off and you watch it shrink. It is the one number that changes how you run the second half of a yard. DISTANCE THAT COUNTS DOWN Most apps show how far you have run. Late in a backyard that is useless. What you want to know is how far until you can stop, so BackyardPace counts the remaining distance down instead. RECOVERY THAT KEEPS YOU HONEST The recovery screen counts down to the next yard and changes colour as time runs short. Green while you have room, orange as the start approaches, red when you need to move. Readable at a glance from across a tent at 3am, with the yard you just ran shown underneath: time and pace, so you know what the next one has to look like. IT TELLS YOU OUT LOUD The watch buzzes and says the time at three minutes, two and one, then again the moment the next yard starts. During the yard it calls your distance and the rest you are earning. Head down, eyes shut, and you still get off the line on time. YOUR RACES, ADDED UP Every race is saved with its laps, route and heart rate. A lifetime view keeps your best yard count, total yards, total distance, time running and your average pace and heart rate across everything you have ever run. WHAT IT DOES Logs every yard as you go, works out your recovery window the second you finish, and records a cutoff automatically if a yard elapses. Lap times can be edited afterwards, so one mis-tap does not spoil the record. YOUR RACE ON STRAVA Connect Strava once and upload from the race summary, with every yard as its own lap. Or export a standard TCX file and upload it yourself. BUILT BY A BACKYARD ULTRA RUNNER Tim Dove built BackyardPace after three years of racing this format, most recently 20 yards at Riverhead, New Zealand. Every feature exists because of a question asked during an actual race. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO It does not tell you how to pace yourself. That is your job. It does not replace race officials or official timing. It needs no mobile signal and no internet during a race. In iPhone mode it does not record GPS route or heart rate, because your watch is already doing that. One purchase. No subscription. No account. Nothing locked on race day. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.15 — 2026-09-23 Are you ahead or behind? Now you can see it without reading a number. The band around the race screen edge fills with how far round the loop you are, and a red mark shows where the clock is. Ahead of the mark you are banking rest. Behind it you are spending it. Your recovery now talks to you. The watch buzzes and says the time out loud at three minutes, two and one, then again the moment the next yard starts. Three, two, one, GO, without opening your eyes. During the yard it calls your distance at two, four and six kilometres. And the corral clock now sits on your iPhone lock screen, so the phone at base is useful without picking it up. The recovery screen now shows the yard you just ran, time and pace, under the countdown. That is the number you actually want before deciding how to run the next one. Put the phone down through recovery and pick it up again and you get one alert, not the whole backlog at once. Also in this release: brighter labels on the race tiles so they hold up on a bouncing wrist, the bell no longer stops your music, and a fix for a rare case where a cancelled start could stop a race saving to Apple Health. ### 1.14 — 2026-09-01 CHOOSE YOUR METRICS The two tiles on the Watch race screen are now yours to set. Pick from heart rate, estimated distance left, average yard pace and estimated rest. Change them mid-race straight from your wrist, with no phone needed. What matters at yard 2 is rarely what matters at yard 20. Tap a tile, pick a metric, and you are back on the race screen. NEW: ESTIMATED REST Projects how long you will have off your feet before the next yard starts, based on how the current yard is going. If you are running behind it shows how far behind, so you know whether to lift the pace or start thinking about the next yard. Defaults are unchanged, so if you liked it as it was, nothing moves. ### 1.13 — 2026-08-27 Fixes estimated distance remaining after a missed lap tap. If a yard ended without you tapping Lap complete, the distance readout could stay wrong for the rest of the race. ### 1.12 — 2026-08-20 ALSO IN THIS RELEASE Recovery screen now floods orange then red as the next yard approaches, matching the watch. Lap times can be edited after a race, including automatic cutoff yards. A yard that elapses without a lap tap is now recorded automatically at the full yard duration. Race summary adds course distance, lap pace trend and buffer. An in-progress race now survives a force quit and resumes where it was. Clearer Strava upload messaging, with TCX export as an alternative. Faster, branded launch screen. ### 1.01 — 2026-07-31 Refreshed visuals and behind-the-scenes improvements. Thanks for racing with BackyardPace - one lap at a time. ## Apps similar to BackyardPace | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Sport Track Merger](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sport-track-merger/id6736858288) | 4.7 (3) | Free | Sports | | [Enschede Marathon](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/enschede-marathon/id1615782121) | — | Free | Sports | | [TRACX - The Event App](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tracx-the-event-app/id1561354060) | 4.8 (749) | Free | Sports | ## Related topics [hiwatch ultra](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/hiwatch-ultra) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-07.*