Race Report:The Backyard Series Fat Pursuit Is A 120-Mile Race Through Idaho's Winter Wilderness

Words by Betsy Williford and Photos by Eddie Clark

Founded by Jay Petervary, ultra endurance cyclist and ambassador of sport, the Fat Pursuit is a 60km or 200km human-powered winter race on a network of groomed snowmachine trails in and around Island Park, Idaho set in the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. What began 10 years ago as a fat bike only event, has now grown to a multi sport winter pursuit where fat bikers, skiers and runners have a chance to take on the classically challenging 60km or 200km courses circumnavigating the snowy backcountry of Island Park.

With an emphasis on self sufficiency and human powered travel, competitors must first complete a gear check to ensure they’re not putting themselves in jeopardy as the winter conditions can range from reasonably comfortable to down right deadly. Temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit or more are not uncommon. Fat Pursuit was created to help athletes gain experience and learn about backcountry winter travel and thus requires some planning and winter survival skills. Competitors will expand their comfort zones and test their physical and mental limits.


Only true grit and resilience will see each participant through to the finish line in one of the toughest winter ultra marathons in the Lower 48. With the snowfall average ranging over 200 and over 300 inches along the lowest and highest elevations of the course, snow is absolutely guaranteed. While the trails are routinely groomed by large Piston Bully’s, the term “groomed trail” is relative when it comes to course conditions as anything from wind, heavy snowstorms and excessive snowmachine traffic means the ‘groomed trails’ may feel like anything but groomed.


For the 10 year anniversary edition, 91 hardy souls showed up to take on the Fat Pursuit 60km while 59 intrepid souls took on the 200km. By far the biggest field of competitors in the 10 years of the event. For the 200km, there were 53 bikers and 6 foot participants, and for the 60km there were 84 bikers, five skiers and two foot participants. It was truly exciting to see a wide range of experience in each discipline challenge themselves with their chosen mode of travel for their winter pursuit. The weather during this year’s Fat Pursuit was mostly mild in comparison to previous years. Minimal precipitation, minimal winds and temperatures started on the warm-ish side, topping out at 31 degrees during the day Friday. Overnight lows were also fairly mild, low 20’s on the first night for the 200km racers but then finally dropped to 4 degrees by Saturday night. It seemed as though weather and trail conditions only improved throughout the weekend.


At 7am on Friday racers headed out onto the 200km course following a gps route with three on-course check points that also served as aid stations. 200km racers also carried SPOT trackers which relayed real-time course locations on the Trackleaders website. For fun, Jay Petervary decided to have the competitors complete their water boil test EARLY in the race at mile 4 thus completely leveling the playing field initially. Competitors showed up at the water boil location surprised and had to quickly shift gears instead of settling into a steady race pace.



Once past the water boil test, racers set off for Two Top, the highest and often most grueling part of the course. Returning racer Alex Howes, Fat Pursuit veteran Seth Harney and first-time Fat Pursuer Tyson Flaharty took an early lead that they held and battled out with each other for the entire race. 17 year old Jacob Hora, a Fat Pursuit 200k veteran, and 13 year old Edyn Teitge trailed close behind. The Queen of Pain, Rebecca Rusch, grabbed an early lead in the race for the women while Cynthia Dywan inconspicuously took over the lead sometime prior to Aid Station 2. Conditions appeared to be just good enough that much of the field, including the leaders, pushed on without sleep into the next morning.










A few hours before dawn Saturday morning, the men’s 200km race was won by Tyson Flaharty who had utterly dropped Alex and Seth in the last 10-15 miles of the race. Tyson’s overall time was 20:44:36 as he was out of the saddle pedaling through the finish line in strong style. Alex Howes took second and Seth Harney took third with their overall times being 21:48:03 and 21:50:23, respectively. Jacob Hora and a few more riders trickled in a few hours later and just as the 60km racers left their starting line, 13 year old Edyn Teitge crossed the finish line for his first Fat Pursuit finish in 8th place overall.




The women’s race came down to a thrilling but heartbreaking win as Rebecca Rusch finally caught Cynthia Dywan mere yards from the finish line and surprised her with a sprint finish. Rebecca was the first female and ninth overall while Cynthia took second and 10th overall. Third place for the women was taken at midnight on Saturday night by Nan Pugh who turned on her race and passed Caroline Esch who was in third place for much of the race. Another impressive finish was the first place foot division competitor Herman Watson who ran the entire course and finished 34th overall with an overall time of 41:28:17.




John Koudelka took the overall 60km win with Cecily Decker finishing fifth overall for first place in the women’s 60km. Dan Campbell took first place for men’s and Julia Teller took first place women’s in the skier division. Thanks to good weather and good trail conditions, the 60km race appeared to be faster than the previous year.







Full race results here.