Last Soul Ultra World Series 2027: Qualifiers, Lottery Dates and How to Enter

The Last Soul Ultra, the German backyard ultra Mark Dowdle won with 94 yards in August, turns into a World Series in 2027. Three new races, in the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia, lead to a final in Germany in August 2027, and only qualifiers get into the final. The lottery for the first of them, the USA race in February, closes on November 1.

What is the Last Soul Ultra World Series?

It's four races, which the organiser calls Season 3:

1. 1USA qualifier, February 2027
2. 2United Kingdom qualifier, April 2027
3. 3Australia qualifier, June 2027, run with a partner the organiser calls DCG
4. 4The final, Germany, August 2027

Every one of them runs the same backyard format: a 6.706 km loop, a new start at the top of every hour, and no finish distance. You keep going until only one runner can complete another loop. The exact dates and venues haven't been announced yet. The organiser says venues are published once they're confirmed.

How do you get into a qualifier?

Each qualifier takes 200 runners. The organiser picks 100 of them and the other 100 come out of a random draw. There are two ways to try. One is the lottery. The other is a wildcard: make a video telling your story, post it on Instagram with #LSU27 and tag @lastsoulultra, and the team says it watches every one.

Lottery entries are requested through a Last Soul Ultra account on the race's World Series page. The windows are:

1. 1USA: open now, closes November 1, 2026
2. 2United Kingdom: opens November 1, 2026, closes January 1, 2027
3. 3Australia: opens December 1, 2026, closes February 1, 2027

How do you qualify for the final?

The top 15 overall and the top five women from each of four races go through. Those four are the three 2027 qualifiers and this year's Last Soul Ultra, which means part of the final's field was settled in August. Ties at either cutoff all count: everyone with the same number of completed loops as 15th place qualifies, and so does everyone level with the fifth woman. Each runner gets one place, however many ways they qualify, and a place that's doubled up isn't handed down to the next runner.

August's race was the longest Last Soul yet. Dowdle ran the final yard alone on the Tuesday morning, four days after the start, for 94 yards and about 630 kilometers. Ayyoub El Osrouti, who ran with him to the end, was second with 93 and Norman Mascher-Aspensjö third with 80. Caroline Maria Bolte was the last woman in the race with 52 yards, in her first backyard ultra. 160 runners started. The year before, Kim Gottwald won the first edition with 67 yards from a field of 93.

What is the race like?

Each loop has to be finished inside the hour, and anyone who isn't back in the start corral when the next hour begins is out. To win, a runner has to complete one more loop than everyone else. If nobody manages that, there's no winner, and every runner goes down as a DNF.

Runners live out of a marked base camp, three meters by three. Water is provided. There's no electricity and no other race support, so food, kit and everything else comes with the runner. A crew of up to four can be registered, with three on site at a time, and they can do anything for their runner inside the camp. Any help out on the loop is an instant disqualification. A headlamp is mandatory after dark. There are no spectators, and the organiser withholds the venue for safety.

How can you follow it?

August's race was streamed live around the clock. For 2027 the organiser says live coverage is coming soon, with updates on Instagram at @lastsoulultra in the meantime. Each race will get its own page here once it has a date, and the final stays on the Last Soul Ultra page. The story of how this year's race ended is in our 2026 race report.