Tough Marathons

There is a book available that rates different aspects of marathons including crowd support,
organization, weather, and course difficulty. I think it's called The Ultimate Guide to Marathons or
something similar.

-Keith

Wm Chervak said:

Is there a list anywhere that rates marathons according to difficulty or toughness?

Skip

--
Keith Gemeinhart Technology Service Corp. Sebring, FL
--

Wm Chervak said:

Is there a list anywhere that rates marathons according to difficulty or toughness?

Skip

What do you consider difficult - running on 26.2 miles of flat pavement with 1000s of people yelling
support (flat hurts some people's feet and people scared of crowds might view this as screaming in a
claustrophobic environment 😉, 7000 ft of elevation gain, rough footing, mud, running along cliff
ledges, crossing glacial rivers, less elevation gain but alternating up and down, high elevations,
narrow pavement, lots of turns, running alone through quiet woods with no other runners around you
and no crowd support, bears, gators, snow, cold, heat, no aid stations, .... (FWIW, these are all
things I've seen listed on r.r or elsewhere as making things more challenging.)

What's difficult for one person might be easy for another. What's easy for one might be the
challenge of a lifetime for another.

"Incidentally, Joe Henderson forwarded another marathon list that caught our eye. It is the
"toughest marathons." Joe: "we (Rich Benyo as well) amassed a list in Marathon & Beyond magazine
(January/February 2001). The top 10: (1) Nunavut Midnight Sun; (2) Pike's Peak; (3) Crater Lake; (4)
NipMuck Trail; (5) Wyoming; (6) Deseret News; (7) Wild Wild West; (8) Jackson Hole Moose Chase; (9)
Lake Geneva; (10) Big Sur." nwrunner.com01 02 02Marathon News.htmlOpen ↗

(showed up in google search for "toughest marathons" - along with many other marathons not on this
list that claim to be one of top 10 😉

FWIW, I've seen marathons referred to as top-10 toughest or one of four or five toughest in US, etc,
but until I just googled a couple minutes ago, I'd never seen an actual list - probably for the
above reasons. And one that listed itself as one of top-four (watched this one last fall), I don't
think is as challenging as several others I've since seen descriptions of (have not looked at
descriptions of the ones above), but their courses might be considered easier for reasons other than
simple elevation change. But the 3000+ft of elevation change would be a challenge for people that
don't do their hill training. I made some comments earlier about arbitrariness of "tough marathons"
in Jake Lee's thread on SF Chronicle marathon.

YMMV.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Himalayan (Everest) $25,000 Pikes Peak Climb Anarctica $8,000

Keith Gemeinhart said:

There is a book available that rates different aspects of marathons including crowd support,
organization, weather, and course difficulty. I think it's called The Ultimate Guide to Marathons
or something similar.

Quoted message said:

-Keith

Quoted message said:

Wm Chervak said:

Is there a list anywhere that rates marathons according to difficulty or toughness?

Skip

---I don't know of a list, but I'd put the Trail Half Marathon this SUnday in Pinckney, MI pretty
far up on the list. It's difficult enough that sub-3 for the guys will get you a free pair of shoes.
I've heard you need to estimate your time by adding 25-30min onto your normal marathon. ANdy Hass

Dot, thanks for including that quote below in your post. I was surprised to see the Deseret News
race listed as tough only because I had been led to believe somewhere that it was a fast course. It
may be that the early climb before the mostly downhill second half, and the ridiculously early start
(something like 5 a.m. I think), plus the dry air, might make it tougher than it looks. It's point
to point which also means logistical issues. Thanks again. I would think that the race in NC where
you run up a mountain (Bear Mountain? can't remember) and finish to bagpipe music at a Highlands
festival would be on somebody's toughest list. chris

Dot said:

..."Incidentally, Joe Henderson forwarded another marathon list that caught

our eye. It is the "toughest marathons." Joe: "we (Rich Benyo as well) amassed a list in Marathon
& Beyond magazine (January/February 2001). The top 10: (1) Nunavut Midnight Sun; (2) Pike's Peak;
(3) Crater Lake; (4) NipMuck Trail; (5) Wyoming; (6) Deseret News; (7) Wild Wild West; (8) Jackson
Hole Moose Chase; (9) Lake Geneva; (10) Big Sur."
nwrunner.com01 02 02Marathon News.htmlOpen ↗

rick++ said:

Himalayan (Everest) $25,000

there's two of them.

one of them is the mt.everest challenge marathon. if this is the one that you're talking about, this
is (only) $1490 for an 8-day trip. (they sell it as a package.)

course record is 4:51.

the other one is the everest marathon. this is 2000 british pounds.

course record is 3:50.

found this using google.

jobs

Chris Smith said:

Dot, thanks for including that quote below in your post. I was surprised to see the Deseret News
race listed as tough only because I had been led to believe somewhere that it was a fast course.
It may be that the early climb before the mostly downhill second half, and the ridiculously early
start (something like 5 a.m. I think), plus the dry air, might make it tougher than it looks. It's
point to point which also means logistical issues.

This is my whole point about these lists being arbitrary. That's why I've suggested to others to
figure out what type of challenge or event they're looking for, then select among those to meet the
level of challenge they want, rather than "toughest", hottest, etc. Another race is always going to
be tougher, taller, hotter, colder, faster, etc. FWIW, I think 5am is actually a common start time,
esp. for longer or hotter races (not up here), and I think some start at 4am.

Thanks

Quoted message said:

again. I would think that the race in NC where you run up a mountain (Bear Mountain? can't
remember) and finish to bagpipe music at a Highlands festival would be on somebody's
toughest list.

Grandfather mountain gmhg.orggmhgbuild.cgiOpen ↗
hopeformarrow.orggmminfo.htmOpen ↗

but I think it's mostly on road and in summer so some of the winter issues shouldn't be a concern.
Their course record time is faster than the one in Fairbanks, but I have no idea whether they were
set by comparable quality runners. I think there was some trail race there this winter, but can't
remember if it was an ultra distance or ultra-level challenge (shorter distance, but rougher running
or more elevation), but it sounded quite challenging (can't remember which group I read the report
in, might have been on RW trail forum) because of the snow / ice and weather in general. In fact, I
think the official race skipped part or stopped early or something. I've been on top Grandfather Mt
when I was a kid - which must mean the road goes essentially to the top for my parents to have even
considered going there 😉

I just took a quick look at a couple (not all) of these descriptions to get a feeling why they were
on the list. I would definitely put Fall Equinox in Fbks ahead of a couple of those, at least based
on their descriptions - more elevation gain, substantial part on trail, but also a fair amnt on
pavement and dirt roads - diversity is part of its challenge. I couldn't find a web page for
Nunavut, which makes it intriguing, esp. if it's the Nunavut I'm thinking of (NW Territories).
Pike's Peak is one of the ones I was already familiar with that definitely rates being on the list,
IMHO, not that anybody cares about MHO. Nipmuck also looks like it has a deserved reputation. But I
got a hunch there's a bunch of small, challenging trail marathons in assorted places that the people
that make these lists have never heard of.

And if you get away from the marathon distance and consider races of shorter length, but longer
times, as Andy (amh) points out, then it's a wide open field. There's just too many races in that
category. Winners of the 14-miler out my kitchen window took 3+ hours last year by national-class
runners. I think the last person came in in about 8 hours. No roads to shut down on mountain races
🙂 And I know Colorado has a bunch.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope