What is the hardest race distance?

800 man wrote:

No way the 800 is the most difficult. You're really only hurting the last 45 seconds, anyone can suck it up for that short of a duration.

5k's are horrible, and 10k's are even worse. I can't even imagine what a marathon is like, and I will never try. Think about it this way - the last 1/3 of any race is going to hurt. I'll take the shortest pain possible. You crazy long distance runners who can suck it up for 10, 15, 20 minutes or more of intense pain - my hat is off to you. I'll stick with my 800's, they feel easy in comparison.

"anyone can suck it up"

clearly you've never competed in an 800 at a high level

if you did you'd realize how stupid that comment is

it might be brief in time, but there is nothing as painful

the Chocolate Milk mile.

i ran track in college, ran every event from 200, 400, 400IH, 500, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, mile, 3000, 2mile, 5k.

the only race that made me vomit was the 800. and i vomited every time i ran it (sub-1:50 pr)

migo wrote:

Maybe I'm rusty on the calc, but isn't difficulty/time integrated over time just the difficulty?

Whatever, I vote 800.

Difficulty*ln(time)+(arbitrary constant)

I think that the longer the race on the track, the more pain and distress you can count on. There is more sustained effort, more sustained concentration, more slow, unrelenting discomfort.

The 1500m is also difficult. It is more intense, but over more quickly. However, the strategic element in the 1500m is perhaps like no other race. There can be great divergence between one race and the next, and the superstars usually take their lumps in the 1500m more than in other events.

The 800m, in my opinion, is not in the running, hard though it may be. I used to race the 800m and the 1500m and personally, I never felt the same dread running the 800m as the 1500m. Perhaps this is because, for a strength runner, the 800m is the shortest race they run and feels more "fun." The pain is also much more brief. You are generally really hurting for maybe 150m at the end, at the most.

If you are in distress at the halfway point, as an earlier poster suggested, you are in trouble.

I have run every distance from 100 meters to the marathon, but never anything with hurdles. I'm sure that adding the barriers adds a wrinkle that makes it even worse. But just in terms of race distance, a properly-done 400 turned me inside out like no other. I've never won a 400 without barfing. And the whole muscular failure/rigging deal is pretty much unique to that distance (I suppose that the elites who run 800s at what most of us would call 400 speed get into that zone, too... but I was never good enough to feel that.)

Holy Crapola wrote:

... Why are people writing 800s or 400s? ... The OP never said the most painfull (sic) distance.

I have to cast another vote for the 800m -- my best event, yet the one I hated the most. Two minutes of intensity destroyed me for two days. And let's just see have a look at what the OP said:

Mr. Battery wrote:

Which race is the hardest, has the most pain, is the hardest to succeed in?

coldman wrote:

clearly you've never competed in an 800 at a high level

if you did you'd realize how stupid that comment is

it might be brief in time, but there is nothing as painful

Well, clearly you've never done a sub-2:20 marathon. Sure a hard 800 is much more of a killer than just completing a marathon or running it at a moderate effort, but if you talk about a marathon performance at a level equivalent to that of a good 800 m then you are talking about something else entirely.

Most indoor races are awful just because of the dry air.

Some of the uncommon distance races are very tough, 500m and 600m come to mind. They are just shy all out sprints and they hurt. A hard 2000m when you are in fabulous 1500m shape is painful.

12km xc is hard. I have done one and I am glad that the course was in very nice shape. A 12km in the mud and rain would be so demanding.

the 400/500/400h may hurt the most but only for like 10 seconds. the 800 hurts a lot but is also over quickly. it hurts a lot the last 30 seconds. the marathon is easy until mile 16-22, which means its like 30-45 minutes of ouch. the last 10-15 minutes are hell. there is a reason people actually cry in a marathon

I am surprised nobody has mentioned XC. I've run every race from 400m to the marathon in my life. The toughest in my view is a championship XC race on a hilly course. About every other runner is collapsing or puking in the chute.

Steeple.

I like how Tyson Gay said in an interview before the NYC marathon that after a really hard 100m (under 10 seconds) you are just as sore the next day as you are if you ran a marathon.

Distances seem harder/easier if you aren't that type of distance specialist, but for someone who has a particular event I think all distances if run hard are equal in toughness.

It doesn't surprise me that both marathoners and sprinters need at least a month or two break from their competitive seasons. Both experience the same fatigue at the end of the season, it's just that sprinters notice it in the last 30-50m of their races and distance runners notice it in their last 3-5 miles

kipketer wrote:

12km xc is hard. I have done one and I am glad that the course was in very nice shape. A 12km in the mud and rain would be so demanding.

We specialize in those in the UK. Most clubs have one and they can be quite fun.

For real pain, the English National (9 miles, 2000 people) at Parliament Hill was the toughest I can remember. First, it's the big race of the year so you can't run it low key. Second, if you don't get in the first 100 at the first corner, you'll be stuck behind a wall of bodies, so you have to start at 1500 pace. Third, well, it's 9 miles, but nobody goes any slower than they do over 5. Epic.