What is considered a 'hilly' run for most runners?

Typically “hilly” trail courses have a minimum of 200ft/mile gain. “Hard” hilly courses have a minimum of 330ft/mile gain. Anything less than 150ft/mile is more or less flat.

I'm from north central Illinois. We consider any bump in the road as a hill. And we attack them vigorously. We envy anyone that doesn't come from flat lander country. But we try to use whatever the length or grade of the hills we have to our best advantage. We'd like to have grade and altitude, but we don't. We try doing the best we can with what we've got. But, "It is what it is."

I live in a hilly area of Baltimore. I consider a run to be “flat” if I have <50 feet of elevation gain per mile, normal between 50 and 100, and hilly above 100

I’m so good at running that I don’t notice hills

Fortunately I'm lucky enough to live right at the base of a mountain with plenty of trails, so I can choose between running flat in the valley or hills in the mountains. For me, I typically say that 1500ft of elevation for every 5 miles is a lot, 1000 ft of elevation per 5 miles is hilly but not too much, and 500 ft of elevation is enough so that you can feel it a little bit, but it barely effects overall pace

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I’m also located in Utah, and for me “hilly” starts to its way into my vocabulary when it is usually somewhere between a 100-200 feet of elevation change per mile. As you know, this is usually rolling hills so you probably gain more than that. Always gonna have that one mile that’s 250+ as well.

Hilly is 100 feet for every 1 mile. So if I climbed 1000 ft in 10 miles that feels hilly to me.

Depends on where you live. I would say a hilly run is simply where you are going up and down more than running on the flat. A midwest hilly run is not the same as one in the mountains.

I live in the northeast in a weird spot for hills. Most of the area I run is pretty flat, until it's not. A ~7 mile out and back I do has me climb two steep hills ~100ft in ~300m and maybe ~150ft in ~400m. And then I turn around and do the backsides, which is more or less the same. So I'll get ~500ft on this run, but it's all concentrated in 4 steep climbs that bring me down to 9:00 or 10:00 pace.

If I can't talk with you while attacking it, it's a big hill.

Despite the username, this is a pretty good standard for most people. Obviously 500 feet will feel hilly if you come from florida and 1000 won't feel that hilly in parts of the mountain states.

When this topic comes up I think people want to feel if their pace is slower because they ran a "hilly" route they're justified in feeling it was slower for a reason. But I think trying to define it does have some merit. Assuming you live in an area where you have access to "hilly" terrain, I think it's an excellent training stimulus to seek it out at least once a week for a longer steady effort. And yes, your pace will take a hit.

For me personally, that's about 100+ft/mile. And if I've spent too much time running on flat areas I make sure get in some hilly runs. And if after that run my effort was even compared to flat running but my pace took a significant hit, I know I needed the work.

are we talking about running or discus?!

Anything under a 100 ft of gain per mile is flat. I really don't consider it a hilly run unless I'm going more than 2000 ft of gain per 10 miles. People who complain about hills are just too egocentric and mentally weak because hills slows down the average pace of the run.

Well I’m from London and any run involving more than 200 metres climb represents a session ‘with hills’.

Double that and it’s an actively hilly run.

Also, really depends on the type of hill. A gradual and steady incline is not the same as a steep ascent at a quick pace.

Most runners consider the Boston and New York City marathons to be hilly. Both have a little over 800 feet of elevation gain which is less than 50 feet a mile. The 10k loop around Central Park is also considered to be hilly by most runners. It has about 300 feet of gain so also comes in at less than 50 feet per mile.