Have we officially declared the 800 meters to be the most intensely painful footrace a human can run?

Ridiculous mumbo jumbo. You CAN go all-out at the end of a longer race and it DOES hurt like hell. "Starting fresh" and then going all-out is no more painful than starting nearly dead tired and THEN going all-out. You talk the talk, but it's still just mumbo jumbo. Let's just agree that you're kind of a wimp who feels nearly unbearable pain at a very short distance, while some of us feel that same pain AFTER first running nearly three miles--or nearly six miles if you prefer. Again, the 800 NEVER hurt as much as when I had to run the last half mile as fast as I could after first getting really tired. What you're saying, in effect, is that being burned alive at 600 degrees is more painful than being burned alive at 600 degrees AFTER being slow roasted for awhile at 200 degrees. Get real.

Shawn sHit wrote:

Ridiculous mumbo jumbo. You CAN go all-out at the end of a longer race and it DOES hurt like hell. "Starting fresh" and then going all-out is no more painful than starting nearly dead tired and THEN going all-out. You talk the talk, but it's still just mumbo jumbo. Let's just agree that you're kind of a wimp who feels nearly unbearable pain at a very short distance, while some of us feel that same pain AFTER first running nearly three miles--or nearly six miles if you prefer. Again, the 800 NEVER hurt as much as when I had to run the last half mile as fast as I could after first getting really tired. What you're saying, in effect, is that being burned alive at 600 degrees is more painful than being burned alive at 600 degrees AFTER being slow roasted for awhile at 200 degrees. Get real.

Uh huh...yep...uh huh...indeed...ok sure...uh huh...yep...

But the thing is you're WRONG...and stupid.

Ok, yeah, I give up. You have the best argument yet. The 800 is the most painful thing a human being can experience. Duh, yuk, yuk, yuk.

Shawn H wrote:

Ridiculous mumbo jumbo. You CAN go all-out at the end of a longer race and it DOES hurt like hell. "Starting fresh" and then going all-out is no more painful than starting nearly dead tired and THEN going all-out. You talk the talk, but it's still just mumbo jumbo. Let's just agree that you're kind of a wimp who feels nearly unbearable pain at a very short distance, while some of us feel that same pain AFTER first running nearly three miles--or nearly six miles if you prefer. Again, the 800 NEVER hurt as much as when I had to run the last half mile as fast as I could after first getting really tired. What you're saying, in effect, is that being burned alive at 600 degrees is more painful than being burned alive at 600 degrees AFTER being slow roasted for awhile at 200 degrees. Get real.

I think the major difference is what's causing the pain. It's true that if you took someone's blood pH after a hard 5k, it would be much higher than if they had just run a hard 800. That's not to say the 800 is more painful, just painful in a different way, as many have already said on

this thread...

The whole "waking up during a root canal" vs. "baseball bat to the face" thing.

Odd comparison wrote:

It doesn't happen so often, but what about the occasions when a sprinter pulls a hamstring* at top speed?

* or worse (for example Giorgi Georgiev in Helsinki - if you don't know what I'm referring to, search Broken Knee in Helsinki on youtube)

that ruined my day

If I might add my own opinion: every track race is intensely painful and difficult. Assuming you run each race perfectly, the average pain of the 800 is worse than the average pain of a 5000 or longer race, although it lasts for a shorter time. But if you run a 5000 or marathon and get out way too fast...there's nothing worse.

How would we "officially" declare this? Don't be such a twat.

been there too wrote:

I've run the last 800 of a 5k faster than the personal bests of 99% of these posters who say 800m is the hardest race. Give me a ******* break.

Shut up already. We get it, you were fast. But we're all runners here, so we all know the pain of racing. Your sub 1:50 doesn't hurt any worse than someone else's 2 flat if they are both run all out. My most painful races were early in my career when I was much slower. Vomiting, on the floor for 10 minutes afterward. If anything, maybe it's worse when you aren't as fit.

cbenson4 wrote:

The whole "waking up during a root canal" vs. "baseball bat to the face" thing.

You are onto something with this comment. It is not an apples to apples comparison. Bad Wiggins and others please ignore my rude comment earlier.

Shawn I will tell you again, and comprehension is hard I know, but just try. Running a 5k and an 800 are DIFFERENT. I understand that you can break up the 5k into a 4200 and an 800, and I have no doubt that you are running the last 800 as fast as you can. However, that is different than racing an 800. You run that 800 at the end of a 5k MUCH slower than an open 800. The energy demands on your body are DIFFERENT.

You bash others arguments, but all Ive seen you do is try to cover your lack of knowledge of physiology with your jealousy of me

dial it up wrote:

Shawn I will tell you again, and comprehension is hard I know, but just try. Running a 5k and an 800 are DIFFERENT. I understand that you can break up the 5k into a 4200 and an 800, and I have no doubt that you are running the last 800 as fast as you can. However, that is different than racing an 800. You run that 800 at the end of a 5k MUCH slower than an open 800. The energy demands on your body are DIFFERENT.

You bash others arguments, but all Ive seen you do is try to cover your lack of knowledge of physiology with your jealousy of me

Lack of knowledge? Jealousy? Now you're just blabbing, maybe to provoke further debate. Stick to your opinion, right or wrong. Common sense isn't getting through. You're an 800 guy whose proud and cocky, and you obviously don't get it no matter what I say. Best of luck.

There you go again, instead of coming up with a coherent argument, you go back to talking about me. How about instead you come up with a response to how the physiological demands of the last 800 of a 5k are different than running an open 800.

By saying you have a lack of knowledge of physiology I am not by any means trying to insult you. Its just obvious that if you did, you wouldn't keep trying to say that "the 5k is harder because you run an 800 within the 5k." So according to you, the hardest race is infinity miles long because you run all other distances within those infinity miles. I'm gonna start doing ultras so I can walk 75 miles then run a marathon all out and prove myself to be more manly than the marathoners even though my marathon will be 3 hours slower than a competitive marathon because I've already walked 75 miles. But its still harder than a real marathon because its longer. See how incoherent and silly that sounds?

I am not sure that the 800 is the most painful event, there is no quantifiable way to measure that. However, you need to come up with a better argument if you want to debate it.

Ok, I'll bite, since you had to say something really foolish again. You mentioned ultras, which I'm sure you've never done, and which I've never done. What's more painful, your little 800 meters of dash and gasp, or 100-mile mountain run? Obviously you think it's the 800, and you're going to stick with that. You did admit that you're not sure the 800 is the most painful event, so I'll accept that admission. We're getting somewhere. Did you watch the Ritz race video? Did you ever "die" like that after an 800? Me neither. I'll bet Ritz never ran an 800 where he felt that much pain, either. And he was definitely well-trained for that event, so we can't even say that the obvious pain he felt at the end of that race was due to not being in shape for it. But the pain of running a 5K cross country race where you finish with an all-out 800?--I know that pain, and it's much more intense than any all-out 800 meters I ever ran. You don't need to spout physiological jargon--which I can do as well--to know that. It just takes experience. So you followed Mr. Jock for a lap and then tried to kick and it hurt. I don't question that. But your argument is much weaker than your claimed running performance.

Now, seriously, I know it's ridiculous for me to even be responding to you again, so I'll try to not let my jealousy affect my judgment further.

One thing I particularly noticed about the Ritz race video was how wide his mouth was open, gasping for air, after crossing the line. I don't know that I've ever seen someone's body after a race scream "I NEED AIR" in such a blatant manner.

cbenson4 wrote:

One thing I particularly noticed about the Ritz race video was how wide his mouth was open, gasping for air, after crossing the line. I don't know that I've ever seen someone's body after a race scream "I NEED AIR" in such a blatant manner.

That's my point. That's how you gasp for air, and that's the obvious pain you feel, when you are able to force yourself to go as hard as you can 600-800 meters out after a hard 5K. There's no argument that the 800 hurts. But no matter what physiological jargon someone wants to use, I KNOW from my own experience that combining nearly 3 miles of hard running with an all-out long kick to the finish is more painful than a single all-out 800. Before you know it, that single 800 is over. Anyone can force themselves to go all out in an 800, but it takes real Ritz-like guts to do that when you're already near total exhaustion. Some people can't do that, and I admit there were a number of races where I was mentally weak and couldn't quite do it, but when I did it was transcendent.

We can for sure agree to disagree on which distance is the most painful because we are saying the same thing but using different terms. In my mind, distance races are uncomfortable whereas the 800 is painful. The mile I think is the distance that toes the line between the two. You are lumping them together and I can accept that. Especially since neither of us has run every distance.

All I am saying is that the argument of running an 800 at the end of a 5k is just plain wrong. Ill say it again, you cant argue with that point because the ENERGY SYSTEMS ARE DIFFERENT.

800 is pretty tough, but the 880 (yards) is the true test.

Just kidding. Everything 800 and above can be tough to race. When it comes to training, don't ignore the sprinters though. They train hard too. The easier races are their reward for having the pure speed that distance guys lack.

dial it up wrote:

We can for sure agree to disagree on which distance is the most painful because we are saying the same thing but using different terms. In my mind, distance races are uncomfortable whereas the 800 is painful. The mile I think is the distance that toes the line between the two. You are lumping them together and I can accept that. Especially since neither of us has run every distance.

All I am saying is that the argument of running an 800 at the end of a 5k is just plain wrong. Ill say it again, you cant argue with that point because the ENERGY SYSTEMS ARE DIFFERENT.

In your mind. I can accept that. It's been a fun debate. Great topic, OP.

ahhhh...this debate is more entertaining than the atheist and creationist debates