What would the running equivalent of the Tour de France be?

Right now the closest thing is a decathlon.

You could try to put on a three week, every day running event.

I think Michael Wardian would be the champ.

Tough to pound your legs on consecutive days.

Ekiden maybe?

I've always wanted to see something like that in the US anyway.

I think a running stage race could really work well. The tactics won't be as rich because drafting is less important, but you could still have a wide variety of surfaces and terrain types.

I think stages should be about 10 miles to half mar-mar, so you could fit the entire coverage into an hour block without missing much of the action. Maybe throw in a marathon on a random day as a stage to feature.

Have some flat road stages, some cross country stages, and some hill climb stages, and some true mountain stages (8% to 15% inclines), and some time trials.

A track meet?

There is something for everyone at a track meet. Sprints, throws, jumps, hurdles, relays.

Tour has the same thing. Sprints, breakaways, climbs, Time Trials, Team Time Trials.

An equivalent competition would be many days long to allow the drama to unfold. It doesn't have to be three weeks like the tour but let's start with 10.

There would be a variety of distances and terrain.

There would be opportunities to pick up points (time) for mid race and end of race positions.

There would be teams. 4 men - 3 women?

Day 1: 10k road race flat course. 10 sec bonus for first down to 1 sec for 10th.

Day 2: 5K individual Time Trial:

Day : cross country race. Typical 5 person scoring. Each point is worth 1 sec differential for all team members

Day: team time trial. All teammates take 4th place persons time.

Day: over distance. Marathon. Flat. Might need to cut finishing separation times to keep it competitive or marathoners might dominate.

Day: 25k off road very hilly with uphill finish

Last Day: 5k track race with max 3 racers from top 5 individual's GC teams. Multiple heats. Double day with a 1 mile seeded heats race with top gc racers in same heat.

The thing about the tour that differs from T&F is that many of the different "events" take place during the same stage. Climbing takes place on the same day as a sprint (not necessarily at the finish), so the running quibbling equivalent would be a half marathon with some step incline involved. At mile 8, toss in a 100 meter sprint zone for bonus points. At mile 12, a huge incline for climbing points. Wake up the next day, repeat.

The other aspect is the team concept. It would resemble XC with GC guys and domestiques. An interesting concept to think about.

Cross country skiing has the Tour de Ski. Maybe something similar to that. Mass start stages, time trial stages, "sprint" (more like middle distance) stages and a hill climb to finish it off. Over a week to ten day period with a couple rest days sprinkled in.

It would be the world's most watched, most popular race, the Hakone Ekiden.

Hiking the Appalachian trail.

Craig Lutz Fan wrote:

Hiking the Appalachian trail.

True! "HIKING".

Whatever the format, you must make it either so expensive or so ludicrous that only white Americans or Europeans can compete at the highest level and win.

8 races run over 9 days (starting on Saturday and finishing the following Sunday) with 1 day of rest in the middle.

-2 trail races on challenging terrain, one in the 15k-25k range and one 50k

-1 12k x-country race

-2 track races, a 3k steeple and a 5k

-3 road races, a 15k, 25k, and marathon

Each race is scored with the winner getting 100 pts and points awarded based on the following formula:

Race Pts = 100 x (Winning Time / Runner's Time)^2

The diamond league

Or possibly any race that Rupp does since he is famous now for IVs.

Marathon des Sables

http://www.marathondessables.co.uk/

it really doesn't work with running... the constant pounding on the legs stacks up a whole lot more quickly than cycling. you'd have guys jogging the bulk of the races with a sprint or climb here and there. plus, the allure just isn't as high, you can't literally run around an entire country in a couple of weeks (alright, there are some tiny countries, but c'mon). the tour is so cool because it hits all the different areas of france, and just because cycling is so much more conducive to the formula. if there were 200 mike wardians, it might become a little more interesting, but still, i don't see it working out. it's pretty much jurek's AT record, which everyone on here is so torn up about. the only race that hasn't been mentioned that i can think of is the trans rockies, which gets some pretty good competition.

http://transrockies-run.com/

actually scratch that not much competitive about trans rockies after looking at results. krar ran it once but that's about it.

If something like that was ever created you can bet no Americans would race it. Most are soft and after running 1 5k race feel the need a month plus to recover