Which is harder, Leadville 100 or Western States?

Any competitive road marathon

Middle aged hobby jogger wrote:

Any competitive road marathon

+

Plus elevation and an extra 75+ miles.

leadville is harder with a course record about an hour slower.

but hardrock 100 is harder than both, by far. course record much much slower

Middle aged hobby jogger wrote:

Any competitive road marathon

26.2 miles gets those "competitors" a DNF in a 100 miles race. Or, in your world does the first to get to 6.9 miles (26.2% of a marathon) win a marathon?

Interesting non-sequitur

I'm pretty sure longer races are not equivalent to 'harder'

The hardest races are the most competitive. Post hoc ergo proper hoc, the answer is the more competitive race, which is a major road marathon.

Middle aged hobby jogger wrote:

Interesting non-sequitur

I'm pretty sure longer races are not equivalent to 'harder'

The hardest races are the most competitive. Post hoc ergo proper hoc, the answer is the more competitive race, which is a major road marathon.

Agreed that competitive == "hard" to some degree. But you seem to be implying that the top ultrarunners aren't as competitive as top road racers. What is this based on? I don't claim to know the answer either way but from what I've seen there is no lack of drive and competition in the ultrarunning world.

There's also just the question of raw athletic difficulty. How many DNFs does a major road marathon have as compared to one of these 100mi events? Does DNF percentage perhaps indicate that one event might be a bit "harder" than the other?

At the end of the day, of course, "hard" is subjective, highly personal, and based on how much you're pushing yourself. I think racing 100m is equally as "hard" as racing a marathon, just in totally different ways.

Spartan race or GTFO

Leadville 100 is harder, because you have to listen to that asshat Ken Chlouber drone on and on. Anyone who can sit through that without becoming physically sick deserves a belt buckle.

Leadville is harder, but WS is more prestigious.

LeadvilleNative wrote:

Leadville 100 is harder, because you have to listen to that asshat Ken Chlouber drone on and on. Anyone who can sit through that without becoming physically sick deserves a belt buckle.

I agree with this opinion.

As for the race itself:

Western is normally far more competitive at the front of the pack.

Western is harder to get into. You need to run a qualifying race and you need to be selected in the lottery. Leadville does not require a qualifying race.

Leadville is relatively harder to finish, because the altitude slows everyone down so they are out there longer. Although the heat at Western can be hard to handle.

Leadville has ~90 more vertical feet of total climbing than Western, but Western has ~2800 feet more total descent than Leadville. So Western has more total overall elevation change.

To get the more prestigious belt buckle, you have to finish under 24 hours at Western, and under 25 hours at Leadville.

Although both normally marked well, Western is harder to learn the course as its point to point whereas Leadville is out and back.

Overall, in my opinion, Western is harder.

The last 25% of any race should be very hard if you are running it at your max. So either one is going to be hard, whichever you are running at the moment.

Guess who won an ultra today? Sage Canaday. Which was awesome because I really like Sage. But, do you think Sage could make a living running if he raced marathons? Nope. He's just not good enough. Not even close to being good enough. Now you can pretend that Sage was able to make the switch to Ultras because he's got some better talent for longer races than all those elite marathon runners, or just cut out the bull shLt for once and accept, like Sage did, that he could be competitive in ultras because all the faster runners weren't going to be there to beat him.

I run trail races and I love them. It doesn't make me feel less about myself to know that the top ultra runners could never compete with elite marathon runners. And, I do think, like Sage did, those elites could make the switch to ultras and win them easily if there was a monetary incentive for them to do so.

Leadville 10,152feet.

Middle aged hobby jogger wrote:

Any competitive road marathon

any competitive 100m. idiot

Great graph Maximilian !

Never ran either but my friends who have done both say Leadville hands down.

reed wrote:

leadville is harder with a course record about an hour slower.

but hardrock 100 is harder than both, by far. course record much much slower

The correct answer. Just look at the course record. Given identical distances, the course with the slower course record generally will be "harder"; with harder meaning more hills (or more climbing) or possibly higher altitude.

More competitive is not as easy to answer and you'd need to look at prize money and who usually shows up to race. I agree that a more competitive race is also harder - race wise - to win.

However, given the general question, rather than asking which is harder to win, I would assume the OP meant which is harder just to complete, which will usually be the one with the slowest CR.

Leadeville probably gets more knuckled heads entering and DNF the race since almost anyone can get in. WS has a fair amount of DNF itself but more from heat and downhills; everyone has qualified and knows the distance of WS: 100k-100m. I'd say WS is harder but Leadeville is high up in elevation. Probably comparable and in the medium category of difficulty of 100 milers for both of them.

theohiostate wrote:

Middle aged hobby jogger wrote:

Any competitive road marathon

+

Plus elevation and an extra 75+ miles.

So harder = elevation and more miles? So if I casually walk 150 miles over a few days over more elevation than leadville, did I complete a "harder" race, or exert a harder effort, or complete a more difficult challenge????

No, no, and no.

what ? ? wrote:

theohiostate wrote:

+

Plus elevation and an extra 75+ miles.

So harder = elevation and more miles? So if I casually walk 150 miles over a few days over more elevation than leadville, did I complete a "harder" race, or exert a harder effort, or complete a more difficult challenge????

No, no, and no.

Why don't you casually walk 150 miles over the next few days and report back to us?