Probably would be much more difficult since running is higher impact. Also, it would be much less of a tour since you can't travel as far in a single leg.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to have the side competitions like King of the Hill or having a special jersey for the leg winners. Maybe the team competition would be fun to watch too.
Perhaps this already exists in some form.
Some ideas are bad ideas.
This would be a good idea for a xc series over a several weeks.
Rupp only races about three times a year, if that, so not sure he could do it.
No idea is a bad idea wrote:
Probably would be much more difficult since running is higher impact. Also, it would be much less of a tour since you can't travel as far in a single leg.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to have the side competitions like King of the Hill or having a special jersey for the leg winners. Maybe the team competition would be fun to watch too.
Perhaps this already exists in some form.
> higher impact
Gave it away.
Google “Ekiden.” Relays exist. Everything else is for ultra slobs.
A local running shop once piggy-backed a race series onto existing road races. Points were awarded with 30 points for the winner down to 1 point for the person who finished 15th. There were 10 races in the series and your points from your best 8 races counted. Unfortunately most of the top runners only ran 2 or 3 races in the series so they were beaten out by guys who didn't win any races but took part in nearly all of them. The series champion was more the most enthusiastic runner rather than the best runner. You would need to offer pretty significant prize money to get the local elites interested.
There is one novelty race locally that has gained a lot of participants. It's a charity fundraiser for a hospital and consists of four runners running a relay race over 24 km. The thing is there is no set distance for each relay stage, runners can hand over whenever they like. At any one time there is one person running and the other three are on bikes. For a changeover a cyclist cycles a few meters in front, gets off his bike and holds it for the runner to grab. Once the runner grabs the bike the cyclist starts running.
To avoid chaos at the start just one runner from each team starts when the gun goes off. Two minutes later the first cyclist starts and then 2 minutes later the other two cyclists start. So the first runner runs 3 to 4 minutes before he can hand over. After that the changeovers are faster, usually about a minute.
spotter of yobby hoggers wrote:
Everything else is for ultra slobs.
Yep, I could see where this would be a problem. Maybe a relay race that occurs over multiple days? Everyone runs one or two legs a day for a week? With a five runner team and an average of 6 miles per leg you could cover 210 miles in a week. I would think 6 miles is short enough that elites could run pretty fast over the course of 7 days without getting too beat up.
Former D1 guy here.
I gotta be honest, I'm just not feeling this idea.
It’s been done in 1990 - maybe worth re-visiting
How about a stage race of 3 person teams where at least one person from each team has to run at all times but the other two can be on bikes or other self powered mechanical vehicle of choice. Stages would vary in length and terrain, but the same number of points would be awarded for each stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdQ_1l6zAA0Sir Bastion Newbold wrote:
http://www.lescroupiersrunningresults.org.uk/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=2115It’s been done in 1990 - maybe worth re-visiting
No idea is a bad idea wrote:
Probably would be much more difficult since running is higher impact. Also, it would be much less of a tour since you can't travel as far in a single leg.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to have the side competitions like King of the Hill or having a special jersey for the leg winners. Maybe the team competition would be fun to watch too.
Perhaps this already exists in some form.
I like the idea.
Actually similar stuff exists. There is a 7-day stage race over the Alps (google Gore Tex Transalpine Run) or a 21-day race through the length of Germany.
I remember this race. I wanted to do it but didn't have the right agent.
No idea is a bad idea wrote:
Probably would be much more difficult since running is higher impact. Also, it would be much less of a tour since you can't travel as far in a single leg.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to have the side competitions like King of the Hill or having a special jersey for the leg winners. Maybe the team competition would be fun to watch too.
Perhaps this already exists in some form.
I did a great race in UK Tour of Tameside organised by Ron Hill . He organised it every year for over 10 years with about 500 runners.
Most were good club runners. Ron got the idea from the cycle race
7 mile road race
11 mile road race up massive hill
6 mile fell race
Half marathon
Rest day - did 5 miles club run
6 mile xc
9 mile canal race
Afterwards was a big booze up with free beer in the town hall.
Race every nigh bar for a week 52 miles total.
Making distances too long would made it more like a multi stage ultra. Several of these already
There was another stage race run around 1990. It was sponsored and has a lot of good runners. A guy from our club was running 30 flat 10,000m and finished no better than half way in field. This race was over more like 10+ miles daily and over a couple of weeks.
Pre EPO Eddie Helybuck won four year I ran it.
He beat Steve Brace a 2:08 marathoner.
Was 4 minutes down on these 2 over 9 miles in last race. For once my crazy train hard nearly every day paid off as normally he'd have beaten me by double that. I did a 4 minute pb in the half as well & felt like I could run forever.
Instead of Tour de France, someone should organize a Tour of Andorra, or Lichtenstein.
Was it in Best Efforts or a book like it that a stage race around a Hawaiian island was described? ~20mi a day, with glamping and good food/drink at night. Less a race and more a cool experience, but I loved the idea.
Problem is track fans are focused on records - world, American , season - and a multi day event doesn’t yield those . It works in biking because they don’t compare one performance directly to another . You can tell whether Matt Centrowitz was faster than Alan Webb . You can’t tell if Lance Armstrong was faster than Geraint Thomas
Tour of Thameside in the UK
has been going on for years, staged in and around the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario area.
"8 Days, 7 Stages, 160 KM"
Stage 1 – Half-marathon
Stage 2 – 15 km Time Trial
Stage 3 – 30 km Trail Run
Stage 4 – 10 mile [16 km] Hill Run
[Day off]
Stage 5 – 25.6 km Alpine Run
Stage 6 – 10 km Time Trial
Stage 7 – Marathon (BQ-certified)
For 2019, registration costs C$450 until 2019 Jan 31.