What are some Hard Marathons to run? (Read 3850 times)

I predict a visit from the monkey fairy. --------- If I needed Alabama, I'd be heading for Birmingham. That looks fun.

Are there any marathons that aren't hard to run?!?!?!?!

Ok I was searching through the Garmin reports to see what marathons were hilly. I found a few but I know there are some worse ones. Let’s see those “Ugly” Garmin reports. Mercedes Marathon – Birmingham Alabama – Those hills look stupid! http://tinyurl.com/MercedesMarry Pikes Peak - + 10000 feet of elevation change! http://tinyurl.com/PikesPeak Boston doesn’t look to hard compared to the ones above! http://tinyurl.com/BostonMarry

I ran the Birmingham 1/2 - it was hilly, but really fun actually. But what do I know, I've also run the Monkey Marathon.

Before we go further, it is EXTREMELY important to separate trail marathons from road marathons.

Agreed. Based on prior conversations about ROAD marathons: Here was MJ's ranked list, not sure why Estes Park is not on it - 1. GFM 2. HHFMM 3. H&M 4. HofA 5. Whidbey Island (2002-2007) 6. Crater Lake 7. Tupelo (85 to present) 8. Big Sur 9. Pocatello 10. Charlottesville We also had a discussion over on the Maniacs board. I posed the question last Fall. I asked, "what is the hilliest road marathon?" There was a lot of discussion and numerous marathons were named. These are listed alphabetically: - Arkansas Marathon - Catalina - Charlottesville - Crater Lake - Estes Park - Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey - Heart of America - Hogeye - Jan Juan Island - Mount Desert Island - Nisene Marks - Park City - Run with the Horses - Sedona - Whiskey Row Many of these are clearly not in the same category as Monkey or Grandfather. For example, San Juan Island and Charlottesville, while hilly, only have half the overall elevation change as Monkey. Crater Lake has a little less elevation change but is at elevation. SRL, I look forward to your thoughts on Monkey...

I can’t believe that hill at Big Sur! Is that like 600 feet up in 1 mile? That is insane!

Big Sur was my first marathon. It's more like 550 feet in 2.5 miles. It's a long, gradual climb to Hurricane Point but the view is spectacular and there are a few flatter parts to catch your breath along the way. The downhill on the other side is actually steeper but not too bad. I had a much harder time with the unrelenting rollers the rest of the way to the finish, and the fact that I was way undertrained...but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Trent, I am going to have to try steamtown some day. I love downhill races! Is that a Boston Qualifier?

Yes. Any US marathon that is run on a USATF certified course is a Boston qualifier.

Yes. Any US marathon that is run on a USATF certified course is a Boston qualifier.

Wow, I didn’t realize that. I guess I should give a downhill course a try. I run much better downhill than I do up steep hills. All along I have been trying to qualify for Boston on the Charlotte Thunder Road course which is actually fairly hilly. The flying monkey has +3700 feet of elevation gain. Charlotte is not too far behind with 2915 feet of elevation gain. I might switch to the not so hilly “City of oaks” marathon. Most people think it is “Extremely” hilly but it only has 1800 feet of elevation gain. It sure looks like NC has some of the hilliest marathons!