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Tougher Ultra: Spartatholon or Marathon de Sabla?
Spartatholon
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Marathon de Sabla
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2002 5:27 pm    Post subject: Tougher Ultra? Reply with quote

I was watching the National Geographic Channel and they had a program on two ultra marathons the Spartatholon and the Marthon de Sabla (sp?).
The Spartatholon is a 150 mile race with a 36 hour time limit. What's more there are cut off times at every check point along the way so if you at any time drop below the split for a 36 hour completion (about 4:15 marathon pace) your disquailified. During the program they kept mentioning the distance in terms of marathons to go and marathons completed. The sentence "they've completed two marathons in distance and have five to go" make my head spin.

While the marathon de sabla, is about the same distance but is run through the Morocaan desert, over the coarse of seven days with legs of different distances every day. The host Boyd Madson actually completed this race. The seen from day either 6 or 7 when he walks out of the medical tent with his feet wrapped in bandages because their covered in blisters and his toe nails have fallen off is just sadistic. "And the medical running is I'm fit to continue" he says and then laughs with a combination of maddness and disbeilf is really something.

So just to take a quick survey which of these races do you guys consider harder. Which would you attempt first? I hate the heat, really hate sand and have the worst sense of direction on the planet so the Marathon de Sabla would kill me, even though it is done at a much slower pace. The Spartatholon is faster and probably more physically bemanding, but at least there are no stories of people getting lost and wandering in the desert for days. Besides the relentless nature of this race fits my banging my head against a wall personality. Wink
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Micah Ward
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2002 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have read some articles in Ultrarunning about both and the Marathon des Sables is tougher in my opinion. It is 150 miles over 6 days but it is in the Sahara and you have to carry all your own food, water, clothing and safety gear. You do a certain number of miles a day then sleep in a tent on the ground each night. You never get the chance for a really good nights sleep or a bath until it is over. Spartathlon is tough but I would also rank the 135 mile Badwater Ultra tougher. If you are curious go to www.badwaterultra.com and look at the pictures. Death Valley in July is rough.
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Dan
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2002 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I believe these are the two you're referring to:

http://spartathlon.webvista.net/
http://www.saharamarathon.co.uk/

To my way of thinking, they're just gradients of impossibility...

A few others I'd throw in there for consideration would be the Death Valley Marathon, the Iditasport events (site has been down for awhile) in Alaska, the Everest Marathon, the Mt Everest Challenge Marathon, the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race, and my personal favorite, the seldomly contested triple Ironman Triathlon. Surprised

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ellen
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2002 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hello Very Happy ... i am new here but i just watched the marathon des sables...
and i want to do that... it looks very hard, considering they are given a ration of 9 litres of water a day and sleep in an open sided berber tent.
i am doing a race in the rockies next august... and hopefully this will toughen me up for des sables.
it was morocco or omsk...lol i think i prefer heat to freezing.
crazy..? who me? Laughing
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Dan
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2002 6:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool, we need more crazy people around here! Smile

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Distance_Guru
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2002 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome, and good luck! Smile
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ellen
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

p.s. forgot to mention i started running almost 1.5 years ago.. nothing spectacular.. just joined a clinic.. did a few 5ks..lol... then fell ,well slipped and broke my kneecap.. yikes.. running was out for a while.. so i took up cycling.. heheh... i cycle a lot.. about 270-300 miles a week on top of the running.. that i started only this past spring again.. nuts yep.. but i noticed from both sports... that they have their fair share of zealots and funppl.
... life is for living.. why not laugh thru it.. Very Happy
did i mention rowing eights?
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Paul
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A hearty welcome from me, too, Ellen. My gosh, you must not even have time to eat or sleep!!

Most of the hard core posters here have been clamoring for the woman's point of view. No one has taken up the challenge. This could be you!! Very Happy Thumbs Up But you'll have to have some pretty thick skin. I have to ice my butt every week where it gets kicked on this site. Wink

Chicago Marathon this weekend!! Yeah!! :supergrin:

Paul
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ellen
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 1:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well.. thick skin.. i may not have.. but i have hashed about in the bicycling forums for a year now and have seen.. way too many butt icings lol.
its all in fun.. sometimes.
good luck in the chicago marathon.. Toronto has one Oct.20th.
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Dan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

C'mon Paul, whatcha trying to do, scare people off?? The occasional discussion gets a bit heated around here, but rarely drifts too far outside the bounds of civility...

Dan
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Micah Ward
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ellen, I offer an enthusiastic welcome from a Southern Gentleman and great proponent of civility and proper manners. Very Happy

In all seriousness, this is one of the most civil forums I have run across and it has some of the most intelligent conversations. Even if they do get somewhat "spirited" from time to time. Wink

Back to the original topic...the hardest ultra of all may be the Barkley. It is run in the mountains of east Tennessee. It is a 100 mile trail race that consists of 5 loops of a 20 mile course. The time limit is 60 hours and only 3 people have ever completed the full 5 loops...and two of those were accused of cutting the course. Normally about 30 people start and rarely does more than 5 or 6 even start the third loop. I don't believe it was run in 2002 but it had been contested for about 10 years up until this year.

Micah
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Paul
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heated but civil, cantankerous, too!! I wish I were running the Chicago, I was just mentioning it.

Micah, what makes Barkley so difficult?? The grade changes?? Do they have aid stations?? Do I get to sign up to be on the "Ward" roster for this one, too??

Paul
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Dan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Egads, who would send in an entry fee knowing they have almost exactly a 1 in 100 chance of finishing the race?! Is that considered a challenge akin to climbing K2, to be undertaken just to see if it can be done?

Dan
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Micah Ward
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Barkley has almost no flat ground. It is either up or down and at a very steep angle. Also, the "course" has very little of what would be considered trail. It is virtually constant bushwhacking through underbrush, fallen trees and briars. The biggest single factor though is probably the steep terrain. It may be hard to imagine but some of our mountains in the Appalachian range are e
x
t
r
e
m
e
l
y steep. Surprised
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Dan
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It is virtually constant bushwhacking through underbrush, fallen trees and briars.

In that case, the course should become easier with each successive loop! Wink

The east coast has a fine tradition in mountain biking circles for steep and nasty mountainous terrain, for what it's worth.

Dan
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