How much vert in a typical marathon?
05-02-19, 10:09 PM
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How much vert in a typical marathon?
I know, I know, it's a bike forum. We have some fit people in here and I'm sure someone can offer some perspective. 2,200 feet of gain for a trail marathon, how bad is that? I know what different feet of gain per mile mean cycling and hiking, but don't have much perspective for this.
05-03-19, 08:38 AM
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That would be a good effort, but not killer, especially for trails. 50K I was gonna do this weekend (skipping it because I've been spending too much time on the bike and not enough time running 
) has about 5,000ft. I've done that one before and it's a really nice course in Va with some good climbs, but nothing too crazy.
Also depends on how that elevation is laid out, is it mostly flatish with one or two really big climbs? Or is it a bunch of rollers?
) has about 5,000ft. I've done that one before and it's a really nice course in Va with some good climbs, but nothing too crazy.Also depends on how that elevation is laid out, is it mostly flatish with one or two really big climbs? Or is it a bunch of rollers?
05-03-19, 10:30 AM
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Mostly one climb, at Sun Mountain, and a six hour time limit.
05-03-19, 10:42 AM
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Guess it depends on how much elevation you've been doing in training then, can be tough if you're not used to it. But should be doable if you make sure to keep moving. Run what you can, hike what you have to, that's my ultra motto. Even small runnable sections, where you might be inclined to take a lil break and keep hiking it, go ahead and run it, every lil bit of time adds up when you're chasing cutoffs.
05-05-19, 08:32 AM
#5
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For trail running, 100ft vert gain per mile is fairly mild. In general, I think of ft/mile in trail running as equivalent to half that amount in cycling. So it's only at around 200 ft/mile that I would think of a trail run as having significant climbing. Brutal is when you start hitting 250ft/mile and up. But, as @Rides4Beer points out, there can be a lot of variation in number, length, gradient, condition, and placement that will affect how hard the climbing actually is.
Can you post the course profile?
Can you post the course profile?
