World's Ultimate Running Races
By Julien on Tuesday, October 4 2011, 19:42 - Books - Permalink
I've just received the recently published World's Ultimate Running Races - 500 Races, 101 Countries, Choose your adventure. I guess it would be best defined as an illustrated guide book of the most iconic races in the world.
It certainly contains a variety of races, from 5km to 3100 miles (4989km), grouped in 10 categories (cross country, mountain, multi-terrain, road, snow, stage, stairs, track, trail, and ultra).
That said, I am not entirely sure how Angela Mudge has selected the "most exhilarating and remarkable races". Why including the Belfast Marathon but not Dublin's for example? Furthermore, the selection is heavily Anglocentric. About 70 of these races take place in the UK, but less than 30 in France. This seems rather disproportionate, since the ahotu calendar lists 424 races in the UK, against 1199 in France. Are the French ones statistically 6 times less "interesting", or has the author's origin biased the selection?
Pictures certainly make you want to travel the world for these races. How long until someone takes on the challenge to run them all? Not that I could take part in the challenge, since I wouldn't be able to enter the "Adidas Women's only 5km" in Hyde Park and the "Women's mini Marathon" in Dublin...
Little game: how many of these races have I completed? And let's get even more playful: a bottle of Champagne for the first to give me the exact race list without prior knowledge of the book. Leave answer in comments.
Ultra challenges
It certainly contains a variety of races, from 5km to 3100 miles (4989km), grouped in 10 categories (cross country, mountain, multi-terrain, road, snow, stage, stairs, track, trail, and ultra).
That said, I am not entirely sure how Angela Mudge has selected the "most exhilarating and remarkable races". Why including the Belfast Marathon but not Dublin's for example? Furthermore, the selection is heavily Anglocentric. About 70 of these races take place in the UK, but less than 30 in France. This seems rather disproportionate, since the ahotu calendar lists 424 races in the UK, against 1199 in France. Are the French ones statistically 6 times less "interesting", or has the author's origin biased the selection?
Pictures certainly make you want to travel the world for these races. How long until someone takes on the challenge to run them all? Not that I could take part in the challenge, since I wouldn't be able to enter the "Adidas Women's only 5km" in Hyde Park and the "Women's mini Marathon" in Dublin...
Little game: how many of these races have I completed? And let's get even more playful: a bottle of Champagne for the first to give me the exact race list without prior knowledge of the book. Leave answer in comments.
Ultra challenges
Comments
- Belfast Marathon (you said, it is in the book :P)
- UTMB
- Paris marathon
- Three Forts Marathon
- Marathon des Alpes Maritimes (this one MUST be in the book, objectively ;-) )
- Hardmoors 110 (maybe not famous enough yet to be in the book)
So I guess 6 races you have completed are in the book
I may miss shorter races :S
In a few weeks, we could add the Athens marathon ;-)
Hope it is a REAL bottle of champagne and not a crappy italian gazzling wine :P
Great challenge... Maybe 7 :
Belfast Marathon
Paris Marathon
Cambridge Boundary Run
Hardmoors 110
Copenhagen Marathon
Three Forts Marathon
UTMB
And the 8th will be Athens in November...
But I'm afraid to miss some shortest races.
Damned, Bastien was quick to answer.
And our answers are very similar... but he lost, didn't he ?
> I wouldn't be able to enter the
> "Adidas Women's only 5km" in Hyde
> Park and the "Women's mini Marathon"
> in Dublin...
time for sex change? ;)
Answer: 5
Paris-Versailles
Marathon de Paris
Belfast City Marathon
Ultra-trail du Mont Blanc
Hardmoors 110
There are also:
2 DNF: Amsterdam Marathon, Tough Guy
1 missed opportunity: Vienna City Marathon
And hopefully very soon: Athens Marathon
Bastien and Mathieu, you got the same 4 of them, which is pretty impressive. But I knew no one would find Paris-Versailles :)
No, the Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes is not in the book, but the Monaco Marathon is.
"Marathon des Alpes Maritimes" is not in the book !!
What a shame !