Differences between a challenge & a race

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you might have noticed that I refer to ‘challenges’, ‘adventures’ and ‘events’ when I write about my ultra trail run experiences. However, when I share my stories about Ironman triathlons, I refer to them as a ‘race’. There’s a reason for it and in this article I’m going to tell you why these are two different experiences and attitudes in my point of view.

Email Campaigns of an Event vs a Race Organizer

It’s so interesting when you compare the marketing campaigns from trail running events and an IronMan race. They couldn’t be more different!! Before a trail running event, the participants receive emails with all the needed information for registration, mandatory tool kit, how to get there, etc. It’s all provided in either one email including a nice short, personal video or perhaps even a pdf document if it’s a multi-day challenge. The tone of voice is so kind, supportive and they use phrases like: You’ve got this! It’s going to be an awesome day on the trails in nature. You’ll meet other like-minded people on the way.

You can imagine that I was quite surprised, a bit confused, intimidated but also amused when I read an email from IronMan which went literally: 6 months to Race Day. Are you feeling like a bad ass yet? My answer was: NO! And that actually made me nervous. It’s not really the type of motivation I go for. I don’t feel like a “bad ass” because I registered for an IronMan 70.3 race. I might feel like one once I finished it but not 6 months ahead of time!

In a nutshell: From my experience, the ultra trail run events are really trying to ‘sell’ the sport itself; it’s all about promoting the sports and its benefits on mental and physical health. Whereas IronMan is a big corporation and they are trying to sell the IronMan brand and what it stands for.

Training and Mindset for an Event vs a Race

In terms of training and preparation, the two couldn’t be more different to me. When I train for an ultra on the trails, I don’t listen to music while I’m running on the trails. I LOVE to connect with the nature, my surroundings, listening to the wind and the birds. It’s where I find my spirituality and where I feel most content. It’s the place and time, where place and time dissolves. You’re running in your steady zone 2 and go on and on and on and on. Loving it.

When I train for an IronMan race, however, I obviously swim and bike with no music either. Unless I do long and hard bike sessions on an indoor trainer or when I run - either on the road or on the treadmill. As part of the IronMan training, I need to push myself into higher gear meaning I do a lot more sessions at and above threshold. And to go there, I personally need metal and rock music and dive into another state of mind. This is not the place where I find peace and contentment like I do on the trails. This is the time where I dig out things that I went through and use them as fuel. It’s not really healthy, to be honest, and I don’t like to stay there for too long but it does push me in my training.

Support vs Competition

The ultra trail runner community is a lovely bunch of people - mostly loners but still very supportive! When you’re out on the trails, you’re allowed to bring a support crew in most events who will have a camping chair, water, food and a good joke ready for you to keep you going. Even the trail runners motivate each other when passing by or even stay with you for a few miles and chat to you and then they head off again. We cheer each other on during an event and wish each other an amazing day and I LOVE this vibe. I even made a friend during an ultra race.

Haha, now imagine me at my first IronMan 70.3 race. I’m on the bike, overtaking others and saying to them things like: “Have a great rest of the day! Well done! Enjoy the ride!” NO ONE and I mean NO ONE said anything back to me. They just looked irritated. It didn’t take me too long to find out that during an IronMan race they all see each other as competitors - not as participants. Nope, they were upset when I overtook them. What on earth? I am not here to race you guys! Crazy. But in all honesty: Before the swim start and after the finish line, the people were friendly with each other again. It’s only during the race where they don’t talk to each other.

Spectators

Hands down, when it comes to spectators, there’s a clear winner in my point of view: IronMan races. No doubt about it - my friends who support me confirmed that. It’s quite obvious I guess: When you run an ultra trail run, you’re out in the middle of nowhere in remote locations. So it’s really hard for people to get there, find parking, walk to the trails, wait until you pass by and only see you for a second. It’s a lot of effort and hassle for the spectators which also means for the runner that you won’t pass many supporters. Every now and then you’ll find an even crew member at check-in points or some along the route but you’re mostly out there on your own. So you better know how to motivate yourself.

IronMan does a brilliant job at entertaining the race participants and spectators. Roads are closed so they can build their red carpet, a whole IronMan village, blast music out of their trucks, etc. There’s a whole party going on from beginning to end. Since you’re also cycling and running in loops, your supporters will see you multiple times passing by. And the name tag on your BiB number allows anyone to shout your name and motivate you. It really did give me goosebumps all the day.

Enjoyment vs Strict Rules

The runners code of conduct contains a few bullet-points stating the obvious: Don’t be a jerk and help others. Respect nature and don’t litter. Don’t give up and take it step-by-step - we’ll give you a decent amount of time to make it within the official cut-off time. It’s all about pushing yourself farther whilst also enjoying nature.

When I received the IronMan race brief of 74 DIN A4 PDF pages, I was completely overwhelmed and got nervous again. I was thinking to myself: Why on earth is a 74 pages long rules book needed?? I read it multiple times and still couldn’t remember every rule - especially not on race day. Luckily the event crew were shouting at me a few times making sure i.e. I got off the bike BEFOE the line on the ground and not ON the line (otherwise I would have been disqualified). There are rules about how many seconds you’re allowed to take for passing someone on the bike, how many centimeters you’re allowed to cycle close to someone before you need to overtake them etc. etc. As it wouldn’t be enough to have one overall cut-off time, this time is split into three more cut-off times for the overall swim, bike and run. And then there are cut-off time within these cut-off times based on the road closures. You’re confused now? ;) Anyway, I guess you see what I mean.

Accessibility vs Moneymaking

This point is bothering me a bit, to be honest. Obviously any event organizer needs to make profit so they can continue offering these incredible events in these wonderful and spectacular locations. They rely a lot on volunteers who help building the check-in points, managing the registration, being on course, etc. I also volunteered at triathlon events just to give back and cheer on the participants.

Whilst ultra trail run events are affordable and offer great events for a fair price, an IronMan race is extremely expensive. In fact, they are so expensive that people who could qualify for championships such as Kona (Hawaii), can’t participate simply because of the price. To give you a number: If you were about to race in Kona, you’d need to calculate ~£8,000-10,000 in total. I understand that making events in these stunning locations possible does cost money, however, there’s surely a way to make it profitable and affordable for more people. Multi-stage ultra trail events make it happen so why wouldn’t it be possible for an organization like IronMan? In my personal view, accessibility is paramount and money shouldn’t be a key factor why people can’t pursue their dream of participating a physical and mental feat like this. This is also one of the reasons why I wasn’t too happy when I read that IronMan is now also sponsor of one of the biggest and most important Ultra Trail Run Challenges UTMB. The whole qualifications system changed already; now forcing you to qualify for the UTMB only if you finish other IronMan/UTMB labelled races that are official qualifiers which means that smaller, local event organizers don’t count as qualifier races anymore. Let’s see how this will all play out. This topic is certainly worth a separate post.

Self-supported vs Organized

When talking about a race, it’s an organized event where the race organizers do basically the majority of logistics for you; i.e. planning the route, mark the course with signs so you don’t have to navigate or get lost, there will be check-in points on along the way offering fluids and food as well as medical help if needed.

Challenges, however, can either be supported which means they are organized and offer pretty much the same as a race but there are also so called ‘self-supported’ challenges. This means that you plan, organize and conduct the whole adventure on your own. Yep, you’re doing it all on your own. This has obviously advantages as you can plan the course, terrain, elevation, distance, etc. all suited to our fitness level. On the other side, do not underestimate the whole logistics behind such a feat!! Also, never ever underestimate that you’ll need to carry more in your backpack if you plan a remote route. There’s so much more to explain and give you tips to consider so I’ll write a separate article about it. In the meantime, if you’re interested in what self-supported challenges I’m planning to do, check out the “Challenges” section on my blog.

Commonalities

You can see that there are quite some differences between a challenge and a race. But they also got a few things in common.

• Travel & experience some of the most magical spots in nature

  • You get to travel and run/swim/bike in absolutely stunning and gorgeous spots in the world you wouldn’t usually go to or even know about.

• Growth opportunity

  • Both types of event are an incredible opportunity for growth. No matter if you enter a challenge or a race, both will require 100% of your mindset and 100% of your physical capabilities. Either way, you’ll need to give it your all and more. You’ll need to go out of your comfort zone and that’s exactly the only place where growth happens.

• Community

  • They both have a big community online but you’ll also find some smaller local communities who train together. So if you’re the kind of person who likes to train and connect with others, there’s certainly enough opportunities to do so. I just don’t like to train with others and I don’t like social media so it’s a bit harder for me to connect with these like-minded people.

• Life-changing experiences

  • Both event types will hold life-changing experiences for you. Only if you have participated in such an event, you can understand what it means to go beyond. Only then you’ll truly understand that there’s so much more you’re capable of. The only limitation is your imagination.

Hopefully you found this view behind the scenes interesting. Now it’s up to you what you prefer ;) Go and pick your challenge or race, sign-up for it, train hard and make it happen! :) There’s no better time than now.