Is there a running equivalent of audax?

[perpetual dan]

I can see the steady run as a sociable club thing working, sure. Especially when everyone has a sense of which group they fit into. I’ve run with one or two others often enough though never as part of a club.

The run I copied the description of is an “event” rather than a weekly thing, and half marathon distance. Which I guess makes it a bit more like the audax version with a set pace and road captains etc (is that UAF?).

[chrisbainbridge]

the sociable run is what the Ethiopian running seems to be like.  I liked the idea of the squad meandering up the hillside with faster runners doing the whole meander and the slower runners shortening the meander so that the whole group essentially stayed together.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Similarly "sheepdogging" where the fastest runners reach the top of the hill or end of the road and turn back, repeat until ad infinitum until the slowest have arrived.

[Quisling]

In my reasonably limited experience local fell races tend to be the cheapest and most informally managed, with a high degree of self-reliance and self-navigation/route selection required for a lot of races.  This makes them a lot of fun.

Longer trail events are largely commercial in nature, pandering to those who want t-shirt, medal etc., but reflecting the need for providing insurance etc.  I did the Country to Capital ultra yesterday which was self-navigation/no routemarking/map provided, with interim check points.  However, we were provided with geotrackers and this is common where it'll take runners 8 or more hours in the interests of safety.

I find the running Twitter community very helpful and friendly (#UKrunchat is a good place to start) and you can always put a shout out suggesting a route and time/place to meet and hopefully someone will turn up.  I don't tend to "enter" many events, and fill the gaps with DIY adventures.  I have a couple of solo ultra's (company welcome!) that I'd like to do where I can get a train back to the start afterwards.

[fimm]

Longer trail events are largely commercial in nature, pandering to those who want t-shirt, medal etc., but reflecting the need for providing insurance etc.  I did the Country to Capital ultra yesterday which was self-navigation/no routemarking/map provided, with interim check points.  However, we were provided with geotrackers and this is common where it'll take runners 8 or more hours in the interests of safety.

I would disagree - some longer event are commercial, others are not. But there does tend to be more in the way of marshalling/checkpoints - partially of course because your average trail race won't go near a shop...

[Quisling]

Longer trail events are largely commercial in nature, pandering to those who want t-shirt, medal etc., but reflecting the need for providing insurance etc.  I did the Country to Capital ultra yesterday which was self-navigation/no routemarking/map provided, with interim check points.  However, we were provided with geotrackers and this is common where it'll take runners 8 or more hours in the interests of safety.

I would disagree - some longer event are commercial, others are not. But there does tend to be more in the way of marshalling/checkpoints - partially of course because your average trail race won't go near a shop...

Valid disagreement - I generalised a bit there.

[fimm]

Long distance walking, I'd have thought was the closest comparison to audax.

Running is on a completely different level to audax style cycling. Ultra-marathons require not only training in the activity, but also whole raft of attendant care such as stretching and strengthening exercises because running is so hard on the body. Not so with audax.

What's your running experience?
I've run 38 miles (60 km) with 1300m ascent.
I've run 43 km with 720m ascent.
I've run 33 km with 1800m ascent.
I've run 28 km with 2700m ascent.

The hardest thing I've ever done was a 300km Audax.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Long distance walking, I'd have thought was the closest comparison to audax.

Running is on a completely different level to audax style cycling. Ultra-marathons require not only training in the activity, but also whole raft of attendant care such as stretching and strengthening exercises because running is so hard on the body. Not so with audax.

What's your running experience?
I've run 38 miles (60 km) with 1300m ascent.
I've run 43 km with 720m ascent.
I've run 33 km with 1800m ascent.
I've run 28 km with 2700m ascent.

The hardest thing I've ever done was a 300km Audax.

For many people, the wear and tear of the jarring from running stops them long before they run out of energy.

I have been fit enough to manage an easter arrow, and think that 200km on a bike was a reasonable day out. Never managed to run more than 25km, even with training.

[ElyDave]

Depends whether you are talking mentally or physically

Hardest physically is still the 24 mile fell race with about 2000m ascent, but I was running that as a race (came in top 15)
Hardest mentally was a 40 miler in absolute monsoon conditions, mixed on and offroad.  Because it was the middle of the year, the ground was rock hard and parts of the course were wading through mid-shin depth water and mud on every 10-mile lap.

Not done a 300 audax, but the 200's I've done were not as taxing.