Pretty proud to be the man behind multiple events listed in this thread! Or, maybe there's just something wrong with me? :)

Come back for the DD. The course changes this year only make it harder, if you can believe it. It just seems so limiting to be restricted to the same route year after year when there are so many "Killer Millers" and Sam "Not My" Friend Roads out there to climb. Time to shake it up a bit and show off some new hills for people to walk their bikes up.

200 miles and 30K feet of climbing? I assume that requires lights because there cannot be enough daylight in a day for most to manage, right? We run our 125 mile, 16.5K climbing ride on the summer solstice and still have issue of folks getting pulled due to daylight, so I cannot imagine a 200 mile, 30K foot event. Is it qualification only?

Aye I'd imagine so. The Montblanc is in July which gives you about 17hrs from dawn to dusk. The Alpenbrevet is in August so a little less light but also shorter distance. I think lights were required but not really checked. In general they're useful because there are some tunnels. First part was a mass start though on closed roads (not that hard to do at 6am in alpine regions ;) that was pretty cool.

I don't think either require qualification but like I said, they have intermediate time cutoffs after which you'll be pulled of the course or redirected to shorter routes (that only applies to the Alpenbrevet). Montblanc one apparently is only done by a couple hundred people anyway, I wonder why ;) Oh I exaggerated a bit by the way, it's only 8000m vertical, but 330k length.

Yeah....No thanks, though that's crazy to think about some people doing 300+ miles

Kyle - you should be proud -- who else (non-WTC) has multiple events listed on this thread?. I'm glad to see Savage 100 (30+70) was listed already - I remember doing that the first year you offered it. Already signed up for DD this year, and excited for the new course, though it would be DD without Bowman and Blue Lick. I'll miss the WV portion, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojrvfoJeueg

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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was your epic marmagedon unsupported?

no qualification and it starts in the dark so you descend the first HC or Cat 1 then the climbing starts from Megeve. The first three climbs though - vaudagne, montet and forclaz are not particularly difficult or long, though it is a long slog from megeve to the top of the montet.

I'm going to drive it in August once all the passes are open and see how stupid it is. The other thing I'd do is start much much earlier than they do and basically try to get to the Champex before dawn so you have lots of daylight for the rest of the day and you avoid traffic for a significant part of the day - 100k or so

I've done some beasts in my time but nothing has left me feeling so beat up in such a relatively short amount (about 3:45) of time as the 3 Peaks Cyclocross... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKCXpoa7oQ8

Norseman! Normally finish IM right around 10hrs. Norseman took me 14. The 4AM ferry ride and 5am start also makes it tough: I fell asleep on the bike at one point.

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Yeah, just touring the alps with a buddy and hitting all the big climbs. Wasn't the formal "event".

And Marmagedon is soooooo appropriate. I'll try it again some time when not sick, jetlagged, out of shape and see how it goes.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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I have also done several multi day events in the European sport of orienteering (running in the woods not just on trails with a map on time).
In orienteering I have done everything from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 days events. You race one race every day. My dad is turning 77 this summer and he is still competing in these events.

Other cool events are night orienteering. You do the same races but in darkness with a headlamp. That is not easy.

I have also with my brother and father done 6 days xc-skiing tour Norway. You can ski from cabin to cabin (carry all the stuff you need) in the national park. It is really fun and you are away from roads and houses.

Up and down Mt. Whitney in one day. About 11 miles one way from 8500-15,000 ft. The one thing I remember is summiting and seeing a bunch of western Europeans smoking cigarettes. I couldn't imagine how they could even manage to take a drag with the lack of oxygen at that altitude. Took a bunch of pictures and headed down. Fourteen hours roundtrip.

Bummer, we could always use some more people (race director here). We've had several people tell us the full is the hardest thing they've ever done, but then we've also had some people do it two years in a row...

First longest day was Arrowhead 135 in 2015. I was ready for the cold (I live in East Grand Forks, MN), but not the hills (did I mention I live in East Grand Forks, MN?). Took me 15 hours to get to the halfway point. Second longest day was END-AR 2011, in which I thought I could do a 24-hour adventure race after breaking both my feet 17 months prior. It was the boulder-hopping that got me to drop out around 14 hours in.

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Kettle Morraine 100 miler - but then again I haven't run Western States, Leadville, Wasatch or Comrades which I have no doubt are all even more difficult by several times over... but the ultramarathons I have done that went beyond 10 hours all hurt way worse than 140.6 races. No change to muscle groups and the recovery times was 2-3 times longer for me.

I did a solo bike tour around the world and part of the route was down the middle of Australia, through the Outback. I would typically do about 100 km/day but my hardest day in 2 years was about 90 km. It was extremely hot (I carried 9 1.5L bottles of water in addition to all my gear) and I had a headwind that made it impossible (for me) to bike more than 5 kmh. I had to get to the town ahead and it took almost 18 hours. I was helped by a camper van that stopped to give me some more water. I had some tough days in those few years but that one stands out.

Reviving this thread for some feedback from the forum for 2017 goals -- if you were looking for an epic summer 'event' ride in late June/early July, what would be on your list/what was the best sufferfest? So far, I've got identified:

Garrett County Gran Fondo (Maryland)
Death Ride (California)
Triple Bypass / Double Triple Bypass (Colorado)
La Marmotte (France)
Maratona des Dolomites (Italy)
Seattle-to-Portland (Washington/Oregon)

I've done the first, but not any of the others (and I don't have an MTB, otherwise the list would be longer) -- any others out there?

I've done both La Marmotte and the Maratona dles Dolomites and they're both great days out; I'd recommend the former on the grounds of it being a harder route and a better atmosphere, perhaps the scenery and relative lack of crowds go in favour of the latter.

For Europe the Etape du Tour is usually worth a look at too, but 2017 looks like a particularly uninspiring route. It passes by the bottom of some absolutely epic climbs and misses them all.

A good non-organised day out is tackling all three sides of Mont Ventoux in one go; you have to be a bit lucky with the weather because it can turn nasty, as we all saw in the Tour this year.

I've had a few. During the Eco-Challenge Primal Quest, I'd say day 2-8...pick a day. It took us almost 9 days to finish.

I was "light infantry" in the Army. That just means we walked everywhere. Being the assistant gunner on the 60. I had a very heavy ruck. So over night humps were hell. Some worse than others but it all kind of blends at this point. I'd rank these all harder than my IM's.

Mountain search and rescue; inclement weather prevented helicopter access and severe terrain that needed searching. Probably a little easier going than the Barkley marathons...

 I did the Sierra Club's Annual One Day hike about 4-5 years ago. It's a 100K(62mi) hike along the C&O Canal starting in Washington, DC and ending in Harper's ferry Virginia. For a clydesdale like me my feet felt like hambuger after.

for a single day event - my first marathon. i had no idea that anything could hurt that much.

long training days - riding the Embrunman bike course. Riding 360km solo from Muskoka to Ottawa.

the multi-day stuff (which is off-topic) was harder - 2 day Canadian ski marathon with bad weather, 4 day Randonee 1200km Boston-Montreal-Boston

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george

If we are taking 1 day as 24 hours then I would say the hardest races are (note I haven't done all listed below):

100 mile ultra marathons (call it western states, Leadville, hard rock etc.)
Badwater ultra marathon (there are people that finish in less than 24 hours).
The 24 hour bike time trial championships
Double Ironman (4.8 mile swim 224 mile bike 52 mile run)

There are a lot of super hard races but I just listed the ones that can be finished in less than 24 hours.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Came to say this. The distance/time isn't the problem. Like the Mike Tyson quote, everyone has a plan until you hit 12k feet. At one point I stopped to pull a bar from my pack, and the other two in my group got a whopping half a switchback lead on me (maybe 50 feet?), couldn't push hard enough to catch them until the top.

We ran the last 4ish miles - thinking we were only a mile from the parking lot and wanting to be done - something about 11 hours round trip with a 40 minute layover at the top. Was very happy to not be the one driving back to LA that night.

Sorta puts the hike to Everest base camp into perspective, if you had thought of doing it.

Single Day - Hiking over the Thorang La in Nepal (20,000 ft)

Multiple Day - The Canadian Ski Marathon http://csm-mcs.com/ - A two day, 100mi ski tour From Lachute to Gatineau, Quebec.

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