Well, well, well, look who decided to join the party, you bunch of hill-climbing, wall-scaling, rig-flowin', mud-racing lunatics!

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It’s been almost 2 weeks and people are still talking about that brutal Cincinnati course.

I made a comparison against New Jersey last week. Reviewing stats and showing that Cincy was indeed, tougher than New Jersey this year. In a number of ways: (DNF %, Avg Finish Times, and Fastest Time).

But there was some pushback! 💥

“Of course Cincinnati was harder, it was way more miles!!”

or…

“Cincinnati is a new venue, people don’t know what they’re getting their selves into out that way, so DNF was way high.”

So I wanted to look into this.
What I decided to do is:

1. Pull up athletes who ran both Ultra Events.
2. Calculate their pace per mile based on finish time and miles that event was.
3. Calculate the % difference between their per mile pace at each event.

_{Note: Total Ultra Miles was found through looking at Strava details from 5 athletes and finding the average. As watch data can be a little different with each person’s stats.
Details on that here:
Cincy: Dan Verbene - 36.00, Adam Baylor - 35.86, John Dziadkowicz - 36.81, Richi Rodriguez - 35.72 & Jeff Theado - 36.55. AVERAGE: 36.19
NJ: Derek Shirk - 31.75, Paul Henry - 33.30, Lauren Longfield - 32.45, Daniel Hauck - 33.64, Tristan Gregs - 31.85. AVERAGE: 32.60}

I was able to find 5 athletes who did both ultras.
I performed this analysis, and the results are here in this picture summary:

As seen, we have the first three guys who found Cincinnati significantly harder. From 9.5% to 23.6% tougher based on their per mile pacing.

One outlier was John Castle, who I chatted with, comparing both events and doing some analysis on why these differences might exist.

John talked about a big difference being the ability to actually “RUN” on the course.
Yes, New Jersey has hills, but besides hiking up those, there are a lot of areas where someone can access actual running there. But when it comes to Cincinnati, there just weren’t areas where a good runner could access those skills. 🏃‍♂

With this in mind and looking at the first three guys on the list, we can gather why this course was harder.
We have Dan got 1st place Elite in this race, John with 4th overall AG / 8th overall including Elite, and James who is a AG podium athlete.
These three guys have some strong “Running” fitness behind them. But on this day in Cincinnati, they really couldn’t access it. And were forced to drudge along, hiking through the mud and tough terrain.

When it comes to the last two Spartan racers on this list. John and I talked about how their NJ finish times were in the 12-13 hour range. There would have been a lot less running and a lot more hiking and being able to grind it out on feet for a long period of time. What they did in NJ was more like what John said about Cincinnati, where it’s a “test of endurance and mental strength”.

What we gather is that Tim and Jeannie are accustomed to this kind of suck in an ultra. They have the skill to keep pushing forward one step at a time, hiking through whatever the terrain is, with mental toughness and endurance. But, are not often accessing strong running speeds in the events they do.

So when it comes time for a Cincinnati event, they aren’t phased by the inability to run quick. To them, it might be the same style of ultra performance they’re used to. Which we theorize is why they came out a little better in the per mile pacing analysis.

But hey, we’re just theorizing here and making some assumptions. But it seems to make some sense.

What’s your thoughts?!?!
This picture will be put on the IG, so shoot a comment over!

World’s Toughest Mudder is next weekend guys!!!

Do you want to feel like you’re taking part in all the fun of the weekend?

Well you can get involved by making predictions on who you think will dominate this event with our brand new prediction contest.

Anyone ever do the “Jack Bauer prediction contests” back in the day?!?!
It’s been over a year since one was out as the focus has moved into hybrid stuff with those guys.

But don’t worry guys, I’ve brought it back!

Check it out here!

If you know of any competitors heading out that should be added to the list, hit me up!

Note: You can fill it out now, but it will be best to fill out within 24 hours of the event. As I’ll have some additional names to add in most likely, and I’ll get some info out about each competitor to get you a better idea of how the podium may look.
(You can fill it out more than once! With your latest submission being used)

I’ll put a few reminders out on IG Stories throughout the week and a final countdown so people don’t miss the cutoff for submitting.

Be sure to watch for Next Week's Newsletter, where I’ll be diving into some details and stats for the competitors who are showing up. It should help in your voting decisions 👍

It’s a great way to show support for the page & look good at your next event 😎
Check out the Store page here.