The Ultimate Endurance Athlete Race Bucket List

Raise your hand if you are addicted to challenges?

Two hands if your challenges include endurance sports. 

The Endurance Nation team tends to have both hands raised at all times. Inside the team, an Ultimate Bucket List has been forming (so large we can’t even share in its entirety), however, we thought we would share top few of the ever-growing endurance race must do’s, and ask you, which ones do you want to tackle?

Extreme Triathlon / MultiSport Events

• Ultraman Triathlon.  A three-day stage-race style triathlon.  Held in Florida, Hawaii, and Australia.  Ultraman Canada became Ultra520k Canada.
• Norseman Xtreme Triathlon.  Ironman distance with an icy swim and mountain climb for the run.
• Wilderman Off-Road Ironman.  Tough looking MTB ride with river crossings and a bushwhack of a run.  Iron and half-iron distances.
• The Leadman.  Complete 5 of the Leadville races culminating in the MTB 100 and Trail Run 100.
• Celtman.  Triathlon through the Scottish highlands with cold water swim in a loch and run over two mountains.
• Swissman.  A point to point race starting in the southern part of Switzerland, leading over three mountain passes to the central part of Switzerland and finishing with a final climb in the heart of Switzerland just at the bottom of the massive mountain backdrop of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. More than 15,000ft of vertical.
• Austria Xtreme Triathlon.  Patterned on Norseman, Celtman, and Norseman.  Has more than 15,000ft of vertical.
• The Brutal Extreme Triathlon.  Half, full, double, and triple Iron distance with 2,500ft of climbing per 29-mile loop on the bike and the run finishes by ascending the tallest mountain in Wales.
• Powerman Zofingen.  The original, the unequaled, the unparalleled, baddest duathlon in the world.
  
• SOS Triathlon.   The original bike, run, swim, run, swim, run, swim, run event.

Ultras / Running Events

• The Grand Sam of Ultrarunning by completing the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run, the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run, the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run, and Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run all in the same year.  Any one of these is epic by themselves.
• Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc(also referred to as UTMB) considered one of the most prestigious 100-milers in the world.
  
• Hardrock 100 in Colorado with over 65,000ft of vertical.  Considered by many to be the most difficult 100-miler.
• 200 mile ultras including Big Foot 200, Tahoe 200, and Moab 200 (actually 234 miles).
• Marathon des Sables six-day, 154-mile stage race through the Sahara desert.
  
• Badwater Ultramarathon.  135 miles from the lowest point in the US in Death Valley to the top of Whitney Portal.
• The Spartathalon that covers the 153-mile course from Athens to Sparta that Greek messenger Pheidippedes ran.
  
• H.U.R.T. 100 through the sultry jungle of Hawaii.
• The Barkley Marathons.  Only 15 finishers have completed it since 1995.
• Antarctica Marathon.  Arguably the most remote race on this list.  Run a marathon on the dirt roads between the base stations in weather around 10F.
• Fell Running 24-Hour Challenge such as the Bob Graham Round.  Fell running is big in the UK and is basically running off road where significant climbing is involved.  The goal of the rounds is to hit a set number of peaks, usually upwards of 40, within 24 hours.

Cycling

• Leadville MTB 100.  The race across the sky.
• Lotoja, or Logan, UT to Jackson, WY.  Over 200 miles of road riding in a single day.
• Tushar Crusher in the Tushar Mountains of UT.  70 miles with over 10,000ft of elevation gain on mixed surfaces.  Can be done with a cyclocross bike or MTB.
• Tour Divide.  2700 miles down the Rockies.
• Race Across America.  The name says it all.
• Double Triple Bypass in CO.  2 x 120 miles/20,000′ gain.
• Markleeville Death Ride in CA.  129 mi/15,000′. 
• RAMROD. Ride Around Mt Rainier in One Day 160 miles/10000′. 
• RAW / Race Across the West.  Race Across The West from San Diego to Durango on the RAAM route, same concept.
  
• La Vuelta.  375 miles around Puerto Rico in 3 days

Want to tackle one of these above? We would love for you to train for your next epic adventure with the team of Endurance Nation. 

Let’s cross them off together one-by-one!