Track

Every track season the same question arises: Which are harder, distance events or sprint events? Of course, all the sprinters say that short distance is harder and the long distance guys say that long distance is harder. However, because in the past I have run both sprint events and distance events, and have had success running both, I believe that I am qualified to weigh in on the question. Distance events are much harder than sprint events for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that distance runners have to run a lot more than sprinters. For example, an average sprint interval workout during track for varsity is around five 200 meter sprints. The average distance workout is either twenty 400 meter repeats, twelve 800 meter repeats, four one mile repeats, or a combination of all of them. Clearly, the distance intervals are much more exacting and are much longer than sprint intervals.

Even on easy workout days, distance workouts are harder than sprint workouts, due to the amount of running involved. An easy day for a distance runner is to run six miles outside in the freezing cold, and sometimes snow, while for a sprinter, an easy day is to stretch and work on coming out of the blocks for the start (blocks are what the sprinters use during races at the start to gain explosiveness and reaction time). This involves minimal physical exertion, while running six miles in 10 degree whether in the snow is not only difficult, but it’s awful as well.

As stated previously, distance runners have more challenging runs than sprinters. However, the race is what matters, and once again, distance runners take home the prize of having the hardest events during races to run. This is due to the fact that all sprint events are finished in under a minute, with the 400 meter being the longest and finishing in around 51-49 seconds for the top athletes, while the shortest distance event finishes in more than double that time. The minuscule amount of time in which the sprinting events take place ensure that zero strategy is involved; sprinters just go balls out and go as fast as they can for the entire event.



However, in distance events, there is a great deal of strategy involved. This is because distance events take a lot longer; it’s not feasible to expect someone to sprint a two mile. The strategy often determines the difference between winning your race, and finishing out of the top three. For example, the strategy of most kids who run the mile is to hang with the lead pack, then win in the kick (The last 400 M). However, the strategy involved in running a two mile is completely different. The guys with extremely good endurance but who aren’t the best sprinters try to burn out the guys who are good sprinters, but may not have as good of endurance. This is critical for both types of runners because if a guy who can sprint is within 100 M of a guy who can’t with 400 M to go, the guy who can sprint should win every time. However, if the endurance runner who can’t sprint has done his job and pushed the pace in the beginning so the runner who can sprint is either exhausted or too far behind to use his kick, the runner with the endurance who can’t sprint will win. All in all, distance events are much harder than sprint events due to a multitude of reasons.