Time Wounds All Heels Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boston

The Boston Marathon began in the late 1890s making it one of the oldest road races in all of North America. It has since become one of the premier marathons on the planet; runners fight for a position on the course every April. The youngest people in the race (under the age of 35) need to run a qualifying race in around three hours (for men) or three and a half hours (for women). Because of the high caliber of the racers, the Boston Marathon has been the home course for many world-record breakers in the running and wheelchair racing categories.

Answer: 40km

In this inaugural modern Olympic Games, runners of the marathon traveled on foot an even forty kilometers, two and a fifth kilometers less than the standard established in 1924. This distance was meant to reflect the distance between Marathon, the starting line, and Greece's capital city, Athens.

The race was won in just under three hours by a Greek participant. Since this early version of the games, the marathon has been the final (and perhaps most epitomizing) event of the events. Women were not allowed to run the marathon event officially until several years later.

Answer: Yes

It'd be next to impossible to go any higher! Beginning at a base camp over five kilometers above sea level, the track takes runners off-road through several mountain passes and villages to a final camp further down in the Himalayas, a 'meager' three and a half kilometers down the hills.

The trail takes runners the proper distance (just over forty-two kilometers) but even experienced runners will likely have a bit of a problem with the altitude. Racing that far above sea level could make it difficult, even for the most seasoned runners.

Answer: Spartathlon

The Spartathlon begins in Athens at the base of the Acropolis and continues through two hundred fifty kilometers of Greek villages, roadways, mountains, and farmlands before ending at a monument located in Sparta. Perhaps one of the most daunting runs in the world, the trip can take over twenty-four hours, even for a seasoned ultramarathon runner.

In fact, if you happen to lag behind between checkpoints, you may be pulled from the footrace for safety reasons. Ultramarathons are races which total over fifty kilometers in length, so this one happens to be a biggie.

Answer: Yankee Stadium

Some people like to be taken out to the ballgame, but for those looking to tread somewhere new, the Runyon allows participants to race not only around the baseball field in Yankee Stadium but up and down the stands, through the corridors and past the ticket booths. Named after cancer researcher Damon Runyon, the footrace was created for charity in the late-2000s and became one of the most interesting tracks in the city; you can actually travel over five kilometers through the stadium without retracing your steps!

Answer: True

The interesting thing about this is that runners will always seem to find some place new and exotic to test their mettle. The Antarctic Ice Run, for example, is a marathon run entirely on the Antarctic ice shelf in the foothills of the Ellsworth Mountains. One of the world's coldest footraces (there are some in Minnesota which have been pretty cold), runners have attempted marathons as well as ultramarathons in this frigid climate.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the most expensive races to run-- to get to Antarctica, racers need to hop onto a boat or charter flight from the southern tip of Argentina and sign up for a race number costing thousands of dollars.

It's not cheap to stay in Antarctica!

Answer: Wine-tastings are held along the route

Medoc, located in Gironde in Western France, is notable for its wine country so it only makes sense that tourists and visitors passing through sample the fine wines of the local vineyards. The funny thing about this is that long-distance runners are often advised against drinking alcoholic beverages, even in the days preceding long runs, because alcohol dehydrates the body making it more prone to injury and problems on the course.
This race goes out of its way to hand you a glass of wine at every stop. In other words, you might not even make it to the end-- at least not sober-- and you certainly won't be feeling the pain in your heels until you wake up somewhere down the line with a wine hangover and a medal around your neck.

Oddly enough, a Man Vs. Horse Marathon is held in Wales every summer, so somewhere out there, horseback riding and marathon running to do form an unlikely marriage.

Answer: South Africa

In South Africa, marathons are held in some of the country's most beautiful natural reserves taking racers through the roads inhabited by Africa's most fearsome and famous animals. The Big Five Marathon, for example, runs through Entabeni Game Reserve and does not feature any sort of barriers between the runner and the open savannah. Other countries attempt to replicate the experience of running wild; in Thailand you can run with the water buffalo.

The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona have been held in July in Spain for centuries and while it's not an official road race, it can certainly cause some pain (in the feet and elsewhere).

Answer: The course consistently continues uphill

The Jungfrau Marathon begins in the city of Interlaken in beautiful Central Switzerland, but this is only to give racers a false sense of security. From the word go, racers travel on foot in an uphill direction for forty kilometers of the forty-two and a fifth kilometer race advancing to an elevation totaling nearly two kilometers higher than where they began. Sure, the last two kilometers are all downhill, but the consistent battle to the top of the Swiss Alps proves to be the killer. Unsurprisingly, course records rarely ever crack 2:50:00; the world record has hovered around the two hour mark for decades.

Answer: Heat exhaustion

Marathon des Sables, also known as the Marathon of the Sands, is held in the western end of Africa along the edges of the Sahara Desert, skirting the Atlas Mountains in eastern Morocco. The course is a long one stretching over two hundred fifty kilometers through the country and because of the intense heat, sandstorms, and dangerous environments, racers are required to stop at specific checkpoints for predetermined amounts of time or else they risk exhaustion, heatstroke, and death.

While competitors in the Spartathlon complete the same distance over the course of twenty-four to thirty hours, the Marathon des Sables takes nearly a week to complete and costs thousands of dollars to enter.

It is in the high echelon of endurance challenges anywhere in the world and it's all on foot.