Which is easier: Racing a half IM or finishing a full IM (Page 2)

Yeah that's it. Hence, I defer to you for everything there is to know about endurance sports. 

Let me ask you this.  If an athlete races a HIM "to the best of their ability" and still takes over 6:30 to finish (let's call it :40/3:30/2:20), how will it be "easier" to finish an IM?  Is something like 1:30/7:30/6:00 "easy"?

Edit:  I should note that I think this whole question is sort of silly.  Most people attempt to finish either distance "to the best of their abilities".  My IM was FAR harder than any HIM I have raced.

And just how many angels can one fit on the head of a pin anyway?

If today you had to choose between racing an HIM @ 80% of your threshold for all 3 legs or just pace yourself @ 50% of threshold to finish an IM under 16 hrs what would you think was easier to achieve. Finally in your case about the IM; you were racing your IM you certainly weren’t just finishing it otherwise you would have felt it was easier IMO.

Chris wins.

Seems easy to me...how the hell do you answer that?  For me, racing a half is harder. But...every person differs, some might do well at distance, some might push AT for 6 hours and be just fine. It just depends. Both are tough.

But do doubleplay's / tripastor's original question, for me, racing a half is tougher. The key is that it's 'for me'.

I never did IM and just did one HIM.

In general, racing is always very though, while finishing is always just a matter of time.

Let's make some examples.

Think about a short, hard race, like...5km. If I ask you, would you prepare for 6 months a 5k race under 17minutes or a marathon just for finishing, what would you answer?

Training for 5k race under 17 can be hard. But everyone can close a marathon, again, just a a matter of time.

What about if I ask you a 10k race under 36mins?

So another step before your question.

Let's take finishing HIM versus racing a standalone half mary. For me, racing a standalone half mary with the goal of beating my PB is very though and I need to run at almost the LT threshold to do that! Closing HIM is easy, you can relax during the cycling and then running as an easy jogging.

Translating to HIH race vs. IM finish, I would say the same even if I am preparing for my first IM. In general, if I prepare for an event, it is never just for finish. Maybe at the end I will walk but that is another story, story of failure.

Maybe I go for something like 12hrs but if I need just to finish it, I can get 16hrs which means I can take the cycling part much more relaxed and the marathon will be run + walk. If you go for such an event and you are not sure to finish for physical condition reason, better not to go. Thinking of not closing it because of EXTERNAL condition, it is normal and you can not do anything with that. It is IM overall, and in 15hrs everything can happen!

Like I said earlier, for me racing a HIM would definitely be harder vs. just making sure I get through the cut-offs at IM.

I think the only debate is how one defines 'racing'.  Some people have to 'race' (by my definition)just to make the cut-offs.

Agreed. 

WRONG!! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THREAD ON BT AT THIS MOMENT!