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The format never varies, and that is the whole point of it. Eight one-kilometre runs, each followed by one workout station, always in the same order. A race in Acapulco is the same race as one in Tenerife, so a time means something across venues and years in a way a road marathon time never quite does across courses.

We rate it 3 out of 5 for difficulty on every single race we index, which is unusual on this site and is a consequence of that standardisation rather than a shrug. The variable is you, not the course.

What catches people is the running. Roughly half the event is the eight kilometres, and it is broken up in a way that makes pacing counter-intuitive: you arrive at each run with your arms and lungs already loaded from the station before it.

Doubles splits the stations between two athletes but not the runs, which both partners cover in full. Pro is the same course with heavier weights.