Hardest, Toughest, more difficultest

Lots of marathons (and indeed races of other lengths) make bold claims that their Race is the most toughest/hardest/etc race in the UK but how do you compare races such as:

The Picnic, one of Britain's hardest marathons (www.trionium.com/picnic/‎)
Glencoe Marathon - Scotland's toughest marathon (www.glencoemarathon.com) Hell of a Hill - arguably the toughest 26.2 miles in the UK (http://www.hillrunner.org.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=218855)
Snowdonia Marathon, one of the UK’s most iconic and toughest marathons

Those are just a few UK entries - it gets even worse when you start including the rest of the world.  So as a comparision tool I was interested to see this tool, initially posted on the Centurion Running website: http://climbers.net/race/compare.php?id=7.8.37.59.65

There are not a huge amount of races in there but it does give the ability to compare a race you have done (SDW100) with lots of famous races that you haven't (Leadville, Hardrock, etc)

Whilst we are on the subject of hardest there are so may different conditions that can make an easy race hard and a hard race just bonkers - this years SDW50 springs to mind.

Influencing factors:
Weather - Rain, wind, snow, sun, etc.  Give me a cold day to run any day off the week - not enjoying this "hot" weather at all.
Terrain - muddy, standing water, chalk, download, moors, single track, road, Hills (the style of hill too, I find a long slow climb and lot easier than a straight up mountain. Although steps (see The Picnic) aren't killers both up and down).
Time of Day - most are early morning starts, but some over over lunch time - much prefer the early mornings.
Number of competitors - lots at the start can lead to bottle necks but a long line of runners strung out gives an incentive to try and reel in another competitor
Navigation - Good course markings versus self navigation.
And so on...I could go on

So it can be difficult to compare one race with another - the factors I have started to use is my time compared to the winner (as a percentage) and my position in the total number of finishers. That way I can gauge how well I have done and not worry too much about the time.

But I think the biggest impact on how hard a race is (and I am going to come across all american here) is mental attitude.

My toughest race was the Clarendon Way - not particular hilly or "tough" but I came at as a novice marathon runner thinking I knew what to do and I did not give the route the respect it deserved. I suffered for it big time, struggling from mile 15 onward.   It felt a very long run and when it started raining it felt even longer.

But if I was to design my own toughest race, it would start at 3pm, have Badwater heat, followed by hail stones, it would by run (mostly downhill) on chalk download, with slick mud on top of flint, confusing waymarkings and a field of 50,000 runners.

I think labels are labels, you prepare for and run what is in front of you, but it is nice to have the T-shirt.