Winter is Coming
This January, join Trials of Miles for the world’s most competetive virtual racing tournament: Beat the Heat.
Over the course of four weeks, runners will battle it out in small heats, racing different distances each week, with the goal of beating their competition and advancing to the next round.
Four weeks. Four rounds. The only way forward? Beat the heat.
How Beat the Heat Works…
Round 1
In Round 1 all runners will randomly grouped into small heats (10-20 people) and must complete a 5k at some point during the week long competition window.
The 5k can be run on a track or a course that meets specific guidelines (outlined below). The fastest runners in each heat will advance, while those with slower times will be eliminated.
Rounds 2 & 3
The same format applies in Rounds 2 and 3. Each week, new heats will be created from the runners who advanced. These heats will be seeded based on times from the previous round, ensuring more competitive grouping as the competition progresses. In Round 2 runners will compete a 2k and Round 3 a 6k.
Round 4
In Round 4, the remaining runners will compete a 3200m race on a track. The male and female runners who post the fastest time in this final round will each take home our grand prize of $1,000.
hear Dave & Cooper chat more about the format…
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Who is eligible to compete?
Anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as you have GPS-enabled watch or phone. If you make it to the final round and wish to be eligible for the prize money, there are a few additional requirements. For this final round you’ll need to: a) make sure you have access to a regulation 400m outdoor (or 200m indoor) track, and b) have someone with you on the track who can record your run with a camera or phone.
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What are the prizes?
The top three in both the men’s and women’s brackets will win cash prizes: $1,000 / $500 / $250.
We will also be giving a $400 prize to the male/female Masters Runners (40+ on January 6) that makes it the furthest in their respective competition. In the event that multiple masters are remaining in the final round (or earlier round), the winner will be determined based on fastest time in that round.
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Will there be any BTH Meet Ups?
Yes! We're working on round one meetups in cities like New York and San Francisco, and we’re open to adding more locations based on interest. If we see a high concentration of competitors in a specific area, we’ll work to set up additional meetups to bring the local Beat the Heat community together. During registration, you’ll be asked to share your city/state, which will help us plan these meetups.
Rules & Regulations
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Participants are REQUIRED to record their runs with a GPS watch (or phone) and must adhere to the following rules for their submissions:
The elapsed time and moving time should be equal (changing your activity to “race” will show your elapsed time for the run). This means you started your watch at the start of your race effort and finished the run at the end of your race effort.
The race submission should only include the “race” and not any warm ups, cool downs, or parts of a longer run. [Note: If you made a mistake and included a cool down or warm up in your submission, please indicate that in the google submission form. We will not parse out where the submission started and finished unless you provide us with information on where the “race” started and ended and what the estimated submission time should be.]
The Strava or Garmin activity should be made public before you submit the link. (If it’s private we won’t be able to access the link you share.)
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Virtual racing isn't perfect— GPS readings are sometimes wonky and distances can be a bit off. We understand that these things happen, so if you experience any issues, please clarify that when you make your submission. You can either send us an email or explain the situation in the designated Google form. Generally speaking, we’re almost always willing to work with you to find the correct time and will give you the benefit of the doubt.
In early rounds, if we see two (or more) participants with extremely close finish times who are close to a cutoff time in their heat, we’ll usually err on the side of fairness, giving all participants the opportunity to advance.
All of that being said, maintaining the integrity of this competition is paramount. We will review every single submission that comes in and we suspect foul play or dishonest reporting, we reserve the right to disqualify anyone involved. Please remember that fast submissions generally get a lot of attention, and if there's any suspicious activity, it’s extremely unlikely that it will slip through the cracks.
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As soon as you send in your time (by filling out the google form) your time is final and it will go up on the leaderboard. If you think you may attempt the segment again DO NOT submit.
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There are no rules or restrictions surrounding who you do your runs with. You are more than welcome to recruit pacers for any and all rounds (including the final round).
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In the first three rounds your race submission can be run on a track or a course of your choosing. However if you are not running on a track, the following guidelines must be followed in order for the submission to count.
Runners should be starting and finishing their “race” in close proximity to the same point. Point to point efforts will not be accepted. (There is no exact requirement in terms of how many feet away the start/finish must be from each other, as long as we believe you are not making an effort to take advantage of wind or elevation loss.)
The total net elevation loss of the submission may not exceed 50 feet. (To clarify you can have more than 50 feet of elevation loss in the run as long as it is offset by elevation gain. What matters is the net total.)
If your whole run is completed on a loop, the loop you are using cannot be shorter than 400m. When the loop is smaller than a regulation track the GPS is too unreliable.
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In the final round, for purposes of standardization all 3200m submissions must be completed on a regulation 400m track (or 200m regulation indoor track). Please plan ahead if you expect to be competing in the final round for the top prize.
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In order to be eligible for prizes, in the final round, in addition to recording your run with GPS (on a track) you will be required to have someone present with you on the track who can record your run with a phone or camera. We will not send prize money to any runners unless we have been able to see these two forms of verification of the round four run!