Epic Race/Playing With

Basic Trope: A race so long that just covering the distance is considered an accomplishment.

Straight: Alice and Bob are entrants in a fifty-mile footrace.
Exaggerated: Alice and Bob are entrants in a five-hundred-mile footrace.
Downplayed: Alice and Bob are entrants in a marathon.
Justified: ???
Inverted: Alice and Bob are entrants in a hundred-meter dash.
Subverted: Alice and Bob enter a marathon -- as a training run for an upcoming fifty-miler.
Double Subverted: ...but the marathon takes place on a difficult mountain trail course.
Parodied: Alice and Bob enter a five-kilometer race, but they're so out of shape that none of their friends know if they can finish.
Zig Zagged: ???
Averted: The race is rained out.
Enforced: The episode is intended to deliver An Aesop on persistence.
Lampshaded: "Wow -- I don't know if I could run a mile."
Invoked: The race is advertised as "so hard, only 30% of entrants finish!"
Exploited: Bob was bragging to Alice about how fast he is, so when he challenges her to a race, she picks one where endurance matters more than raw speed.
Defied: ???
Discussed: ???
Conversed: ???