I just need to focus on that and not let other things psych me out. And I bet most of you have too. Pacers do this to allow other … Change your well-thought-out goal to a new, faster one, based on the fact that you “feel good today.”. That is exactly what happened in my last half marathon. Great timing on this post! The thing is, I’ve run faster times than the one he won with before. Thanks, Matt! Such an important lesson and I will be sticking with holding back on the front end going forward. I think the way the say it in the book is that if at the half-way point you’re more than 2 minutes ahead of your planned pace, you’ve blown your marathon. It certainly helps if that runner (pacemaker) is incentivized by race organizers to serve other runners predictably; otherwise it is just a competitor, or worse, a potential conspirator of a competitor. But how long does it take the average runner to run 26.2 miles? Do you go off fast at the start and "bank" some time? Pick a time that matters to you, and that you think you’re capable of, and just stick to it. I have a marathon on Saturday and it’s always good for me to think about pace and my ultimate goal. Also bare in mind that this is a qualifying race for comrades Marathon. I flied, I died and that was that. 13 Rules for Marathon Training. Great advice though – only wished you had posted it on Saturday . Your preparations will challenge you on both physical and mental planes, the likes of which you have never experienced. It made for an interesting race of calculations but I crossed the line in 1:29:53. On my last 2k test (a 2000 meter test on a rowing machine, it’s a really commonly used measure of athletic ability in the rowing community) this is EXACTLY the mistake I made. Thank you so much! As the official 1:30 pacemaker for the race, accurate timekeeping was essential – so the stopped stopwatch presented a real and urgent problem for me. Thanks for this post!! In fact the CIM specifically has pace groups for Boston qualifying times: From their website: “CIM pace group times are aligned with the new 2020 Boston Marathon Qualifying times. But the elite runner who follows him benefits by not having to calculate his pace during the first half of the race. As I crossed the start line of the Oxford half marathon earlier this month and hit the "go" button on my Timex GPS, the words "Searching for satellites" stared back at me from the grey readout on my wrist. Starting off slowly and building up so your second half is quicker than the first is known as a negative split. I love everything about this BLOG! George Anderson is a running coach, author, presenter and program creator at intelligentrunning.com. Chivvying along the runners with shouts of encouragement and regular progress updates can make the difference between a disastrous disappointment and a spectacular success. So we’re saying your true ability on a given day is a 3:28, but you don’t know it. Thank you Between 1986 and 2001, the average marathon finish time went from 3:52:35 to 4:28:56 - an increase of 15.6%. Do you play it safe, or always push it no matter what you decided going into the race? Is running even splits throughout the race a sensible strategy and how do you factor in changes in gradient? Had I ran my race, I may have won – but maybe not, of course. The average marathon female finish time in the UK is 5:00:39. I have a 42km marathon this weekend my 1st which I believe is fairly flat . Were you tracking me on race day? I love running and have run for 7 years even doing 21km half marathons in 1h.52mins having gone to fast in the beginning . On the finish line, the stumbling, zombified mass of elated runners thrusting hands out for shaking or offering full body sweaty bear hugs are evidence of how important a role these pacers play. We went way faster than goal pace and kept slowing down and slowing down until we crawled over the finish line. I didn’t process exactly how it went wrong but this post pretty much hit the nail on the head. Holding a metronomic pace and evening out the classic early adrenaline-fuelled enthusiasm for a fast start is just one part of the job. So what's the secret to perfect pacing? As the official 1:30 pacemaker for the race, accurate timekeeping was essential – so the stopped stopwatch presented a real and urgent problem for me. I’ve done this both times I ran using the Furman plan and BQ’d both times. At the mile marker, I realized I had run the fastest mile of my life – which was pretty cool. C. I think there is a similar problem that many run in to. Info: readinghalfmarathon.com, George Anderson from Intelligent Running reveals the secrets behind helping fellow runners achieve those all-important race personal bests, Don't forget to tip the pacemaker … runners finishing a marathon in the US Photograph: Alamy. I knew that lots of runners were relying on me to take some of the pressure off their own race, and there I was having a kit malfunction. You go in to a race, with a person or people as targets, more so than any specific time.