Optimum pacing is critical to your success and is a skill you should be practicing. Most beginning distance runners think the way to run their best time is to run their guts out from the gun. Believe it or not, this run all out from the start strategy is not even practiced by "World Class Sprinters." When Carl Lewis set the World Record for 100 meters in Tokyo on August 25, 1991, it took him 5.61 seconds to run the first 50 meters and only 4.25 seconds to complete the second 50 meters, his fastest 10 meters was completed in .83 seconds and was the segment between 70 and 80 meters. In case you might think that Carl Lewis is a quirky runner, consider the fact that Leroy Burrell, who finished second and also broke the World Record ran 5.55 seconds for the first 50 meters, and 4.33 for the second 50 meters. His fastest 10 meters was between 70 and 80 meters and was completed in .84 seconds.

Commenting on his performance Carl Lewis said, "Sprinting, as you all know, is a rhythm event. If you can get into your rhythm, then you can run much better, so I just tried to set a tone early."

Running your guts out from the gun is not the best strategy in sprinting, and it is an even more disastrous strategy in distance running, where conservation and efficient use of energy are strongly related to success.

Normally when a world record is set the pace of the first half of the race is equal to the second half or slightly faster. A few examples: When Ingrid Kristiansen ran her world record for the 10000 meters in 1985 she ran her first 5000 in 15:34.6 and her second in 15:24.82 for a 30:59.42. In her 1986 record she ran 15:11.4 for the first 5000 and 15:02.41 for her second. To illustrate how even her pace was her 1000 meter splits were as follows: 3:01.2, 3:04.1, 3:04.8, 3:00.1, 3:00.1, 3:01.2, 3:03.4, 3:02.3, 2:55.3.

Francie Larieu-Smith followed the same pattern in her USA National record 10000. Her first 5000 was completed in 15:52.0 while her second 5000 took only 15:36.9 to complete. Her first mile was completed in 5:04 which was exactly the pace she averaged for the entire distance.

Said Aouita's world record 3000 fit the classic pattern perfectly with his first 1500 meters being run in 3:46.5 and his second in 3:43.0, for 7:29.5. His 1000 meters splits were 2:31.7, 2:31.6 and 2:26.2.

Haile Gebrselassie's 1998 world record in the 10,000 meters is yet another brilliant example of perfect pacing (see table below). This superb pacing has been the hallmark of his many record breaking performances. In this effort he ran near-equal halves of 13:11.7 and 13:11.05. His 1995 10,000 world record was completed with splits of 13:21.71 and 13:21.82 for 26:43.53. In his 1997 record his splits were 13:16.74 and 13:15.58 for 26:31.32.

If we review the splits for the last five 10,000-meter world records, we will see that not only have others run close to even splits, but some have run substantially faster in the second half of the race. A common characteristic of beginning runners is to run the first mile of their races faster than any later mile. There is no way to accurately determine the first and last mile splits from the data below, but it is interesting to note that in every case the last 1000 meters were run at a faster pace than the first 1000 meters.

The world record for the marathon, 2:05:42 was set by Kalid Khannouchi at the Chicago Marathon in 1999. Like the runners above, Kalid ran like a metronome recording successive 5K's of 15:18, 14:50 (30:08 10K), 14:43, 15:03 (29:46 10K), 15:01, 14:58 (29:59 10K), 14:52, and 14:35 (29:27 10K). His final 2.2K took just 6:22 giving him nearly perfectly even splits for the first and second halves of the race (1:03:07/1:02:35). You will notice the second half was 32 seconds faster than the first.

If we consider the 15 fastest marathons ever run, only three of them varied by more than 1% between the first and the second half time. The most extreme example was Steve Jone's 1:01:43 to 1:05:30 splits on the way to a 2:07:13 clocking in Chicago in 1985. This 3 minute and 47 second gap still only represents a three percentage point gap between the first and second halves of the race.

If we add the total time it took the runners to run the first halves and compare it to the time it took them to complete the second halves, for the 13 marathons for which this data is available, we find: it took 13 hours and 45 minutes to finish the first halves and 13 hours 53 minutes to finish the second halves. This leaves a difference of 8 minutes for 13 races, and an average pace strategy of 49.8% of the total time to complete the first half and 50.2% to complete the second half.

For these 13 races, the runners ran an average of 2.82 seconds per mile faster for the first halves than the second halves, suggesting that a pace error of even a few seconds can be disastrous to the final result.

If running even pace is the best strategy for setting world records, it is likely to be the best strategy for setting personal records as well. Your best pace from the gun, is the fastest pace you can maintain for the entire distance of the race.

Distance running is no less a "rhythm event" than sprinting; in order to run your best race, it is important to get in your rhythm early and let the race develop naturally. Learning to get into your rhythm so you can run your best possible pace from the start, is a valuable skill to learn.

Thoughts on Pacing for the Marathon

Optimum pacing is running the pace that brings you to the finish line in the shortest time possible for you. Accomplishing this requires using your energy resources efficiently.

The body relies on two sources of energy when running a marathon, glycogen and fat. Glycogen is the body's preferred energy source for running because it requires less oxygen to produce the same energy from glycogen as from fat. Glycogen has the added benefit that its waste products, carbon dioxide which is exhaled from the lungs and water which is eliminated as sweat, are benign. The problem with glycogen is no runner can store enough of it to complete a marathon on that energy source alone.

Fats on the other hand are a concentrated energy source and are stored in an almost unlimited supply. Since the average runner can run about 35 miles on a pound of fat, even an emaciated runner has enough stored fat to run a couple of marathons. But fat has its problems. The body requires about 15% more oxygen to produce the same amount of energy from fat as from glycogen. This means that you will need to breathe 15% more air to maintain the same pace when burning fat, instead of glycogen.

Fat has another negative aspect. When fat is the major energy source, ketones are produced as a by-product. These ketones can create an acidic environment in the cells, causing the muscles to tie-up and cease to function properly. This condition is a significant part of what is referred to as "hitting the wall" in marathoning.

Since glycogen is the most efficient energy source for running and ketones are only a problem when fat is the predominant energy source, a marathoner's best strategy is to run at the fastest pace he can maintain while utilizing enough fats for energy to stretch his glycogen stores over the full 26 miles.

There are two things to remember when selecting your racing pace:

First, because fat requires more oxygen to produce the same energy, the faster you run the more your body will be forced to rely on glycogen for its energy needs. When your running effort equals or exceeds that of your best 10K pace, your body will rely solely on glycogen for its energy needs.

Second, if you run fast enough to develop an oxygen debt, your body will be forced to produce energy anaerobically and you'll squander your glycogen stores in minimum time. This is because when oxygen is present your body can extract nineteen times more energy from a molecule of glycogen than it can when oxygen is not present. So always run aerobically.

Inexperienced marathoners usually glide through the first few miles running only a few seconds per mile slower than their best 10K pace, and then, after burning off their precious glycogen stores they struggle through the last 10 miles staggering three to five minutes per mile slower. Many of these runners could slice twenty to thirty minutes from their finishing times, and enjoy the experience more, by running the first few miles one or two minutes per mile slower.

A good strategy for avoiding blazing starts and overly painful finishes is to estimate the best pace you will be able to maintain for the entire distance and then try to run that pace for every mile. This is not too difficult to do, because as races get longer, the runner's average per mile pace slows in a predictable manner. Therefore, the best way to estimate the fastest pace you will be able to maintain for the entire marathon is to complete a 10K or a half marathon race on a similar course under similar weather conditions to those you expect in your marathon and then compare that time to a standard pace reduction chart. If you don't have access to such a chart, your coach should be able to help you in making a good estimate.

Copyright © 2001 by John Loeschhorn - Mail to:mtnrnr@pacbell.net March 2, 2001