You’ve just finished your first half marathon 10 Threshold Workouts to Build Speed Endurance target paces botch your pace Summer Running Gear The RW Guide to Mastering the Marathon.
Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. It’s all too easy to Get Better at Pacing on a race distance you’ve never run before or haven’t mastered just yet. Knowing how to properly pace yourself is an acquired skill that comes with a lot of trial and error. It may take multiple attempts to run that perfectly paced marathon, or half, or even 5K.
And sometimes, even when you had the best-laid plans, factors like weather or lack of sleep from prerace jitters can come into play and You shouldn’t fear messing up your pacing in a race, especially during a USATF Level 3 run coach and owner of.
While it’s completely normal to make pacing mistakes during your first race, we perfectionist runners would ideally love to avoid doing so in the first place. To help you avoid these pitfalls and run your best race yet, we chatted with two run coaches for their tips. Here’s what they had to say.
Why is properly pacing yourself so tough—and what’s the secret to getting it right?
Pacing yourself during a race of a distance you’ve never run before is inherently difficult because there’s a level of uncertainty when doing something for the first time, according to Nutrition - Weight Loss., a USATF Level 3 run coach and owner of in your game plan.
“Think about it: You’re trying to reach a finish line you can’t even see in the least time possible by continuously asking yourself, ‘Does this feel like an effort I can sustain the rest of the way?’ That’s hard,” adds run coach Matt Fitzgerald, author of Threshold Workouts to Build Speed Endurance.
In the same way a toddler can’t effectively comprehend the timeframe of their birthday being six months away, it makes sense that it’s challenging for an adult to understand how to pace an abstract distance like 10 kilometers if they have no reference point, Fitzgerald explains.
So, what’s the secret to pacing yourself properly? “To increase your chances at a successful debut, go into the race with the mindset that this is a trial run to build experience for the future, rather than a race to crush from the get-go,” Medina says. “Be flexible with your plan and be conservative when setting your goals.”
The first step in establishing a pacing plan for a race is to determine what can be achieved with your current fitness level, Medina explains. “Use your data to review your training with your coach and set a goal,” he says.
On a flat course, your pacing plan may be as simple as starting slightly slower than or at your goal pace, cruising at that pace, then kicking it toward the end, Medina continues. On a hilly course, it’s most beneficial to let the pace fluctuate along with the ups and downs.
“If you’re planning on racing on a hilly course, make sure to take that into consideration in your training and incorporate tempos with similar hills so you can practice averaging your goal pace over a certain distance or duration rather than running it steadily. Practice makes perfect,” Medina says.
Additionally, research has shown that steadiness is the hallmark characteristic of effective pacing, according to Fitzgerald. But it’s not a steady pace, per se, that you’re going for, he says—it’s a steady work rate, which can be measured in power output (watts) or energy expenditure (calories and/or oxygen consumption).
“On a smooth, flat course with few turns and no wind, a steady work rate will equal a steady pace,” Fitzgerald says. “But when variables such as hills are thrown in, runners need to vary their pace to maintain a steady work rate.”
Ultimately, though, effective pacing is done by feel, according to Fitzgerald. That’s because the limit to endurance running performance is based on our perceptions. “Except when we’re sprinting to the finish line, we’re never running as hard as we can in races, which means we’re never encountering our physical limits,” he says. “We’re always consciously holding back a little, and we do this by continuously tuning our effort so that it feels sustainable for the remaining distance, but just barely.”
Research has shown that experienced athletes perform equally well in time trials done with and without performance data—proof that expert pacing is done by feel, Fitzgerald points out. That being said, objective performance metrics, like pace, play a role in gauging our perceptions. “By comparing performance data to subjective perceptions of effort, runners learn how to use real-time performance feedback as a guide to their pacing, but perceptions should always get the final say,” he says.
Tips for Pacing a 5K and 10K
In general, you should start shorter races, like a 5K or 10K, pretty much right on target pace, Medina says. This is because there isn’t much distance to make up time.
For a 5K specifically, you can “go fast for the first mile, slow a tad for the second one, and hold on for dear life with what you’ve got left on the third mile,” Adolfo Salgueiro, an RRCA level II-certified run coach, previously told Runner’s World.
At the elite level, this gentle U-shaped pacing pattern Salgueiro is referring to above is often seen at the 5K and 10K distances, where the first and last parts of the race are slightly faster than the middle part, Fitzgerald says.
If you don’t want to go out too fast at the start of your 5K, you also have the option to run the first mile at a slower pace, level it up a notch for the second mile, and give it everything you’ve got in the final mile, according to Salgueiro.
For a 10K, you can also run the first four miles at a steady pace, then kick it into your highest gear for the last two miles, Runner’s World has previously reported.
Tips for Pacing a Half Marathon and Marathon
Longer events, like half marathons and marathons, offer more flexibility allowing you to ease into your race, so you can start out slower, according to Medina. “A perfectly steady pacing pattern or a very slight negative split, where the last part of the race is the fastest, tends to result in the best outcomes,” Fitzgerald adds.
However, a negative split might not be realistic for marathoners completing the 26.2-mile distance in five hours or longer due to the duration of time on their feet, Fitzgerald says. The best pacing strategy for runners in this category might be to minimize the amount of time lost to involuntary slowing over the last several miles, which is what elite ultrarunners aim to do in events lasting five hours or more.
Breaking your total race distance into smaller chunks can help you figure out when exactly to speed up, Runner’s World previously reported. For example, a half marathon is a little more than four 5Ks. And you can split a marathon into the first 10 miles, the second 10 miles, and the final 10K (called the 10/10/10 method). Once you hit each of these checkpoints, check in with yourself to see how you feel and if you can up your pace.
The Bottom Line
You shouldn’t fear messing up your pacing in a race, especially during new distances you’ve never run before—that’s how you learn. “There’s no better stepping stone to perfect pacing than imperfect pacing,” Fitzgerald says.
Once you’ve finished your race, reflect on what you nailed and what you feel you could’ve done better. Use this info to inform the plan for your next race of that distance to avoid making the same mistakes
Danielle Zickl is a freelance writer who has 10 years of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition. She's a graduate of Ithaca College. You can find her work here on Women's Health, and in many other publications including PS, SELF, Well+Good, Runner’s World, Outside RUN, Peloton, Men’s Fitness, and more.
