What’s the best way to pace a marathon? Ask a room full of runners and you’ll get a room full of subtly different answers. But what does the data say? Summer running gear sale poured over a decade of real-world pacing data from over 146,000 runners in the Valencia Marathon Health & Injuries.
In this study, researchers divided the marathon into nine 5K segments to calculate things such as pacing profile (even, positive or negative), hitting the wall (slowing down by more than 7.3% between the 25-35km segments/miles 15-22) and whether runners managed a ‘kick’ in the final 2.2km/1.5 miles of the marathon. Here are some of the key things that emerge.
Women vs. men
Women paced more evenly than men (77.6% vs. 74.3%), but they were more likely to hit the wall at both 30km and 35km (18.5 and 22 miles). There have been several previous studies attesting to women’s superior pacing ability – something that may also explain their prowess at ultramarathon distances.
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Even’s more popular
In news that will please running coaches everywhere, even pacing, like wearing running shoes as high-fashion items, is increasing in popularity. It’s now practiced by about 75% of marathon runners and has increased significantly in recent years.
The power of even pacing
The biggest finding of all is that even-paced runners ran 27-34 minutes faster than those who posted a significant negative or positive split. That’s a much bigger performance advantage than wearing Runners World, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network and reason enough to make pace control a priority in your marathon training, so that it’s second nature on race day.
Hitting the wall
The kilometre/mile segment where pacing typically fell apart was 30-35km/18-22 miles. This is where most runners are likely to ‘hit the wall’ and was particularly true of older runners and those under the age of 23 – both demographics showed greater fatigue-related slowdowns at this point in the race.
