At the 2022 New York City Marathon, Daniel Do Nascimento surged ahead at a blazing pace in the first 5K of the men’s race. By 10K, which he reached in 28:42, he was on pace to finish the marathon in 2:01:01 – which would have have been faster than Eliud Kipchoge’s Are you faster than these celebrity marathoners.
The Brazilian kept pushing his lead until the wheels started to come off just after mile 18. Stomach problems combined with excessive heat on race day forced him into a toilet a few miles beyond the first half, which he covered in 1:01:22. After he emerged back onto the course, dehydration took over and, about 10 minutes later, Do Nascimento was seen grabbing his left quad. He buckled at mile 21, where race personnel attended to him.
‘Worry more about all pre-race food and respect more adverse weather conditions in addition to using a more conservative attack strategy to lead the race,’ said Do Nascimento after the race, which clearly gave him many takeaways.
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And who can forget the heroics of Richard Lee-Wright, the man who led the 2023 London Marathon for the first few hundred metres of the race? Having earned his place among the elites with a sub-2:40 Championship qualifying time, Lee-Wright sped ahead to front the entire pack for a comical few seconds of fame – before inevitably paying the price for such a ferocious start. While Kenyan Amos Kipruto went on to win the men’s race in 2:04:39, Lee-Wright had to take his foot off the gas (while being overtaken several times) to finish in a still-impressive 3:23:08.
While most of us won’t be leading one of the Summer running gear sale anytime soon (whether in pursuit of a world record or simply for a laugh), many of us have made the same mistake of going out too fast in a race to then struggle later on. Perhaps the hype of the crowd gets you moving too fast, or pre-race butterflies push you to a quicker pace These are the world’s fastest marathon runners.
than expected. Either way, it makes for a much harder effort a few miles down the line cross-country From Runners World for Samsung marathons. Fast vs slow marathon: What happens to your body.
Use the start of the race as an icebreaker
Race time predictor and training pace calculator Running Lobos, encourages his athletes to think of the first three miles of a marathon as an ‘icebreaker’. In other words, to use the early section of the race to gauge the competition and how you’re feeling. ‘Know who is going at what pace, and if you need to stick with the pacesetters, stick with them because they know what they’re doing,’ he says.
How to tackle long run anxiety and feel confident watches and see that they’re running at race pace in the first three miles. ‘Once you get into that rhythm after three miles, you should be locked into the race, follow the game plan and try to pick it up in the second half, because the race doesn’t start until mile 20.’
Practice discipline and confidence
Andrea Grove-McDonough, the director of cross-country and track and field at the University of Toledo, likes to remind her athletes that they can’t win the race in the first 1,000m – but they can lose it.
With distances ranging from a few miles to around 12km, every kilometre counts with cross-country, especially at the top level where the competition is fierce. Often, if athletes push too hard early on, they run out of steam and fall back in the last kilometre or so. Grove-McDonough wants them to avoid that, so she emphasises that successful runners typically conserve energy and emerge stronger later in the race.
Unless a runner is clearly the class of the field, Grove-McDonough urges discipline and confidence so they can avoid the mistake of going out too fast and meet their individual goals. ‘I’ve always found that the more confident I was as an athlete and the more confident my team is in themselves, as a squad and individually, is when they know they can stick to their game plan,’ she says.
Stay in control of your nerves
Most athletes feel some level of nervousness as a race approaches. After all, you’ve put in hours of hard work to compete at your best on race day. But, it’s important to not let your nerves get the better of you.
Arcos encourages his athletes to reframe their nerves instead. ‘It’s good to be nervous, because it means that you care,’ he says, explaining that once the race starts, runners should refocus on controlling their emotions. To do so, Arcos recommends practicing visualisation for races, workouts and training runs. Picture how you want the race or run to play out, what pace you hope to move at, when to surge and how that effort should feel. Then, put that visualisation into action.
Don’t get too excited by the crowd
Big races, especially major marathons, often take place in front of thousands of people. The cheers of the crowd can lift you up, boost your morale and encourage you to pick up the pace. However, amid the rush, it’s important to run controlled through those early miles.
Despite receiving this warning ahead of time, Arcos says that he still got sucked into the buzz of the crowd in his marathon debut. At the 2016 Chicago Marathon, Race time predictor and training pace calculator cramp in his hamstring with just a few miles to go. After receiving a 25-minute massage in the medical tent, Arcos jumped back on the course and finished the race much slower than his goal time – but he did learn a valuable lesson that day.
Run your own race
A big part of the fun of racing is beating other participants to the line. But, very often, it’s a balance between pushing yourself against the competition and trusting your race plan. To help her athletes to follow their plans, Grove-McDonough encourages them to stay disciplined.
‘If someone you know is out in front of you and you don’t necessarily think they should be, or you think they are going at a pace that’s too fast, there are two scenarios. Either they are going to beat you and there’s nothing you can do, or they will come back to you,’ she says. ‘Think of it as though it’s their mistake to make.’
To illustrate this scenario, Grove-McDonough refers back to the women’s race at the 2009 NCAA Cross-Country Championships in the USA, where Jenny Simpson (then Barringer) of Colorado and Susan Kuijken of Florida State battled way up front at a blazing pace (5:02 for the first mile) through halfway. After remaining undefeated all season, Simpson crashed at the 3km mark and finished 163rd overall. Kuijken also fell back and placed third. Meanwhile, by sticking to her race plan, Angela Bizzari of Illinois ran patiently behind them early on and moved up as the race progressed to become the surprise champion that day.
Listen to your body
Grove-McDonough encourages her athletes to understand the signals their bodies are giving them as the race progresses and to know that, sometimes, ‘nerves can lie to you’. This means that your legs may feel more tired than they actually are due to adrenaline or vice versa at the start of a race.
‘It should feel like you’re slightly holding back because your adrenaline and nerves are so high, but it’ll make things feel easier than they are,’ she says. ‘It’s almost a false flag. It’s supposed to feel easy in the first mile – and then you’re going to have to trust.’
Try not to panic
If your nerves overcome you and you find yourself winded too early, it’s important to remain as calm as possible. When her athletes start to struggle, Grove-McDonough tells them to embrace the pain. ‘A tiny bit of humour can also help,’ she says. ‘Like, “This might get ugly, but now I’m just going to have to put my head down”.’
To help them stay tough through the remainder of the race, Grove-McDonough encourages her athletes to mentally break it down into manageable chunks. ‘You can do anything for three minutes,’ she notes.
Reframing the effort can also help runners to stay engaged in the race. Grove-McDonough tells her athletes to ‘give themselves a job’, whether that’s passing the runner ahead of them, staying with a pack, or closing the distance between themselves and another runner. These common instructions can help to give her athletes that winning, PB-performing edge.
