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? A huge new study poured over a decade of real-world pacing data from over 146,000 runners in the Valencia Marathon in an attempt to draw some conclusions.
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 carbon plate running shoes 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.
