NYC Marathon – pacing strategy
A week from today I’ll be already in New York , hotel checked into and if everything goes well collected my race pack. New York will be my second marathon and I’m getting incredibly nervous. I think it’s totally normal but still worrying about the smallest things. It’s my first overseas marathon, how will I recover about the time difference, will I find my way around New York and specially to the start?
I’m trying to be positive and keep myself calm, but it’s hard.
Today’s post will be about my pacing strategy. I started my training sometime around may, a few weeks after the London marathon. Luckily this time my training went really well, no slips or falls, and specially not a torn ankle ligament.
I followed almost the same plan I had for London. Downloaded an app called ” My Asics ” and was following that throughout the training. Usually I done my runs on Wednesday, thursday, saturday and the long runs on sunday.
As i said I do feel my training went well. Had a few trial races and I managed to do it in my expected time. As you all know now I’m not the fastest but I’m slowly getting there.
- Basingstoke Half Marathon: 2:43:45
- Great South Run – 10 miles : 2:04:27
A few weeks ago I’ve seen something awesome on one of the running groups on Facebook. There’s a company ( Races2Remember ) in Kansas City, USA who makes loads of different personalised items for runners and supporters
First I have ordered a ‘ name bib ‘ . At least with wearing this I won’t need to get a personalised t-shirt which can be much more expensive. I do think it looks awesome as well. Arrived to the UK in 7 days, so I think it’s a really fast shipping service.
After this arrived I came across their ‘ smart pace bands ‘. These are totally custom-made and the splits are following your estimated finish time, and also I was able to select the New York course.
First I had to select my ” pacing strategy” , I choose the ” warm up” option.
Our Warm Up strategy starts out 60 seconds slow the first mile, 30 seconds for mile 2, 15 seconds for mile 3, goal pace for mile 4, and then settles into a faster than average pace until mile 20 to make up time and build a modest cushion for the end.
Then I choose my course ( New York ) and they adjust the pace accordingly.
For each course, we carefully review the elevation and make adjustments for the terrain. We will consider how big the hills are, how steep, whether a mile is all up, all down or a mixture, and whether the hills early or late. It is a mix of art and science.
Typically, we suggest 5-10 seconds for a 50-75ft climb over a mile and 10-30 seconds for 100-150 feet. We start with the uphills and then find where to make time back up – starting with obvious downhills.
Finally I had to tell them my estimated finish time, a set of 3 pace band cost me $7.50 plus postage to the UK. I don’t think that’s expensive at all.
Also I choose a funny quote what will keep me going for 26.2 miles.
This one arrived in 7 days as well, so really please with the shipping time. They also offered me to post it to my hotel just in case it’s not arrived to England.
So back to my pacing strategy lol.
The pace bands I ordered are: 5:25 and 5:35 and 5:45
As I said my training went really well, so feeling really positive about my chosen finish times.
I would love to finish around the 5hr 35mins mark, which I think is totally achievable according to my training. I’ve chosen the 5hr 25mins just incase I’ll smash the course , and being under 5:30 would be great. If I struggle on race day I will try to follow the 5hr 45mins pace and I still be happy with that.
The fastest pace is 1 minute faster than my last half marathon ( Basingstoke ) and the other 2 is 5-8 mins slower. So all should be totally okay for the race.
I also love the fact that I was able to choose to have mines in KMs and not in miles.
But to be honest I’ll be happy with any time as long as I finish the race and if everything goes well I can get a new PB. The London marathon was slow and painful due to my ankle injury so fingers crossed NY will go better.
Love,
