marathon pacing

valentine4

Hi all, sorry for yet another silly question, I'm normally pretty relaxed but I'm getting myself in knots of anxiety for the marathon on Monday.

Latest worry - my friend whom I was doing the race with ( she is on the right on my profile pic:)) is off with an injury. She has done marathons before and I was really looking foward to doing my first one with her. We generally run at different paces, I have a tendency to shoot off ( my half marathon pace is avg. 8.50, hers is about a min slower) but when we did a long run together we went a lovely steady 10.30 for the run, which was great and hopefully a more sustainable pace for the marathon.

Problem is I don' wear a watch, I tried one the other day, just a cheap one, it was out of synch with my run keeper but even at that I was still a 9.30 pace which is too fine for me for shorter distances but I can't see me still at that at mile 23...so I was thinking will I just find a 4.30 pacer and stick with him/her? or should I splash out, get a decent watch & try and stick with it?

thanks all,
valentine

jstrun

I wear a watch but even then, i plan on finding a pace bunny for my time frame that i feel I can accomplish based on my previous training. Its hard to know what your comfortable pace is without having run with a watch on your long runs (in my opinion) if you are going to be running lots more, I would invest in a good watch - I have a garmin Forunner 210 and they aren't THAT expensive ($190) and they have cheaper models too and I love it.
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- Good luck on monday...I have my first marathon Sunday this week as well...i'm going crazy with anxiety!!!

SteveTries

I LOVE my garmin, maybe too much as I tend to consult it constantly during runs, but for your goal of tracking and maintaining a consistent pace for Monday, it's perfect.
If you don't fancy splashing out on a new Forerunner 220 in case you don't take to it, it might be worth checking ebay and looking for an auction ending soon near to where you live for any old GPS watch. You can always stick it back on there after the race.
Otherwise, any running buddies who could loan you one?

DavidMartinez2

I don't think you need to go out and buy a watch for your marathon next week; you made it this long without one don't worry about it now. Find the pacer and stick with them. There is strength in numbers and running with a group keeps your mind off of what you are doing.

kristinegift

I love my Garmin, but if you haven't trained with one, don't feel pressure to get one just for your marathon. Find a pace group; do mental math to figure your own splits; bring along a time-only Timex watch or something -- whatever you feel comfortable with. But if you were planning to run with a buddy and now you're solo, a pace group might be nice so you still have some comraderie.

valentine4

thanks all! my friend is still undecided...I'm not going to splash on a watch will put that on my santa list if I'm going solo I will join a pace group and get chatting.

schmenge55

Find a pacer and ask how they pace (could be a run/walk group for example). I am guessing this is your first marathon? If so and you find the pace too easy then slow down. Seriously. The first 1/2 should feel almost ridiculously easy but you will need to energy for the next 13

valentine4

Yep first one, my friend is def out she dropped her garmin down to me earlier am going to use it and go with a pacing group. Thanks for the advice I will follow it closely tomorrow

taeliesyn

After the weird *kitten* GPS readings I saw for the Half Marathon I did about 2 months ago, I've decided a large part of my future Halfs and Fulls will be done with a pace band on my wrist. The GPS can mess up the distance, but if the course has distance flags, you can check your time against the distance and know how well you're travelling.
It won't help too much for a constant speed check, but will give you some idea.