Constant pace vs constant effort while racing?

LiftAllThePizzas

Just curious, is there a consensus (or reason behind) either keeping a constant pace or a constant effort? For example if you're doing a 2 mile race that is 1 mile uphill followed by 1 mile downhill, should your splits be equal, should you try to keep the same amount of effort, or something between the two?

WhatMeRunning

Just my opinion, but constant pace makes little sense to me. Don't burn all your energy going uphill and let gravity help going downhill and open it up some to make up for the slower uphill pace.

The 2:40+ half marathon pacing groups I have run with all walked through aid stations and would "leapfrog" long hills, meaning walk part of the hill then run part to save some energy. Others have different strategies.

ThickMcRunFast

Different reasons to do either. For a flat marathon, a constant pace is probably better (though a negative split is ideal). At some point, maintaining that pace will naturally involve more effort.

But for hills I go on effort. For a long run, i really want my effort to be something like 70-80% of max. If I try to maintain pace up a long hill, I might have to move to 85 or 90% of max. That's not working the desired muscle systems at that point. Its like suddenly making a long run into a sprint workout.