Differences in Race Paces

lporter229

I was watching the NYC Marathon this weekend and there was a discussion about Geoffrey Kamworor's half marathon world record of 58:01 and it got me thinking about how little difference there really is in race paces among elite athletes. I was curious, so I looked it up. The men's paces are (if my math is correct):

5K-4:11 min/mile
10K-4:18 min/mile (5K+7 seconds/mile)
Half marathon- 4:26 min/mile (5K+15 seconds/mile)
Marathon-4:37 min/mile (5K+26 seconds per mile)

Aside from how fats they are, it is mind blowing to me that there is only 26 seconds per mile difference in the 5K world record vs. the marathon.


For me, my 10K PR pace is 5K+21 seconds, HM is 5K+34 seconds and marathon is 5K+ 1 minute and 17 seconds. There is almost as much difference between my 5K and 10K paces than there is between the 5K and marathon world records! I guess it comes does to training specificity and just fine tuning your craft.

How about you? How much difference is there in your fastest race paces?

dewd2

Part of the discrepancy I believe is not understanding how to race each distance. Pros know how hard to push. Us mere mortals struggle with it. I'm convinced I could run a 5k faster if I understood how. That only comes with practice and perhaps expert coaching.

My 10k is 5k+ 34 seconds but my HM is 5K+49 seconds. Certainly one of those is off. Marathon is the hardest for me. I should be faster but I'm not (I have had many 20 mile runs way faster than my fastest marathon pace). It is currently 5k+ 1:52. I plan to do something about this on Sunday.

lporter229

dewd2 wrote: »

Part of the discrepancy I believe is not understanding how to race each distance. Pros know how hard to push. Us mere mortals struggle with it. I'm convinced I could run a 5k faster if I understood how. That only comes with practice and perhaps expert coaching.

My 10k is 5k+ 34 seconds but my HM is 5K+49 seconds. Certainly one of those is off. Marathon is the hardest for me. I should be faster but I'm not (I have had many 20 mile runs way faster than my fastest marathon pace). It is currently 5k+ 1:52. I plan to do something about this on Sunday.

Good luck! What are you racing?

Thanks for sharing your stats. I don't know why I find this so interesting, but I do. Interesting that both of us have the least amount of time difference between the 10k and half marathon. If anything, I would have expected this jump to be the biggest because, for most of us, lactate threshold is going to fall into that zone.

dewd2

Success! It is now 5k+1:51

I was good until mile 21 when the wheels fell off. I did not have the fitness to do it after an injury caused me to miss much of my training. I'm still convinced I can do much better. Maybe it is unrealistic but I will keep on trying.

dewd2

I just plugged my marathon time in to several sites. Here's what the algorithms say I should be running a 5k (based on my marathon time from yesterday):

Runners World: Your predicted 5k time is 24:10 With a pace of 7:47/mile or 4:50/km

McMillan: 5000m 23:48 7:40

VDOT (Daniels): 5K 00:24:23 07:51 04:53

These are so far off it is laughable. McMillan is closest but still misses my recent times by 2 minutes. So either they are all wrong or my marathon effort is subpar. I'm thinking it is a little of both.