Marathon at altitude

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Glowiie1
Glowiie1 Posts: 85 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've run several marathons, but all of them have been at sea level. I also live at sea level.

There's a marathon I want to do that happens to be at about 5,000 ft. In your experience, how much slower do you run at altitude than sea level?

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  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,129 Member
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    Short answer: a LOT. When I was military I had to run 1.5 miles as part of my annual fitness test. When I was stationed in Colorado (elev. 6500), my run times were barely in the passing range. But when I'd get sent for a week of training to Florida or California (elev. sea level), I'd go for a run in the evenings and my times would be incredibly fast in comparison, at least 2 min/mile faster with less effort exerted.

    Granted, this was going from altitude to sea level, as well as only running a couple miles vs. your 26.2. But the concept should remain the same; expect your pace to drop like a stone, especially if you fly in the day of- or day before-race day and don't have time to acclimate.
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
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    Not a marathon person but I frequently go from 800' to +6000'. Big difference in minor exercises. Drink lots of water, avoid caffeine or stimulates. I remember athletes getting to altitudes as long before their events as possible to supposedly acclimate to the altitude.
  • gdyment
    gdyment Posts: 299 Member
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    ~20 seconds per mile slower going from 0 to 5000 ft.
  • sistrsprkl
    sistrsprkl Posts: 1,013 Member
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    I'm getting winded just reading this thread. I run MUCH slower at altitude, not sure how much exactly. If you really want to do it, I'd suggest cross-training with one of those new popular altitude masks.

  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,129 Member
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    I've read those altitude masks don't actually have the effect advertised. They make you work harder to inhale, but the oxygen content of the air once in your lungs remains the same, as opposed to altitude-air which has lower oxygen per breath.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited January 2016
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    I live near sea level, and did a marathon that lost 4500' of elevation along the course, but started at over 10,000' of elevation. Going by my HR and effort, it was about the same as running a flat course at sea level.
  • keelsmarks
    keelsmarks Posts: 7 Member
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    Anything at elevation is much tougher. Running hills might help and really managing your race day nutrition and hydration will help. If you can get to your race early to acclimate, that makes a difference as well
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
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    If you can get there a week earlier and do some hiking at 10,000+ feet (Assuming that you're near mountains) you'll fare much better. It takes a few days to get acclimated. A full month to get totally used to the altitude.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I don't run but I do live at 6,300 feet and cycle and thus train at altitude...I love sea level events because I'm like a super hero on two wheels.

    Unfortunately, there's really no way to prepare for it other than to train at altitude. If you can't do that, expect to be substantially slower and more labored. I'd recommend arriving to your event at least 3 days before to acclimate as well.

    We see a lot of people coming up from sea level for events and they get dizzy spells, pass out, vomit, get overly dehydrated, etc if they don't acclimate before pushing their bodies. Of course, there's also the elements here to add to the elevation...high desert...generally pretty hot when these things are going on.
  • erimethia_fekre
    erimethia_fekre Posts: 317 Member
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    The run wasn't much different for me at sea level verses high altitudes. The one thing I was grateful I did was go a few days early and get use to the environment. Deep breathing helped during my run. It's definitely not one you want to time yourself on
  • Glowiie1
    Glowiie1 Posts: 85 Member
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    Thank you for all the replies. I live a few hours from the mountains, so I think I may do a test. I'll figure out an average 5 mile time at sea level, and then do several 5 mile runs at altitude. Running for an hour should give me at least some indication of decreased performance. If I think I'll be too slow to make the cutoff time of 5:30, then I'll just do a different race.
  • glevinso
    glevinso Posts: 1,895 Member
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    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    If you can get there a week earlier and do some hiking at 10,000+ feet (Assuming that you're near mountains) you'll fare much better. It takes a few days to get acclimated. A full month to get totally used to the altitude.

    Honestly it takes many months to get acclimated. A few days isn't going to really help. I lived in Denver for a time and it took me at least 6 months before I felt like I could run my normal paces again. I was easily a minute to a minute and a half per mile slower for the same heart rate than I was at sea level.

    For what it's worth I moved back to sea level and then did my first Ironman at Lake Tahoe which is at 6000ft. Let's just say lack of oxygen was a major factor in my poorer-than-expected performance.
  • Glowiie1
    Glowiie1 Posts: 85 Member
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    That's what I was looking for. One of you said you're 20 sec slower per mile, and another said 1-1.5 minutes slower per mile.

    I need to average 12:35 min/mil pace to finish. If I train to 10 min/mile at sea level, perhaps I can even finish with a few minutes of buffer time! I'm not gonna try to PR, but I'd prefer not to have the stress about finishing before the cutoff lol.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
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    glevinso wrote: »
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    If you can get there a week earlier and do some hiking at 10,000+ feet (Assuming that you're near mountains) you'll fare much better. It takes a few days to get acclimated. A full month to get totally used to the altitude.

    Honestly it takes many months to get acclimated. A few days isn't going to really help. I lived in Denver for a time and it took me at least 6 months before I felt like I could run my normal paces again. I was easily a minute to a minute and a half per mile slower for the same heart rate than I was at sea level.

    For what it's worth I moved back to sea level and then did my first Ironman at Lake Tahoe which is at 6000ft. Let's just say lack of oxygen was a major factor in my poorer-than-expected performance.

    I haven't tried a full marathon but I did some 6 - 8 mile runs at 5500 - 6000 feet and it didn't feel too much worse than running the typical 570 feet elevation that I live at. Granted I had been there for about a week to do some 14,000+ climbs and we were camping at nearly 9k feet. I really do think that made a difference.

    I talked to a couple local runners that were doing trail runs at 9,000 - 12,000 feet and they indicated that this made a huge difference in their race times at the 5k - 6k foot range. I'm sure it does take a lot of time to get totally used to it. I was just saying that given the little time you have before a race to get acclimated you can maximize your results doing stuff at a much higher altitude than you race at.
  • Glowiie1
    Glowiie1 Posts: 85 Member
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    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    I haven't tried a full marathon but I did some 6 - 8 mile runs at 5500 - 6000 feet and it didn't feel too much worse than running the typical 570 feet elevation that I live at. Granted I had been there for about a week to do some 14,000+ climbs and we were camping at nearly 9k feet. I really do think that made a difference.

    I talked to a couple local runners that were doing trail runs at 9,000 - 12,000 feet and they indicated that this made a huge difference in their race times at the 5k - 6k foot range. I'm sure it does take a lot of time to get totally used to it. I was just saying that given the little time you have before a race to get acclimated you can maximize your results doing stuff at a much higher altitude than you race at.

    I understand what you mean. One time, I was about 2/3 of the way through another marathon training program, and I went to Denver for 4 days to go to the Great American Beer Fest (you know, carb loading! ;)). Anyway, I obviously didn't run while out there, but the day I got back, I did a 10 mile race. I crushed my PR by about 10 minutes, and I was barely sweating. It was like something straight out of a bad infomercial lol. Not sure if it was the beer, 4 days of rest, or spending a few days at altitude, but something about that weekend was magical!

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