Fluke?

[SkiMonday]

It amazes me to hear of pacers at events who run the course in a specified time. How do they do that?

Anyhow, I set off today to do an HM in around 2:20. It felt harder than I'd intended and I misread my watch so thought I'd finish in 2:30. After I'd finished, the time was 2:18. Starting to think that there might be more to "perceived effort" than I'm aware of.

[Tasha99 Marathon]

I think that when it’s pacers week at parkrun when there are usual pacers from about 17 minutes through 35. Sometimes I think I’d like to pace but I’m absolutely terrible at it 🤣 And that’s only 5k. Well done on your half 💪🏽

[Windoze Half Marathon]

Well done on your HM Ski! I love a bit of pace work. I'm not constantly looking at the watch but its about feeling the pace and staying within the feel of it...like this

Pace

[AlMorr Half Marathon]

If you want to know more about the role of a pacer at a event race such as 10K, half or full marathon, there are some excellent articles about them if you Google "pace maker at event runs"

[Cmoi Marathon]

Nice HM SkiMonday ! 👍 I have absolutely no idea how people can run at a consistent pace, and tbh I'm not sure I want to try. Though I suppose if I had a running watch it might help! 🤣

[misswobble Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

Yeah, I’d assumed they set the pace on their watch.

Enjoy your running! 😃. When you’re running the trail on all kinds of varying the terrains, pace is the last thing you worry about. Not face planting is usually my main focus 🤕

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to misswobble]

"Not face planting" - so much this! 🤗

[misswobble Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

😃👍. Watching you foot placement, keeping eyes everywhere takes most of your attention Fun though 😃

[cheekychipmunks Half Marathon]

No clue how they do it SM, except to say that was a great HM! Well done. 😀🏃‍♂️🎉

[Irishprincess Administrator Half Marathon]

I assume they do it by their watches and they probably practice. I’m still rubbish at pacing but I think you have to focus on it. The few times I’ve made an effort it’s not been too bad but mostly I forget about it.

Nice work on the HM! 👍

[Decker Ultramarathon]

Nice HM SM! Yeah, the pacers I’ve followed are constantly checking their pace averages on their watch to align with their pace goals for the times they need to achieve.

[SkiMonday Ultramarathon]

Having read up on it, it seems that pacers use perceived effort, tables of times for distance markers and GPS. As one of them wrote, you can't rely totally on GPS because it sometimes goes wrong.

In my case, it was perceived effort. I've run that route a few times so I know what to expect but it still surprises me that perceived effort can be that accurate.