Ran Miami yesterday and in spite of a groin strain the last 2 weeks was only 6 minutes over my original goal time of 3:30 and 4 minutes under my adjusted for groin strain goal of 3:40. Felt like I paced it well but in typical woulda, coulda, shoulda fashion was curious how it would have turned out if I went a little harder earlier as I definitely had a lot left for the finish, splits are below with corresponding HR’s (not that I looked at HR during the race but in case it helps, I am 39 yrs old). Any thoughts from experienced marathoners on if there was no groin strain in the equation how I may have paced it differently or is this about right either way? Don’t get me wrong, happy with the race just wanting to learn for next time…
Mile 1-3 8:30 pace HR 143
Mile 4-6 8:13 pace HR 147
Mile 7-9 8:18 pace HR 146 (bathroom stop here)
Mile 10-12 8:16 pace HR 148
Mile 13-15 8:10 pace HR 148
Mile 16-18 8:21 pace HR 148
Mile 19 8:06 HR 153
Mile 20 7:58 HR 156
Mile 21 8:03 HR 156
Mile 22 8:07 HR 156
Mile 23 7:55 HR 156
Mile 24 7:59 HR 155
Mile 25 7:45 HR 161
Mile 26 7:29 HR 164
Last .2 at 6:45 pace HR 168
All I can say is savor every marathon where you have a strong finish. They don’t happen often in my experience. I think it’s a much better experience to finish one with something left in the tank than to run out of gas with miles to go. Every time I have ever banked a minute or two early, I have paid for it with several minutes on the tail end where I was reduced to a shuffle or walk.
That looks like a beautifully paced race to me. Congrats.
Next time you’ll go out a little faster and likely crash at the end. You might run a faster time, but you’ll feel a lot worse, and you’ll be back here with your splits asking if you cost yourself a few more minutes by going out too fast. Ain’t running great?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?
Not bad. You could have gone out a little harder earlier, and probably should have started pushing a bit more in the last 8. Overall, not a bad race and certainly better to err on th eside of going out too slow rather than too hard. Your overall pace was 8:14/mile. Those 8:30s are the only ones that were really far off of that in the beginning.
was going by pace, went a little extra ez the first 3 to let the groin warm up…the other 5k splits I was shooting for 8:15 and then once I got to mile 18 i started shooting for 8:00’s or just under with the last 2 just giving what I had left…I hear you on the strong finish, with half irons or longer it seems every time try to race instead of staying controlled it is a crapshoot as to the outcome…
Beat the goal by 4 min = great race. Hard to know how going out faster would have affected the overall result. Especially with recovering from the groin strain, you did the right thing in going out slow. Feels great to finish a race strong. Feels lousy to straggle in. If you would have gone out 10-20 seconds/mile too fast and blown-up you would have lost minutes/mile at the end.