thewinthatwas wrote:
Just finished a half marathon training run and finished right under 1:30 without really thinking about it. Was not looking at my splits but there was a hard negative split. The last 5 miles were about 6:25 pace and the last mile was about 6 flat.
For someone who is just barely in 1:30 half marathon shape would this run be significantly harder than even splitting 6:52 miles?
Yes, they probably don't have the leg speed to drop the pace like that in the back half. Someone who is a 1:30:00 half marathoner might run a 19:30 (6:20ish) 5k & a 40:30 (6:30ish) 10k. They're not gonna average their 8k pace for the last 8k after running plenty hard before then.
Most, if not all, really fast half marathons come from evenly paced races. Maybe some slight negative splits but nothing like the last mile being 1:00 faster than the first mile.