I'm a writer at heart and love running as a sport. So many people write about their running, but this is one of the best I've found recently. I have run races with running pacers, but I've never seen cyclist pacers before. Is that a new thing?
https://beersandmiles.com/2019/12/03/columbus/
My legs were burning. I was struggling to keep my form in check. Just then another bike came right by me. Jeff, who I paced at the Cap City Half Marathon was returning the favor. I kept my head up and made the push for home. As the crowd started getting bigger my legs started feeling lighter. A 5:56 25th mile became a 5:25 26th mile. I bolted past the three, 13th, 12th, 11th. I didn’t see anyone else ahead of me. It was my position to lose and I’d be damned if I lost it in the last quarter mile of this race. I ran my ass off for the last .2, bringing it down even faster to 5:05 pace.
The blogger finished 6th at the Columbus Marathon in 2019 (2:30) and also was the fastest Ohioan for the last in-person Boston Marathon (2:34). It's a good look into how a sub-2:30 runner lives trains and races.
He's apparently a Formula One racing fan too. This is a great little nugget:
In what I could only assume was a state of delusion I began to think the current state of my race as a Formula 1 strategy. I was on a hard tire strategy. We’d be pitting later and be switching to soft tires at mile 22 to run down the stragglers.
It's a very interesting blog and full of tidbits about racing at the highest level.