NYC Marathon Question

Forget about a time goal, run easy and enjoy the day. If you try to run a 3:30, there is a good chance you will be completely dead at mi 20 and walk/jogging for the next hr in terrible pain. You are fit enough to finish, but with so few long runs, you just don't have the glycogen stores to try to go for a time. Also, there are some tough hills on the bridges in NY and in Central Park. Do as much mileage the next to weeks as you can without getting injured. Don't worry about speed work.

NY is a really fun marathon. Just enjoy the ride. If you take it easy, you should be able to finish under 4 hrs and in one piece.

John Smallberries wrote:

Forget about a time goal, run easy and enjoy the day. If you try to run a 3:30, there is a good chance you will be completely dead at mi 20 and walk/jogging for the next hr in terrible pain. You are fit enough to finish, but with so few long runs, you just don't have the glycogen stores to try to go for a time. Also, there are some tough hills on the bridges in NY and in Central Park. Do as much mileage the next to weeks as you can without getting injured. Don't worry about speed work.

NY is a really fun marathon. Just enjoy the ride. If you take it easy, you should be able to finish under 4 hrs and in one piece.

Not sure this guy read the question all the way through. If you have any doubts you should back out. Dont ruin someone elses marathon.

A 3:30 marathon might not be unreasonable, but under the circumstances, that's not good enough. That needs to be far enough under a peak effort that there's no doubt you can hold that pace even if you're having a really bad day. The person you're guiding deserves that much.

2:50 thon guy wrote:

Not sure this guy read the question all the way through. If you have any doubts you should back out. Dont ruin someone elses marathon.

Ditto

ps thon is a hotel chain in Europe.

In your case take a walking break (maybe 2-3 for 30-60 seconds) if you need to. Might help get through this race.

Thank you so much for the advice, and you're right--this race isn't really about me; it's for whoever I'm running in support of, and they certainly deserve better. I'd be more suited to pairing up with someone shooting for 4 hours. I'll have plenty of other chances to run for myself. Thank you again.

Clane,

1st off, good on ya for doing this. As someone who's run their fair share of marathons & also paced a # of them....

Do I think you could run 3:30 based on your training? Definitely.

Would I recommend pacing someone to a 3:30?

Probably not.

The marathons I've paced I usually aim for about 30mins slower than my fitness level. When I've been in 2:45 shape, I pace 3:15 or slower. This way I have complete confidence that I can be there for them, talking w/ them if they like, support, etc vs worrying about whether or not I am going to crack. Even when I've been in 2:45 shape, I really wouldn't want to pace a 3hr group as it's not easy enough that I think I could 'walk' through it.

Best of luck though, drop a reply to this thread afterwards so we know how it goes.