I am running in my first half marathon this coming Sun. I can run a 5k in 18:30ish to 18:40ish depending on the day.
McMillan running calculator suggests I should be able to run a 1:25 half. I've ran a 1:27 in practice..
What can I expect to run on Sun. Should I try to shoot for 6:30 pace?
Never ran a half before. I do know it's an entirely different animal then a 5k.. So i'll have to make sure that I dont go out to hard.
Any help here appreciated. Thanks.
6:45 first mile
6:40 next two miles
6:35 next 5 miles
Consider the 8 mile mark half way
Just get there feeling pretty good
Drop down to 6:30 the next two miles
Run the last 5k at 6:20-6:25 pace
The above pacing will get you about 1:25:35
oops, name is from another post
Going to add as long as you pace yourself properly, you can usually get pretty close to the McMillan projections.
Every half I have run well, I did the first 3 to 4 miles at least 10 seconds slower than average pace.
race pace guru wrote:
oops, name is from another post
Going to add as long as you pace yourself properly, you can usually get pretty close to the McMillan projections.
Every half I have run well, I did the first 3 to 4 miles at least 10 seconds slower than average pace.
Great advice. I sought some informal advice from Tinman back in 2009 when I was trying to PR (old guy PR, not early career PR, which was 1:21). He told me to keep my heart rate (I was wearing a monitor) at 86-87% and no more for the first three miles, then slowly open it up.
I hoping to run sub-7:00s, I ran 7:05s for the first three miles, averaged 7:00 for the first 7 miles, and averaged 6:52s for the last 6 miles. Something like that. Ran 1:31:03. What I distinctly remember is that I stayed strong--no quad meltdown--for the last three miles and ran at 5K effort, although of course my pace wasn't 5K pace.
But that's the right way to think about the race, when you're walking the fine line. Warm into it. Your body WILL warm up, and a pace that would end up disabling you early on will feel like flat-out, balls-to-the-wall but do-able pace in the last few miles.
Tinman's advice was dead-on.
And here's the other thing: my HR in the latter half of the race was 5K HR. That sort of HR would be suicidal at 3 miles. But it's what you do at 10 miles when you're running properly. The whole idea that a half marathon is run "just below or right at threshold" is a crock. You START there, just below threshold. But once you're fully warmed up and engaged, you're running at a HR that is somewhat above that--if you're running in the 1:20 to 1:30 range.
Good luck!
PS: that 1:31:03 was at age 50. St. Jude, Memphis. Average 6:57 pace.
Three weeks later I ran 6:55s in a 10 mile state championship in Alabama.
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