just sayin....... wrote:
Run the fastest race that you can and you increase your odds of winning the race. Run a slower time and you are less likely to win.
That is kind of obvious.
If your tactic is to try and slow the race down with a slower pace you are more likely to LOSE.
I have a brilliant idea, if you want to try to win, try running the race as fast as you can. That would be my race tactic.
The fact is most of these "tactical" races have some money on the line. If you're not likely to set a country, meet, or world record (and thus get a performance bonus from your sponsor) how you make your living is placing as high as possible. So your race tactic isn't the one accepted by those making a living in the sport.
Spots at championships and the Olympics are also determined initially by place, not time (as long as the standard is met), so the incentive is to go for place.
So if even a simple majority of elite runners thought running as fast as you can from the gun was a good strategy then that by default would force more runners to echo that "tactic" in order to place. They don't, and since the winners are running tactically everyone else is too.
That means that the collective wisdom of elite runners world wide is counter your race tactic, and I'd be more likely to lean towards their wisdom than that of a random anonymous web poster.
There was a time when many US marathoners were trying to get the best 1/2 marathon split they could and "bank" that time. Of course, Kenyans that weren't doing that were blowing us out. The "Pre" philosophy may be gutsy and romantic, but it doesn't win races which is the whole point of racing.