6 mile Pace Run and Race Pacing

This morning on the schedule was a 6 mile pace run. The idea with the pace runs is to perform the run at the pace at which you expect to run the marathon. Not the fastest possible pace you could run 6 miles, nor the deliberately slow pace of the long training runs, but the pace you expect to achieve on the actual day of the race.

Not having run a marathon before, I'm in uncharted territory as far as setting the race pace. The standard advice for your first marathon is just to run it to finish, but I'm not sure that is such great advice. I think it is wise to have a specific pace in mind. I know that on race day I'll be very keyed up, and without a specific pace in mind I'll inevitably try to run it too fast. And if the pace I set is a "just finish it" pace - which I think would be 10 minute miles for me, since I did 20 miles quite comfortably last Sunday at a little better than 10 minute miles - I will have a very hard time holding it there with all the excitement and knowing I could likely go faster. And again I would be in danger of trying to run it too fast.

I think it is important that I find a pace that I believe I can run comfortably but is also fast enough that the temptation to push it won't be too bad. Then I think I should be able to discipline myself to hold that pace an no faster, and to back off if I exceed it.

What is that pace? Clearly 8 minute miles is too fast and 10 minute miles is too slow. This morning on the 6 mile pace run I consciously took it up a notch from my normal slow training pace, but also made sure I kept it below a 10k pace, aiming for a good cruising pace I thought I could keep up more or less indefinitely. I ran the first 3 miles in 26:40 at an 8:52 pace  and the second 3 miles in 25:28 at an 8:30 pace for a 52:08 total. It's amazing what a warmup does as I consciously tried to keep the second 3 miles easy but I ran it more than a minute faster. I'm also discovering I'm running significantly faster than I was a few months ago at the same "feel" pace. I ran an 8:38 pace at the half marathon in Salem in September but felt like I was working much harder - even over the first half of the race - than I was this morning, which seemed like a stroll in the park.

I've still got some time to settle on the race pace, but it's starting to look like a 9 minute mile pace is not unreasonable, with an 8:30 mile being the "danger pace" I should stay below (like going into the red on your RPM readout in the car). A 9 minute mile pace would get me to a sub 4 hour marathon, so that might be a reasonable goal. We'll see how things go next week when I have another 50 mile week ending in a 20 miler next Sunday.