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How accurate are the race pacers?
Dave928
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Just a bit curious.
I ran the half marathon in Warrington at the weekend. I was aiming for 1:50 so tried to start maybe 20 yards behind the pacer. Bit of traffic early and lost him, but I was running 15s faster (per km) than that pace and didn't catch up until 11km (went on to do 1:44 though so not complaining!).
Any stats on the accuracy of pacers?
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As for stats, doubt it, but they may be out there, think it may be more experience based evidence, but have never seen a thread complaining about pacers getting it wrong at our levels.
You could search previous RW articles on their London Marathon pacers and look up their finishing times, but beyond such time-wasting geekery I think you'll only get anecdotal evidence. Pacers are only human and certainly over the course of a marathon things can go wrong, but for a half marathon, with GPS and mile markers to go by, there's no excuse for not being very accurate.
Confession: I paced a half marathon and ended up running just outside of target. (1:25:04 chip.) My excuse was a last-minute course change which involved running up two flights of steps in the last mile. D'oh!
The pacer who runs the race relatively evenly but misses the target by a few seconds has arguably done a better pacing job than the guy who finishes 30s inside, but managed it by sprinting the last two miles to make up for lost time or slowed to a crawl because he's been so far inside with a mile to go. It's not just about the finish, it's the journey that counts, grasshopper.
Not good enough. You're fired. You'll be blaming it on your co-pacer next!
On a serious note to the OP, we have a pacing service for race directors RacePacing.com - all our pacers are selected so that they are running well within their PB comfort zone. They are briefed to run an even pace (or an even effort if there are hills), and to come in as close as possible under the target time.
The only time we really have any issues is when the course is marked wrong, measures long or the mile markers are in the incorrect places, but the pacers are drilled to pace off both their GPS watches and the course markings. It's a lot harder than you'd think to come in after a half marathon or marathon exactly to the second of the target time, and takes a lot of skill. Also, there's the issue of gun time v chip time, particularly for the slower pacers, as they take different times to cross the start line of course. Ours run off chip times, so you'll need to ensure you start alongside them for greater accuracy.
Also, if the pacer runs it at even effort then Sod's law says that I'd probably either flag before the end or still have a bit of energy to hammer the last mile do wouldn't be crossing the line with them anyway.
I followed a pacer in a recent half marathon, in Maidenhead. He and his mate were like metronomes. Every now and then one of them would call out how many seconds we had in reserve. I faded towards the end and lost them but was grateful to them for getting me most of the way round in a decent time.
My guess is that the pacers are volunteers so I won't hold it against them if they're slightly off the pace. I have my own watch and GPS to keep tabs on things.
I was aiming for a sub 3 this year in Bonn. The pacers went through 10km in 42:30, perfect. I stopped checking the pace as they were perfect, and didn't notice that we did the next 10k in 41mins. When I noticed I dropped off the group.
I finished in 3:00:15, pretty annoyed with the pacers. They were supposed to be 3h, but actually they just ran with the 2nd woman and finished in 2:57.
Lesson learned! I will always keep tabs on my pace in the future.
Out of intererest, did yo not feel that the pace had picked up in the 2nd 10k? I know 1:30 oVer 10k is a lot and i guess that would be a fair old pace change, and wood be near 10k pace for me.
Still 3:00:15 is a great run!
I ran a marathon this weekend. Aiming for 3:30. The 3:30 pacer flew off at the start and I didn't see him again until mile 15, when I was a minute or two ahead of schedule. Even then it was only because he'd stopped and was messing with his shoe. Passed him but never saw him again although I finished in 3:33 .
It's surprisingly tricky. We had pacers at parkrun last year and I was doing 30 mins - had gone out onto the course beforehand and done a test run to check my pace. Before KM1 I found myself on the shoulder of mr 28 mins, who was finding himself cruelly betrayed by his GPS watch...
There also isn't much time to readjust if you make a bit of a mistake / GPS goes awry under some trees.
Sort. Just the thoughts of a mildly obsessed stat freak.
I'll get my gilet.
I pace at my local parkrun and it's fine because I know how long it takes me from landmark to landmark. I've paced 28 minutes twice and finished once bang on 28 minutes and the other time 27:59.
Since there seems to be a lot of talk of parkrun pacers in this thread, I will just relay what I saw at mine today..
Shortly after the start, while everyone was still quite bunched on in a slow/narrow woodland track, I heard the 35 minute pacer behind me start talking. She had calmly fished her phone out, and said..
"Hello? Yeah.. a bit- I'm doing parkrun just at the minute... All right, talk later"
(or something along those lines..)
Wonderful poise
same as all things.some are great.some are not......some make it everytime.others cock up for one reason for another.....great to use as an aid.but dont ever rely on them 100%