Marathon pacing strategy - advice wanted

Hi,

I am running in this Sunday's Amsterdam marathon, targetting a sub 2:40 finish time. This would be a 5 minute PB for me, my previous best of 2:45:13 achieved at this year's London Marathon. My training has gone well, and build up races (including a 75 minute half-marathon in September) suggest that my target is realistic.

I have two questions on which I would welcome some advice:

- should I try to achieve negative splits (in previous marathons I have always faded a bit, and run the second half about 2 or 3 minutes slower than the first). If yes, then what would be a good pacing strategy? When should I start picking up the pace?

- should I try using gels? (have never tried these before, and have found that carbo type drinks while racing have made me feel sick. But one of the reasons for my relatively weak performance during the second half of previous attempts, might have been lack of fuel.)

Any advice - especially based on experience - would be welcome.

Cheers
Daniel

Comments

  • Yippee - a singular thread. In case you ever read this Daniel, I would not dream of advising someone aiming for a Marathon time over an hour faster than my PB; but I would like you to know that I am very grateful for this opportunity to return to Chimp's thread knowing that I have done my duty.
    Thank you :-)
  • Daniel

    How did it go?

    You're almost 2 hours ahead of my PB so couldn't help on the advice front but interested to hear whether you found a style to break the PB
Sign In or Register to comment.