How fast should i go?

Gymaddict

I am about to run my first 10K and I am really unsure what pace i should be going for. I have only done a couple of races before - % of max for most of it so instead of being an easy run it was almost a tempo - serves me right for trainig with a bunch of fast blokes. Any advise from more experienced runners would be very welcome.

Dick Dastardly

It's very dificult to say what pace you should aim for without knowing you current level of fitness and what distance etc you've done in training.
If you're new to racing then my advice is to take it steady for the first half/threequarters of the race and go for it for the rest if you can.There's nothing worse than getting halfway and realising you've blown it by starting too fast. It's better to finish with a positive experience than finish never wanting to run again. However, racing should be uncomfortable if you're at max effort, (it hurts!) how much you can tolerate depends on you and your fitness.
A steady pace is advisable. Then when you do your next race you've got a time to try and beat!!!

[Deleted User]

How important is it to be as fast as you could.

Why not go off at a comfortable pace and speed up after a couple of miles if you are feeling good, better to make you first 10k a pleasant experience, there will be others to suffer on when you have better pace judgement.

Roger

P.S I found the race time prediction programmes good, you should find links somewhere in the runners world site or do a google search

Gymaddict

Thanks for your advice - I had put more info on my initial post but it somehow got lost and I realise it looks a bit odd. I found a race predictor on one of the other threads which gave me a reasonable estimate at heart rate and km pace so I am going to give that a go and see how I get on. I am doing 2 10k's in one week and I want to get a good time in one and then just enjoy the second as its the glasgow ladies 10k and I believe there are around 12 thousand ladies entered so far!!