What Is The Ideal Marathon Pace For You?

Running your first marathon is all about completing the race, ideally without stopping. It’s an endurance event which requires that you have the stamina to keep going for 26.2 miles, so your marathon pace is a very important factor.

The marathon pace that you choose to run at can be decided on from a very early stage.

There are 2 main ways you can do this: -

#1  Use the RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale.

The RPE scale is a measure from 1 to 10 of the level of difficulty you are experiencing because of the speed you are running at or the effort you are putting in.

It works like this, the harder you are working, the higher the score. If you are feeling very tired and need to stop, this would equate to a 10 on the RPE scale.

Based on the RPE scale for marathon pace, you need to be around 6 out of 10. This means you are working at a level of difficulty just above average. You are sweating slightly, but can comfortably hold a conversation.

#2  Monitoring your pace.

To do this you need to use a GPS system or an advanced pedometer that can give you readings of distances and your pace per mile. Over a few runs you can work out a comfortable running pace for you and then time yourself completing a mile. This now becomes your marathon pace.

As you become fitter this will obviously get a little faster.

When it comes to race day, you can simply aim to keep your marathon pace within your usual comfort zone and as long as you have the energy left, you should be fine.

If you want to learn how to train for a marathon, you need to learn all you can about marathon running. ‘Marathon Training For Beginners’ is an entertaining and easy to use marathon training schedule for beginners that want to discover how to successfully run a marathon in the shortest possible time. Click here for more details.

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