Dr Darren Tay, Consultant, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital​ (SGH), a member of the SingHealth​ group gives some tips on how to stick to a planned race pace and time.

Sticking to a planned race pace is critical to a successful marathon

Your race goals might be derailed if you do not stick to your marathon training plan. Every runner has an ideal race pace. If the race pace is too fast, you may suffer from injuries, severe cramps or even run out of steam before finishing the race. If the running pace is too slow, you will be kicking yourself for the disappointing finish time.

Whether you are running a 5K, 10K or full 42​​km marathon, the right race pace will make you feel comfortable and relaxed. You should run at a conversation pace and not be breathless. When you run at your race pace, you are using the least amount of energy required to cover the given distance.

Finding your race pace

Your race pace will determine how fast you should run to finish a race of a certain distance within a targeted finishing time. To find your average race pace divide the time taken to complete a run by the distance covered. For example, if it takes you 40 minutes to run 5 km, your average race pace is five minutes per kilometre.

Setting a targeted​ marathon time

A common method to set your target marathon time is to double your most recent half-marathon time plus 10 minutes. So, if your last half-marathon time was two hours, your targeted marathon time would be 4:10 hours (2 x 2 hrs + 10 min).

You may want to add five to ten minutes to the projected finish time to adjust for bad weather conditions and crowded conditions, namely at the start and at the drink stations. Setting the appropriate targeted marathon finish time is important as it will affect your race pace.

​Ref: R14​​