The influence of pacing strategy on marathon world records The pacing is crucial for different sports and different routes. A Spanish group has studied the pacing of elite marathon runners in the context of new world records in the last 50 years. She shared former marathon record holder in two groups: classic athletes (record holder between 1967 and 1988) and contemporary athletes (record holder between 1988 and 2018). The total distance of the marathon was divided into 8 sections of 5 km and 1 last section of 2.195 km, and the relative average speed of each section was calculated individually. On average, the athletes in the first half marathon were a little faster than in the second half marathon, where they progressively slowed. When comparing classical and contemporary athletes, however, they observed that classic athletes started significantly faster, although their speed decreased dramatically after 25 km and was significantly slower than in their simultaneous counterparties. The study showed that the pacing strategies of the best marathon runners in the world have changed in the last 50 years.
Although a negative pacing (at the end of faster) is considered the most efficient option, a pacing strategy could be forward-looking with small tempowels throughout the marathon route. The whole analysis can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29557279/