Pacing of Women and Men in Half-Marathon and Marathon Races The half marathon is the most popular running competition with regard to the number of runners and runners.However, no study has compared the pacing for this distance with marathon. The aim of the present study was to examine the pacing in the half marathon, compare the half marathon and the marathon with respect to the pacing and to estimate the gender differences in the pacing. A total of 9137 finishers of the half-marathon and the marathon in Ljubljana 2017 in five racing segments (0-23.7%, 23.7-47.7%, 47.4-71.1%, 71.1-94.8%, and 71.1-94.8% and94.8-100%) of the race analyzed.Half marathon runners had a positive pacing, each segment thicker than the previous without a final spurt. The average percentage of speed change (ACS) was 5.71%, in the marathon, even pacing (ACS = 4.10%) was observed than the half marathon. The pacing of a half-marathon follows a unique pattern that distinguishes this distance of Marathon, wherein the former has a more uniform pace with a lack of end spurt and gender difference compared to the latter. The runners should therefore be recommended to choose a less variable pacing with a half marathon, regardless of their gender.
According to our best knowledge, the even pacing at half marathon was a novel finding at the Marathon, as it was the first study in which the two distances were compared for this feature. The whole work can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30646638/