10K vs 5K race strategy (Read 838 times)

I find myself getting nervous about my next race. I have run several 5K's in my life (3 since I started running again in Feb.) I have been building up my mileage working toward a 10K. All of a sudden the race is around the corner, (The next weekend or two; haven't decided which race to do yet.) and I realized I have no idea how to "race" a 10K. I am nervous about going out too fast because of the excitement, but also don't know what I should try to do. Any advice for this very slow newbie would be much appreciated!!

mentally divide the race in half... but not equally... like in the 5k I mentally divide it into 2 miles and the last 1.1. in the marathon I divided it into 20 and 6.2 the half is ... about 10 and 3... the idea I have is to measure my energy and divide it equally... Based on your traiining log I would suggest going out for the first 2 miles at your normal training pace ... then try picking it up just a bit for the next 3 miles... but save a bit.. and then run the last mile hard...

Run it slightly slower than your last 5k. When you hit the halfway point, see how you feel. If you've never done one, it will be a learning experience. Some things can't be explained on a message board, or in words; you have to experience them for yourself. Expect to hurt.

I'm in the same boat- hope this boat is big enough. My first 10K is Labor Day. I haven't paid yet as I'm struggling with Piriformis issues right now, but I ran a 5K this past Saturday and the injury doesn't bother me running. My 10K is a very up and down hilly course. i can slow long run the distance easily in under one hour so i know i can do the "distance'. This 10k has been my year end race goal and I think if I dont do it, I'll stew all winter mad at myself. So I'm going to do it. It want to finish in 55:00 or less, but now I think since it's my first 10k I'm going to run just to finsh it and accomplish my goal of doing a 10k. I average 8:20 for 5K runs (new runner, still overweight) so if I run my easy pace of 9:30mm I should be able to do just fine in the 10K and get my shirt. It's just the finish time I want to achieve (55 min) But I might need to comprimise - who knows- I will possibly achieve both anyway.

Interesting question. I'm bumping this in hopes some of the usual EP speed demons will chime in. I've run too many 5ks and not enough 10ks, but there are some coming up. I'd like some advice, too.

Sadly there aren't too many 10K's around my neck of the woods. I see that our 5K PR's are similar. If I were to race a 10K now I think I would try to run the first half at about 7:05 - 7:10 pace and then see how I feel. If you ran a 21 minute 5K I would think that you could do around 44 minutes for a 10K, no?

Apparently back in the day, 10-ks were the default race like 5-k's are now. I wish there were at least more of them nowadays. I think the basic thinking on that is that 5-k's are friendlier to the average runner.

Around here it's either 5K's or 5 milers.

Expect to hurt.

I think you meant to say " expect to hurt a lot", especially if you go out too fast... As other have stated, ease into the race and increase your pace based on how you feel. Pick it up at 4 miles and you'll pass a lot of runners. It'll hurt but not as much as if you blasted your first mile... In the 5k, you can get away with a faster first mile if you have plenty of endurance training. Not so much in a 10k. For my last 10k, I had a plan to hit Mile 1 in 6:20 (a bit under goal pace) then speed up. Well, my body had other ideas but least I could hold that pace. I pushed harder at 4 miles, dropping folks following me, then managed to pick it up more in the last mile, picking off a couple of runners, and then kick hard. I was glad of that "easy" first mile...

Ok, make room for a dumb question. How many miles is a 10k?

Google has a really cool feature: in any Google search box, just type "10 km in miles." You can even type in "half marathon in mi" or "64 ounces in liters" or "160 lb in stone," or any number of other conversions you want to see. The answer is 10 kilometers = 6.21371192 mi, by the way!