You just amaze me how you nail these things every time. Have fun in NYC.

btw lily, your early splits were not that crazy.  Miles 3 and 4 are a slight downhill, so it's natural to run them a bit faster.  Mile 5 is flat and this year was protected from the wind, which hit you in mile 6.  And late miles were against the wind, so it was normal to slow down a bit - but probably not as much as what happened when you ran the first half too fast.

THANK YOU! 

Having done it I can say that running with a pacer guarantees nothing except you put your goal in someone else's hands.

I'd rather see you run it as a progression run.  

Having done it I can say that running with a pacer guarantees nothing except you put your goal in someone else's hands.

 

I'd rather see you run it as a progression run.  

This is what goes on in my feeble brain when I'm about to run for a long time (in training, and in racing): "I have the choice of running fast now, while I am full of energy and excitement, for as long as I can, and then take it easy in the last miles, when I am mentally drained. On the other hand, I could start slowly, which I find excruciatingly boring, and then go progressively faster, until it hurts like hell and I am mentally drained."

Which one would you choose?

And if LTH wants to hint that I do not race to the best of my abilities, I can agree with that. I do hit my McMillan's predictions pretty well, though.

lily, I think the same as LtH too.  Don't kill me please!  

Don't know if it's universally applicable, but this training cycle has been a real eye opener for me.  I've been training with a professionally coached group (not cheap ), and the coach does his utmost to instill the importance of negative splits in all of us.  Training, racing, everywhere.  So far it's been working.  It really, really helps to feel like you have enough in the tank at the end of the run.  It's a great feeling.

The proof will be in the pudding though, and the pudding is in Central Park

btw the dude just ran Waterfront Half in 1:14 and came second in his Masters AG, so he knows what he's doing

lily, I think the same as LtH too.  Don't kill me please!  

 

Don't know if it's universally applicable, but this training cycle has been a real eye opener for me.  I've been training with a professionally coached group (not cheap ), and the coach does his utmost to instill the importance of negative splits in all of us.  Training, racing, everywhere.  So far it's been working.  It really, really helps to feel like you have enough in the tank at the end of the run.  It's a great feeling.

 

The proof will be in the pudding though, and the pudding is in Central Park

I am in no way saying that I do it right and others don't. And I haven't killed anyone yet.  I know that everything points to even pacing being the most efficient way to race marathons. I guess it's just that it's simply not that important for me to run my best time ever, at the expense of training in a way that makes me feel good enough that I want to do it again and again and again. Maybe I would have a different view of it if the race really mattered to me, like Boston in 2015. Maybe that would be big enough an incentive to force me to change my ways. I train with no warm-ups for my speedwork, not even a few minutes of slow running. Not even when I do 10k and HM paces. I just dive into the speed right away. And I finish slow. A coach would go nuts working with me.