Just last week I ran the Omaha Marathon. I "planned" on starting off slow and increasing the pace as time went on. "Planned" is the word. I started off slow but it was just too much effort to go slow so I just went with what I felt. My results were a bitter sweet.
I planned on starting with a 8:20 pace but switched to a 7:40 pace which I actually maintained for 23 miles. For me this was a huge deal! As sweet as that pace was, the bitter part came right at mile 23. My legs were so exhausted from running at a pace that I wasn't use to that they just gave out. I tried forcing myself to keep running and would collapse every 50 yards. I had to sit for over 30 minutes before my legs could move at a walker's pace, and then jogged the rest of the marathon.
I ended up finishing much slower than I wanted but I did run 23 miles at a 7:40 pace, which is 40 sec faster than my PR. I feel like it was a successful marathon because although I finished much slower than I'm use to, I was so close to PRing. Next race I will hopefully run farther at a 7:40 pace and eventually complete the race without collapsing.
This style of racing/training is very common with Kenyans and helps you learn to push through the hard mentally and physically.
