The pacing differences in performance levels of marathon and half-marathon runners

Ljubica Ristanović; Ivan Cuk; Elias Villiger; Stanimir Stojiljković; Pantelis T Nikolaidis; Katja Weiss; Beat Knechtle

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1273451

The pacing differences in performance levels of marathon and half-marathon runners

Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 21:14:1273451. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1273451. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ljubica Ristanović¹, Ivan Cuk¹, Elias Villiger², Stanimir Stojiljković¹, Pantelis T Nikolaidis^{3

4}, Katja Weiss⁵, Beat Knechtle^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
² Klinik für Allgemeine Innere Medizin, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
³ Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Nikaia, Greece.
⁴ School of Health and Caring Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
⁵ Institute of Primary Care, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Medbase St. Gallen Am Vadianplatz, St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Abstract

Introduction: Many studies indicate a considerable impact of optimal pacing on long-distance running performance. Given that the amount of carbohydrates in metabolic processes increases supralinearly with the running intensity, we may observe differences between the pacing strategies of two long-distance races and different performance levels of runners. Accordingly, the present study aimed to examine the differences in pacing strategies between marathon and half-marathon races regarding the performance levels of runners.

Methods: The official results and split times from a total of 208,760 (marathon, N = 75,492; half-marathon, N = 133,268) finishers in the "Vienna City Marathon" between 2006 and 2018 were analyzed. The percentage of the average change of speed for each of the five segments (CS 1-5), as well as the absolute change of speed (ACS) were calculated. The CS 1-5 for the marathon are as follows: up to the 10th km, 10th - 20th km, 20th - 30th km, 30th - 40th km, and from the 40th km to the 42.195 km. For the half-marathon, the CS 1-5 are half of the marathon values. Four performance groups were created as quartiles of placement separately for sexes and races: high-level (HL), moderate to high-level (MHL), moderate to low-level (MLL), and low-level (LL).

Results: Positive pacing strategies (i.e., decrease of speed) were observed in all performance groups of both sex and race. Across CS 1-5, significant main effects (p < 0.001) were observed for the segment, performance level, and their interaction in both sex and race groups. All LL groups demonstrated higher ACS (men 7.9 and 6.05%, as well as women 5.83 and 5.49%, in marathon and half-marathon, respectively), while the HL performance group showed significantly lower ACS (men 4.14 and 2.97%, as well as women 3.16 and 2.77%, in marathon and half-marathon, respectively). Significant main effects (p < 0.001) for the race were observed but with a low effect size in women (ŋ² = 0.001).

Discussion: Better runners showed more even pacing than slower runners. The half-marathoners showed more even pacing than the marathoners across all performance groups but with a trivial practical significance in women.

Keywords: endurance; long-distance races; running; speed; strategy; variability.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.