Going Longer Part 8: Patience is a Virtue

Runners do not hit the wall in a marathon because of the distance; they hit the wall at mile 18, 20, or 22 because they either had an inadequate fuel plan, their training was insufficient for the distance, or they were not patient in their pacing of the distance.

Just as going longer requires your fuel plan to be dialed in, it also obliges you to be prudent in your early race pace. “My pace felt too easy the first 10 miles, so I went a bit faster than I had planned” is a common comment from wall-hitting marathoners.

Of course it’s going to feel easy at the beginning! The best pace for you to run is the pace you can evenly sustain--for the entire 26.2 miles. To hold this pace at the beginning of the event feels effortless, so it is critical that you are incredibly patient with this early effort. If you are not patient and not hitting your correct pace, you will not only slow down toward the end of the race, you may slow down significantly--1, 2, or more minutes per mile.

The place in triathlon where many forget to heed the virtue of patience is on the bike. Again I hear, “I felt so good on the bike, but my run didn’t go so well.” Triathlon is a swim, bike, and run event. So if you have a blazing swim and bike and blow up on the run, it won’t matter if your bike was the fastest of the day for your age group--your finish line result will be disappointing.

The longer you race in triathlon, the more patience is required. An inappropriately paced bike leg in an Ironman can leave a 3:30 marathon runner doing the Ironman shuffle on the run course. Because I have done so many long events, “patience” is one of the words I use in training to bring myself to a place of global reflection of my race. In Ironman events, patience often meant I put my blinders on during the bike leg. Being super fit and tapered for an Ironman equates to feeling like you are on fire on the bike. This is an exquisitely fun sensation but one that needs to be kept in perspective if you wish to have a strong total race experience.

When I said “patience” to myself, it would be my cue to look straight ahead and not at the people passing me. I would check in with my pace, given the distance left and the marathon looming, and I would relax into my own race plan.