Silly question - what are pacers used for?

claralara

Just out of curiosity - I was watching the London Marathon earlier on and I was just wondering why pacers are used? Is it to stop people going too fast or to set a pace to keep up with? I thought marathon running was a lone competetive sport and that it would be up to an individual runner to set a pace to win or finish within a goal time or whatever. The commentator was saying something when the camera was on the men's elite group about a runner putting pressure on a pacer to go faster - can he not just pass him out? I know it's a silly ignorant question but it's annoying me!

robinph

They can all go as fast or slow as they want, but it is much easier psychologically to follow someone else, usually. Because the pacers are not running the full distance it is easier for them to concentrate on keeping that specific pace that is agreed upon before hand by the various elites, and then the elites just need to watch that pacer rather than thinking about what their watch is saying and if there is a bit of wind about then they will hide behind the pacers as well to make things a tiny bit easier also.

Now for another pacer question, does anyone know why they all wear Shaftesbury Harriers kit, I'm sure there are not that many top Kenyans who live there anyway?

robinph

To show the difference that pacers can make there is, or at least should be, two seperate records for the womens marathon:

wikipedia wrote:

The world record for women was set by Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain in the London Marathon on April 13, 2003, in 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds. This time was set using male pacesetters; the fastest time by a woman without using a male pacesetter ("woman-only") was also set by Paula Radcliffe, again during the London Marathon, with a time of 2 hours 17 minutes and 42 seconds, on April 17, 2005.[31]

gerard65

If you wanted to run a 4min mile its easier to just follow a pacemaker who's running 60sec per lap than having to worry about what pace your running yourself. If you were even a couple of seconds to fast early on you'd blowup, too slow and you'd be outside your time with too much time to make up on the last lap, so its easier to run behind the pacemaker who hopefully is running bang on 60sec laps.
Same in all races including the marathon. The top guys may decide between themselves a time they want to hit, say, at 18 miles so they get the pacemaker to try hit every mile on an even split, the most energy effection way to run.
Also someone running directly in front of you breaks the air resistance and shields you from the wind. Thats why when your running a race its easier to tuck in directly behind someone, can make a difference of a percent or two.

robinph

gerard65 wrote: »

If you wanted to run a 4min mile its easier to just follow a pacemaker who's running 60sec per lap than having to worry about what pace your running yourself.

Which is what one of the creators of the London Marathon did for Roger Banister in being the first to break the 4 minute mile. Although the method they used wouldn't be allowed now as I think Brasher went off very slow for the first lap so that the others would lap him, and he then paced the third lap or something like that.

ecoli

robinph wrote: »

Which is what one of the creators of the London Marathon did for Roger Banister in being the first to break the 4 minute mile. Although the method they used wouldn't be allowed now as I think Brasher went off very slow for the first lap so that the others would lap him, and he then paced the third lap or something like that.

Brasher actually paced the first 2 laps, though first lap was too fast (57 i think) Chataway then took the third lap

robinph

Just read up a bit more on it and it seems they did the lapping the pacer tactic in a previous attempt where he got 4:02 and then decided that it wasn't really a fair way of doing things.

ecoli

robinph wrote: »

Just read up a bit more on it and it seems they did the lapping the pacer tactic in a previous attempt where he got 4:02 and then decided that it wasn't really a fair way of doing things.

Yeah the AAA said they wouldn recognise a record which was not broke in "competition parameters" pretty interesting stuff especially Empire Games that year between himself and Landy (ran 3.58 only a few weeks after Bannister)

robinph

Yep, I think the "race" in Oxford was only Banister and the pace makers, so they had to finish to let the record stand as being in an actual race. At least that is what I seem to remember hearing on some program about it although wikipedia isn't showing anything about that.

Slogger Jogger

There was a piece in the Irish Times yesterday and it mentioned the notable recent result from Boston by a Kenyan (can't recall the name) which was run without pacers.

Makes you wonder though... if you ran a milestone time would it feel the same if you ran it following a pacer or on your lonesome.

nerraw1111

I hate seeing pacers. You can't say you "raced" a marathon when you did follow 5 pacers for 16 miles or so. Totally takes away the competitive nature. Particularly today when 5 of them closed off the road.

Prefer it when runners go head to head and push each other over the course of the race.

This isn't cycling where the team leader hits the front after sitting comfortably on the wheels of his team mates. My 2 cents.

ecoli

nerraw1111 wrote: »

I hate seeing pacers. You can't say you "raced" a marathon when you did follow 5 pacers for 16 miles or so. Totally takes away the competitive nature. Particularly today when 5 of them closed off the road.

Prefer it when runners go head to head and push each other over the course of the race.

This isn't cycling where the team leader hits the front after sitting comfortably on the wheels of his team mates. My 2 cents.

Interesting view on it. Recently ran a half and ended up working with aa guy swapping the lead like every 1200m or so. Never met the man before in my life, didnt say a word to each other but just did it. Pushed each other on to great times and flew up the field. Wouldnt have ran as well if he wasnt there so technically he paced me to a good time

Krusty_Clown

nerraw1111 wrote: »

I hate seeing pacers. You can't say you "raced" a marathon when you did follow 5 pacers for 16 miles or so. Totally takes away the competitive nature. Particularly today when 5 of them closed off the road.

Prefer it when runners go head to head and push each other over the course of the race.

This isn't cycling where the team leader hits the front after sitting comfortably on the wheels of his team mates. My 2 cents.

You could argue the same thing about a Garmin GPS based watch. It provides pretty much the same benefits (except you can't hide behind a watch when it gets windy). If you were a purist, you wouldn't wear a watch at all, and always stand to the left or right of any lead runners, when running into the wind. I'll stick with my watch and running from group to group!

--amadeus--

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

You could argue the same thing about a Garmin GPS based watch. It provides pretty much the same benefits (except you can't hide behind a watch when it gets windy). If you were a purist, you wouldn't wear a watch at all, and always stand to the left or right of any lead runners, when running into the wind. I'll stick with my watch and running from group to group!

I'm up for correction but I don't think elites are supposed to wear GPS devices, or "bio feedback" devices such as HRMs.

I'm not sure about iPods

Krusty_Clown

--amadeus-- wrote: »

I'm up for correction but I don't think elites are supposed to wear GPS devices, or "bio feedback" devices such as HRMs.

I'm not sure about iPods

Typical. You ditch the mod privileges, and two months later, jump over to the other side of the band-wagon (worm-can-opener).

robinph

--amadeus-- wrote: »

I'm up for correction but I don't think elites are supposed to wear GPS devices, or "bio feedback" devices such as HRMs.

I'm not sure about iPods

I definately saw one of the top finishing in the mens race with a 305 on his wrist at the finish, think he was one of the British guys that came in around the top ten, not Lemoncello but one of the others after him.

scottreynolds

robinph wrote: »

Now for another pacer question, does anyone know why they all wear Shaftesbury Harriers kit, I'm sure there are not that many top Kenyans who live there anyway?

I know this one.... Either the creator or the race director is (or was) a member of that club... They said it during the womens race.

claralara

Cheers for the replies. It's an interesting one alright. I did find it a little strange but can understand the idea. I'm such a running ignoramus!