What Will Make You a Good Race Pacer?

You enjoy running and you’re looking to give back to the sport you love. Have you ever thought about being a race pacer for a marathon or half marathon?

This is a very rewarding volunteer role, where you’re helping throngs of people reach their particular time goal. But while your intentions maybe noble, there are a few things you need to make sure of before you cast your name into the running pacer ring.

There is nothing worse to a person who is using a race pacer to hit his/her personal time goal only to learn that the pacer himself is fading at mile 21 of the marathon and will not be able to maintain the pace the rest of the way.

Understand you want to make sure you can comfortably maintain the pace of the race you are running. People who have a PR of 3-hours in the marathon should not be the pace-setter for the 3-hour group; they should pace groups trying to run anywhere between 3:15-3:30. Why? Because those times are 30-seconds to over 1 minute per mile slower than the pace they run for their best marathon and thus, even if they are having a bit of a bad day, most likely there is enough buffer built in there that they’ll get their group to the finish line on pace.

This is by no way mandatory for being a good pacer, but I think can be a very positive experience for the runners who are relying on you to get them through the line in their goal time. In the beginning of the race I may be “Chatty Cathy” and let everyone know what the plan is and that I will get them there if they stick with me. As the race goes on and people are getting tired (and quieter) I may look around and see if anyone is falling back and try to give them simple positive affirmations like:

“you can do this”
“you’re still on pace” 
“just stay with me for this mile” 
“we’re almost there”
“you got this”
“you’re looking great”
“relax your (choose the body part that’s tensing up)”
“You’re crushing this!”
Etc.

Remember people are looking for pacers and the times on their sticks – so keep your sign held high. You become a beacon to runners behind you who are looking for the next pace group to catch up to. If you are holding your sign up high it now becomes a focal point to some runners and they can hopefully catch up to you throughout the race.

For those of you who have been pacers before, I’d love to hear your views on what being a good pace-setter means to you for endurance events. I think if you follow my previous suggestion you’ll be at least on your way to having a good experience as a pace-setter and helping many people reach their running goal.

Good luck and happy pacing!