Mile Splits for the Marathon
The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon utilizes pacing teams to help runners achieve their personal goals. The following information and charts were designed for the pacing teams at Chicago. Whether your goal is a Personal Record or to finish in a set time, you can use these charts to pick The Right Pace.
The Chicago Pacing Team consists of experienced runners, many
of them group leaders for the CARA/LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Training
Class. Elite runners use "rabbits" to help them stay on pace; now mid-pack
runners can have the same advantage.
The most efficient way to run a marathon is even pace, Running The Right Pace, each mile as fast (or as slow) as the ones before and after. Using your own calculator, you can determine what that even pace will be. But with hours and minutes and seconds and the marathon being 26 miles 385 yards long, the math is not that simple--so we decided to do the work for you.
Pick your pace from the box below. Click on the appropriate time--whether 3:40 or 4:40 or whatever--and you will find charts telling you how fast you need to run at each of the 26 mile markers in the marathon. These are your mile "splits." Before marathons, I usually write my planned mile splits upside down on my race number, so that I can read them and keep myself on pace. Whether or not you choose to do the same, the Chicago Pacing Team will keep you on the Right Pace.
Even if you decide to run on your own without one of our pace leaders, or run another marathon, you can use these pace charts. The charts show finishing times in 10-minute increments between 3:00 and 5:00 as well as several other pacing times: 2:50, 3:15, 3:45, 5:15 and 5:30.
The following pacing charts were developed with the help of Keith Stone, a computer programmer from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "Stoneman" is a member of the Twin City Track Club in that city. If you look in the August 1998 issue of Runner's World, you'll find his picture on page 65. A certified Clydesdale at 205 pounds, Stoneman has run 18:32 for the 5-K and 3:10:28 for the marathon. He knows his way about numbers. Good luck in sticking to the Right Pace.
