The third section is about staying focused on that goal pace, says Gaudette: “This is where a lot of runners fall off. What that means: Dial it back now so you can crank it up later. So even if your watch says you’re at your goal speed, you’re probably working harder because you’re surging around obstacles. “It’s so common for people to swerve around other runners during the first miles of a race,” says Gaudette. Keep in mind that even if you’re hovering right around your goal pace at the start, you could be running a lot more aggressively than you realize. Try to run this section approximately 10 seconds per mile slower than your overall goal pace. But trying to think of those first three or so miles as a warmup will pay off later. Yes, that’s way easier said than done when you’ve got adrenaline and a few thousand other runners amping you up. “Keep things in check early on, be a little cautious, a little patient,” he suggests. The name of the game for this first 5K of the race is to keep things conservative, says Wilpers, especially if you aren’t super-experienced with racing yet.

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