Against Negative Splitting: The Case for a Counterintuitive Pacing Strategy for Elite Marathon Athletes in Official Events

G.D. Fernandes^1, and Victor Maldonado¹

¹Mechanical Engineering department, Texas Tech University 2500 Broadway St, Lubbock, TX 79409, United States

Cite this paper:
G.D. Fernandes and Victor Maldonado. Against Negative Splitting: The Case for a Counterintuitive Pacing Strategy for Elite Marathon Athletes in Official Events. American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2024; 12(1):1-6. doi: 10.12691/ajssm-12-1-1

Abstract

Negative splitting (i.e., finishing the race faster) is a tactic commonly employed by elite marathon athletes, even though research supporting the strategy is scarce. The presence of pacers allows the main runner to run behind a formation, preserving energy. Our aim is to show that, in the presence of pacers, the most efficient pacing strategy is positive splitting. We evaluated the performance of an elite marathon runner from an energetic standpoint, including drag values obtained through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In varying simulations for different pacing strategies, the energy for both the main runner and his pacer were conserved and the total race time was calculated. In order to achieve minimum race time, the main runner must start the race faster and run behind the pacers, and when the pacers drop out, finish the race slower. Optimal race times are obtained when the protected phase is run 2.4 to 2.6% faster than the unprotected phase. Our results provide strong evidence that positive splitting is indeed the best pacing strategy when at least one pacer is present, causing significant time savings in official marathon events.

Keywords:
drafting pacing marathon CFD world record

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