The Numbers Behind the 3:08:53

Indulge me while I go runner nerd in this post.

I've always liked to look at numbers and collect information on race splits on a race that I've run. It serves to show at what stage of the race I ran well, what didn't go so well and how I could improve for next time.

Below is a table of my times and splits at Paris, and how I did compared to my expected goal time of 3:10.

	Net Time		Split Time		Expected Goal Time Split		Surplus/Deficit
5 km	00:22:55		00:22:55		00:22:30		-25s
10 km	00:45:24		00:22:29		00:45:01		-23s
15 km	01:07:20		00:21:56		01:07:32		12s
Half	01:34:00		00:26:40		01:35:00		60s
25 km	01:51:11		00:17:11		01:52:34		83s
30 km	02:13:32		00:22:21		02:15:05		93s
35 km	02:36:03		00:22:31		02:37:36		93s
Finish	03:08:53		00:32:50		03:10:00		67s
Half 1	01:34:00
Half 2	01:34:53

Net Time is the actual race time I recorded at each point in the race, e.g. at 15 km I recorded 1:07:20. Split Time is the time taken for every 5 km split, e.g. it took me 22:21 to run from the 25 km to 30 km mark. Similarly, it took me 32:50 to run from the 35 km mark to the finish. Expected Goal Time Split is the expected time I needed to run at to meet my 3:10 target, e.g. in order to stay on target at 25 km I had to be at or under 1:52:34. Surplus/Deficit represents how much time I was in front or behind at each stage of the race, where a negative number represented the deficit I needed to make up. 

Obviously I'm very happy with these figures. I had a typically slow start, where I spent the first 15 km trying to wipe a deficit. Once I did that, I continued to build a surplus all the way into the 30 km mark. But the most surprising thing was that I was able to hold goal pace in the latter stages of the race when I was tiring. With a 93 second buffer at the 35 km mark, it was just a matter of holding on for the remaining 7 km and thankfully I only managed to lose 26 seconds off my surplus in the end!

The pacing in the first and second halves was also pretty spot on. While it ended up being a small positive split, even the very best runners in the world win races with these sorts of time differences between halves.