What’s It like to Be an Official Pacer at a Marathon Race?

The vast majority of public race events build upon the help of unpaid volunteers.

This had been obvious to me since the first running races I did and it didn’t take much longer for the urge to form to one day start “paying back the favor”. I figured when I’m old and grey, possibly injured or for some other reason couldn’t or wouldn’t run myself anymore, that would be a good time to do so.

It doesn’t need to be like that, though. There are several volunteering roles that won’t interfere with running the race yourself, such as those involved in pre- and post-event organization.

💁 But you can also help while running in the race!

What a perfect combination of it. I’ve mentioned it before on this blog that I would love to one day become a pacemaker during a marathon. In the past I’ve written to some of the organizations who offer pacers to races, but no luck. Until now!

🙋 How Do I Become a Pacer?

As far as I know, there are a few organized pacing teams who are in contact with major road races and will provide the requested pacers out of a pool of runners they’re curating. Some smaller events also draw on local running clubs, apparently. The pacer team I was aware of here in Germany is aptly called Pacer Team, but getting in only works via personal connection. A friend of a friend is an insider and asked around because they had trouble getting enough pacers for this year’s Flensburg Marathon on September 1st, and that’s how I got in.

So the short answer to the question from the sub-headline above seems to be: mostly luck and a bit of networking.

Obviously you should be capable of delivering the agreed upon pace over the race distance, but for these smaller races with fewer than a thousand participants, no one takes a closer look or requires proof. I think it might have helped that a few of the people on the team were aware of my running via Strava and this blog before, I was told. I didn’t have to prove myself in any way when I spoke to the team manager, Thorsten.

A good rule of thumb is apparently that you should have a personal best of around half an hour faster than the pace you are planning to do as an official pacer.

Which is why I said I would be able to do anything up to a 3:30h marathon when we were talking, two days before the race. Yes, being able to run a marathon on short notice is also a thing that’s sometimes required.

I ended up being the only 3:45h pacer for Flensburg, because the other positions were already filled. Unfortunately, no one could be found for 3:15h. That seems to happen often, because logically, there are fewer fast runners than there are average and slow runners. So, if you’re a fast runner, your chances of becoming a pacer have just increased!

🗂️ Pre-Race Shenanigans

I was told to arrive at a certain spot at a certain time before the race would go off, and found myself surrounded by all these other experienced pacemakers. It was great chatting to them and asking away like a journalist. Many of them had done lots of pacing jobs before and welcomed me into their ranks. As a pacer for 3:45h I counted as one of the faster runners, so I got an instant admiration boost from the others.

The running gear brand CEP is sponsoring Pacer Team, so we all got a bunch of clothes from them to wear. I got a functional shirt, 2in1 running shorts, but no socks – although those are a staple product of CEP, my unusual size 14 is very rarely available. Time to consider foot-size reduction surgery.

In addition to the clothes, we received the most important bit of the whole endeavor: The flag backpack!

Needless to say, it’s not making much sense for a pacer to be invisible, so attracting attention is paramount. Everyone got a huge beach flag with their respective goal time printed on it, and an aluminum contraption to attach it to a modified runner’s backpack. It was less heavy than anticipated and not a problem or nuisance to carry around at all. Well engineered stuff. At other races I’ve often seen pacers who had big marked helium balloons attached to their hips, floating around above them. These represent more risks, like the string breaking or the balloons bursting or getting caught up in something. Our flags are certainly superior.

With that taken care of we just had to move towards the starting line for a pacer team picture to be taken, position ourselves somewhat smartly within the crowd according to our goal times, and wait for the gun to go off.

🤑 What’s the Deal Here Though, Do You Get Paid?

You don’t. But, in addition to the aforementioned free running clothes to keep, you don’t pay for the race. On bigger races, that can be a very solid financial advantage! My main question before being a pacer used to be if you would appear in the results list as a proper participant or if it wouldn’t count and you’d be outside of competition. But I was happy to learn that you would, in fact, be counted as a standard participant.

As far as I’m aware, that’s the basic situation on most races. Here in Flensburg, the pacers received an extra benefit of being allowed to have a shower after the race in the fancy gym next to the finishing area. That was great, because the mobile showers at these races often just barely fulfill their purpose. Overcrowded, cold, dirty.

🎙️ The Stories I’ve Been Told

Some larger marathon races with dozens of pacers have special designated areas for them, reminiscent of VIP lounges, but without the fancy flair I would guess. Because of the congestions due to the huge crowds some races attract, security detail will then escort the pacers to their respective starting blocks through special entrance paths. That sounds cool!

A funny anecdote I’ve heard was that at a smaller northern German race, the 3:00 hour pacers once accidentally won. It seems like a miscalculation on the part of the organizers, but in fact it’s just a bit unlucky. It’s very rare that a race is won with a finishing time which is not significantly less than three hours, but on very small races it happens occasionally. This year, Flensburg Marathon only had about 250 marathon finishers, but thankfully there were a few who really stepped on the pedal. The winning time was 2:35:33 and our two 3:00h pacers, Morten and Ole, finished comfortably in 7th and 8th place.

Which leads us to the question, which paces are usually set by pacers? Here in Flensburg, the standard plan was to offer paces for every fifteen minutes between 3:00h and 5:00h, including those. From what I’ve witness in my previous races, that seems to be the usual thing. Most fast runners who go for a time significantly under three hours will know how to pace themselves, because they’ve got the experience. And if you’re the sort of runner who just wants to finish a marathon without making running a huge part of your life for it, you might end up in the 5:00h range. There are not that many people who really care about going 4:59h as opposed to 5:17h, for example – they are just happy to be a part of it and make it all the way through. And that’s great!

One of the pacers told me that she once was in the lucky position to do pacing at London Marathon, and not only was the total number of pacers huge with over 130 people, but they were offering pacing all the way down to an 8:00h finish, even! That’s a pace of 11:23 min/km or 18:19 min/mi – a slow walk. She said that’s mainly because of the many charity participants with their elaborate costumes they’re carrying all the way, although I don’t really understand why they would want to be helped to, say, a 7:30h paced finish. Does it really matter, at that point?

Speaking of pacing at London Marathon, perhaps most intriguingly, there’s an international exchange program between pacer teams. The idea is to improve the service and let people from different countries experience the way other nations do it. Another pacer I talked to had been to Rome Marathon on pacing duties, and yet another told me she was even going to Chicago Marathon this October! I’ll be there as well, but not as a pacer – I qualified and paid full price. Getting invited to do pacing at one of those World Marathon Majors would of course be a high honor and a great gift to receive.

The professional level is a bit higher at those big races. There, the folks who select the pacers take a good look and you need to prove your capabilities. The lady who told me what it was like at London Marathon mentioned that she was selected to pace 5:00 hours, but due to the huge amount of people and congestions along the route she finished five seconds late. People weren’t too happy about that. Being too fast would also have been a problem. Apparently the window you need to hit is the thirty seconds before the result time you’re assigned. It can be harder than it seems to perfectly hit the designated time window. More on that later.

Now that I’ve got a lot more information on the job I feel like it’s still a great thing to do. Even more so than before. Especially the international exchange option sounds amazing to me. The only downside of pacing duties seems to be that you don’t get to run at the pace you feel most comfortable at on that day, or go for a personal best, of course, but everything else is a clear upside.

🤝 A good deal in my book!

⏩ The Actual Pacing of the Marathon

On paper, the job sounds easy enough as long as you’ve got the proper fitness, but that’s a given at this point. I just had to look up the necessary average pace for a 3:45 hour marathon finish, and that’s 5:19 minutes per kilometer (→ 3:44:26 finishing time) or 8:35 minutes per mile (→ 3:44:53).

Sounds simple, but it’s the details that matter.

First, measuring the pace is best done via GPS watch. Although these have gotten so much better in the past few years, they’re still not perfect. Then, the measurement of the route isn’t always exactly 42.195 kilometers or 26.2 miles long, and even if it is, you won’t be able to run on the perfect line throughout all the corners, which was used to measure the distance. Not to mention the aid station or maybe even porta-potty curvature your running requires.

Thankfully, most races put up kilometer or mile signage at certain significant stages, so you can just compare the numbers with the elapsed time since you started your watch. This requires you to remember the split times for your pace, though. And, as I’ve found out before, the signs aren’t infallible. Sometimes there’s been a mistake and a sign is as much as a few hundred meter off the mark. This might be due to an oversight or even vandalism, but either way you can’t one hundred percent count on them. And a few hundred meters off mean a few minutes off in the end – too much.

Each of these things in themselves could be easily avoided or corrected, but making sure that absolutely none of the problems come up is nearly impossible.

Also, it’s definitely harder for most runners to accelerate on the last few kilometers of the race, should you have paced too slowly in the beginning, compared to the other way around.

So I figured my best bet was to run at a slightly faster pace than necessary, but not by too much. You don’t want to go out too hard, too, because that would risk losing the followers behind you who are counting on you to help them achieve a personal best today. Many or most of them have trained hard for it and it’s their big day.

⚖️ Balancing it just right is the key here.

Before the starting gun was fired off, a bunch of runners found me with my flag, started a bit of smalltalk, spoke about their racing strategy and experience and thanked me for being here to take them through the race in less than 3:45 hours, hopefully. It felt like being a magnet for the people. The MC of the race, a nice older gentleman, also seemed to single me out and used the opportunity to exchange a few words and talk about the pacing service today with me as an example. From a few dozen meters away, he asked me through the PA how many marathons I have done so far – to assure people I was the right guy for the job. “Show me with your hands if you can!” – so I had to think, what’s the current number? I have not yet crossed over into one hundred official races, but it’s getting close these days. So I showed him a bunch of ten finger hands in rapid succession until he was convinced. That convinced myself as well. I think I’m the right guy for the job.

As soon as the gun went off, I settled into the 5:19 min/km pace. It was easily possible because the congestions on this smaller race were just tiny.

Flensburg Marathon is a very pretty race and lovingly put together by the team. It’s right next to the Danish border, so lots of Danes come over to run. And since the town isn’t huge, it’s a four-loop race course. The route makes use of the city’s position close to the Baltic Sea and is very flat. I remembered the race fondly from my first time running here in 2019.

When it’s a day without too much winds, this race can definitely be used as the place to do a personal best. There’s just one tiny uphill cobblestone bit when entering the Old Town which can become challenging on the later laps. On the bigger part of the lap we were able to see other runners coming towards us, so I was waving a lot to my new pacemaker acquaintances. Smiles everywhere with the sun shining and the conditions rather perfect for a marathon run.

This all made it rather easy for me and the people following me to keep the pace. Most of them were running to their best ability, so there wasn’t much talking happening. Here and there I got asked a question by someone overtaking, or those people who are very fit athletes but have never done a marathon and therefore go at it hard because they don’t know what the later third of the race will feel like yet.

I gave some advice and tried cracking a joke from time to time. To my surprise, those worked! And that made me realize the weird socially elevated position I was in right now. The dozens of runners behind me currently see me as some sort of leader, I’m an authority figure for a few hours. That’s not my strong suit, but it happens naturally here, of course. No wonder my stupid jokes would get some more laughs than usual. I must admit, it didn’t feel too bad. Another thing that helped boost my confidence were the acknowledgements of the people cheering on the sidelines when they saw and read my flag. To most of them, a 3:45 hour marathon finish counted as fast.

I wasn’t bold enough to do big motivational speeches or scream military-like uplifting phrases like some other pacers I’ve witnessed over the years do. Maybe when I have accumulated more experience pacing marathons.

Today, focussing on the job at hand was my top priority. This requires looking at the watch very often and adjusting pace. Especially during the many aid stations, when losing a few seconds for a cup of water and many of my followers would run past me because they didn’t need anything at this point, I needed to sprint back to the front to avoid making a dent in the even split times.

It all worked rather well. I looked back from time to time and was a bit sad to see that my group was diminishing.

This is just natural, though. Many runners use the pacers to settle into the race and then overtake when they feel comfortable, or, if they realize it’s not their day, fall back. So, from what looked like around fifty or more, it was down to maybe a dozen after half of the race. But I still have a job to do for them!

🥊 When It Becomes More Difficult

There are tricky situations. The event also included a half marathon race which was started while the full marathon was in full effect. Half marathons are often more popular, because they are easier, of course. But for us this now meant sharing the narrow streets of Flensburg with many more people. And, unfortunately, they were all a lot slower than us.

First, we ran up to the 2:30h pacers for the half marathon. There’s a big difference in speed between them and us. But it’s been a popular pace for them today, so I somehow had to navigate around them, partly using the open streets when no cars came, and take as many of my followers with me. This happened a few more times until the half marathon runners had spread out over the course and we reached groups of runners who were evenly fast compared to us. But I think I lost a few more of my bunch due to those problems. Not ideal, but not my fault.

And although a 3:45 hour marathon finish isn’t fast for my standards, a marathon remains a marathon. I too get tired at some point. And the midday sun turned up its temperature.

But, as you’re probably aware, if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other you’ll reach the finish line eventually. I managed to keep the pace constant and did some calculations about the actual standing whenever we came by a kilometer sign and I happened to remember the required split. I was doing a bit too well in the end, I noticed. At the halfway point, we had accumulated an extra minute to spare, but I figured that it can only help us in the later stages. No one seemed to have been annoyed by that but rather appreciated the buffer we had created. I tried not to increase the buffer, but that worked only to a certain degree. At the 35 kilometer / 21 mile mark, I realized we were around ninety seconds too fast and I was focused on delivering a result that would not only be great for the runners today, but also help me to show Pacer Team I can do a good job so they ask me again in the future.

Over the last 5k, I deliberately started to slow down to reduce the buffer. By now, thanks to the four-lap nature of the course, I was sure about the correct measuring of the distance and was therefore able to time it well. A few lost seconds per kilometer, then a few more, and after 3:44:07 I crossed the finish line, with around half a dozen runners left. They thanked me, we high-fived, the MC mentioned my name again and said what a good job I did when he looked at the time, so I was happy! Take a look at the Strava stats here.

My next job might be at Bremen Marathon in October, but since all positions are already full, I’ll be there just in case if one of the pacers drops out on short notice. That’s also a role which gets you a free ticket to the race, by the way.

Conclusion: Was It Fun?

I loved it and I’m keen on doing it again. I hope you’ve got a good idea about the inner workings of pacing a marathon – if there are any more questions, please ask down in the comments or hit me up elsewhere!