How to pace your first race

This guide has no pace chart because we do not publish target splits we cannot stand behind. What follows is the reasoning that experienced racers and coaches broadly agree on, written so that you can turn it into your own plan.

The race gets harder as it goes

The format puts the SkiErg and the sleds early and the lunges and wall balls late. Your legs are asked to run after every station, and each run starts a little more tired than the one before. A pace that feels easy in the first kilometre is the pace you will be fighting to hold in the seventh.

Three rules that hold up

1. Start slower than feels right. Run the first kilometre at an effort where you could speak a full sentence.
2. Use effort, not speed. Aim for the same effort on every run. Your speed will drift, and that is expected.
3. Move through stations steadily. A continuous, moderate effort usually beats sprinting and stopping.

Rehearse it in training

The only way to learn your race effort is to practise running straight after station work. Coaches call this compromised running. Sessions that alternate a kilometre with a station piece teach you what "controlled" feels like when your legs are heavy. The training planner introduces these gradually and builds to partial race simulations.

Have a wall ball plan

Decide in advance how you will split the 100 reps, and pick a split you have completed in training when tired. Sets you can repeat with short, planned rests are easier to sustain than one big opening set. Our wall ball strategy guide has more on choosing a split.

On the day

Expect the venue to be loud and the start to be fast. Let people go. You will see many of them again after the sleds.