The 2-hour Pacing Bus
Many USA races and events commonly have pacers, but out here in the Middle East, it is still somewhat of a novelty. Even the Dubai Marathon does not have pacers, but then again, there are only a couple of thousand runners that run it. Fortunately, my running club, The Dubai Creek Striders (DCS) is awesome and has always felt that this was a useful thing to have. They have become one of the unique races because they actually have pacers for a 1/2 marathon race that has just over 2,000 runners.
Our 1/2 marathon comes just at the start of the season, early December (mind you, we have opposite seasons than Chicago!), so many of us are just on the brinks of getting back in shape, which was my excuse year 1 and 3. Last year I was a course marshal, but as this is MY club, I felt I was really missing out by not running it. Well, somehow I was blabbing about this to a couple of friends, and then later, a friend who eventually became our Club president suggested, "why don't you be a pacer next year? You really run steady and I think you will do a good job." Ah ha! That was music to my years, a 2-hour pacer, which I felt I could fairly comfortably do. It meant I could still participate and also give back a little. Fast forward a year, and as the race was fast approaching, my fellow club runners started asking questions such as "what's your race strategy?" "Will you start out slow and then pick it up?" "Will you walk through the water stops or keep going?" "What will you do for the bridges (which in Dubai, as it is completely flat, we are all concerned about the "hills," haha)," "Going under 2 hours is a big milestone for a lot of people, how are you going to make sure you do it?" "Will you talk throughout the run, like tell where the water stops are?" ... and on and on. Uh oh, what have I gotten myself into? We all know our own bodies and race for ourselves (well, at least I do), and although technically going sub 2 hours is fairly comfortable, me and my 2 other fellow 2-hour pace bus started hemming and hawing these details. As I'm fully functioning in km/min now instead of miles/min, I knew what average pace I need to go and as am generally a steady runner, I still felt the pressure!
Come race day, myself and the pacers get introduced through the loudspeaker on the platform, and fortunately, the announcer said, "they will do their best to get you to their goal, but they are human!" With my 2:00 Pacer flag in hand and shirt on as well as a "cheat sheet" of what my splits should be at 5km, 10km, 15km, and 20km on my forearm, we situated ourselves at our designated spots. Next thing I knew there were swarms of people around us, saying things like "how close will you get to 2 hours?" "what's your plan?" At this point, my 2-hour pacer friend and I just said, "we will get you there and we will run a steady race, just stay by us." We had anticipated the start to be slow as we were in the mass open start, but the adrenaline was there and just in the first km I looked at my watch and realized we were too fast.... and then the same for the 2nd km, which I swear I thought I slowed down. And then the 3rd km, I again felt I was going way above what our average pace should have been, and I purposely was shuffling my feet to slow down to make up for going out too fast. And on we went. It was a bit confusing because my Garmin said one thing and besides about 2 kilometer markings, it was way off from the Course km markings. Fortunately I had another watch on me (oddly, this has become a habit), a non-Garmin Timex cheapy watch, which I started at the start and would just let it run as part of the route was through a tunnel where we often lost reception. Hence I had a 2nd reference. Probably for the first 1/2, it was quite challenging to not get in the momentum of faster runners or even my normal pace, which is faster, and just really take a peak at my watch often to make sure at least my "average pace" was staying where it should, especially with the wavering of splits with the bridges and narrow paths. Finally, around the 8km mark, my other fellow 2-hour pacer and good friend and I started running together and hit a steady pace and got in the spirit. Together we sporadically made "shout outs" of upcoming hills, water stops, and minor little course things, trying to keep it from being annoying, yet give what we thought was good information. A few times I did catch myself picking up the pace too much, but if it weren't for a few people huffing and puffing around me to make me realize that although this was comfortable for me, it wasn't for others, I probably would have finished a lot quicker.
At the last 2 km, we then started yelling and encouraging those around us that we were just about on target for under 2 hours and this was their time to shine! Of course they started picking up the pace, so we automatically did, and I realized at this point we would get in around 1:55, eek! So I made my fellow pacer slow down and then about 200 meters from the finish, we were about at 1:57. We both stopped and started shouting that we're still under 2 hours and at 1:58 we both jogged in with a net time of 1:59:07. Not exactly 1:59:59 as we had hoped, but that would have been cutting it too close. We did it!
What an experience! If anything it taught me about pacing and made me appreciate everyone's battles, and also what work goes into being a Pacer! We often times just tag along, not thinking what goes into it, but believe me, a LOT goes into it and it takes quite a lot of discipline to "race" at a VERY comfortable pace for YOU, but you have to be mindful of those around you and that it is NOT a comfy pace for them. It was super rewarding to have runners come up to us after the run and say "thank you" and "I wouldn't have finished under 2 hours if it weren't for you" and "I had you guys in my site and I would have gone out too fast and then died at the end, but I followed you guys and thank you for that, I reached my goal." All and all, a VERY rewarding experience!!!
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