This morning, I walked down to the Sunburst Races, a local running event that consists of a number of road races, ranging from a 5k to a full marathon. I had never participated in it, but had a few friends running in it this year, so I figured I’d go over and check it out.
As I stood near the end of the course, I noticed that the sight of the finish line evoked different reactions in different people. For most, there would be a slight increase in pace, as they strained to finish strong. For others, it made no difference at—they would keep on running at the exact same pace until they crossed the line. For others, though, the sight of the end literally caused them to start to sprint. As they finished they were easily going 2 or 3 times faster (if not more) than they had been going just moments before.
This latter reaction got me thinking. Having that much energy at the end seems to point to a lack of pacing—if someone has the much left at the end, they probably could have gone a little faster throughout the whole race, instead of having a huge surplus for the final dash. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve done this same thing in the past, and typically it’s not something that’s done intentionally. From my experience, it’s usually a mental issue. I really ‘think’ I’m going as fast as I can, but at the end I find that I really had more left in me than I realized.
The key to racing—besides preparation—is pacing. You don’t want to go too fast, burn out early, and not finish; but neither do you want to go too slowly, and end up with a lot of energy left over at the end. Now, in my mind, it’s way better to go slow and to actually finish, than to go too fast and quit. But ideally you would be able to keep a good pace throughout the entire race.
Life is the same way. You don’t want to burn yourself out, but you also don’t want to hold back and never really accomplish what you could have if you would have pushed a little harder. The key is keeping a good pace—knowing when to speed up a little or when to slow down—in order to do your best over the long haul.