Pace yourself! Be race-ready with our over 50s half-marathon pace chart

Pacing only works if you have a realistic goal. Set a target based on times you have previously done and what key workouts, such as your longer runs, suggest you can achieve.

Learn to be consistent in your training. The first mile should be the same time as the last one, again especially on longer runs. 

As a very rough guide, your long run pace should be around 90 seconds per mile slower than you’d expect to race at. So, create a pace goal based on that.

A GPS watch is always handy. Watches such as the Garmin Venu 2 Pro include Pacepro, which you can use to adjust your pace according to the terrain by downloading a course map beforehand. So, you can run slower when going uphill and quicker when you go downhill.

Negative splits (running the first half of the race slower than then second) are one way to achieve your pacing goals, although surprisingly there’s not much statistical evidence to confirm that strategy works. Perhaps more importantly, try to run as easily as possible for the first few miles. They may ultimately be the quickest of the race, but you need to run them as the easiest.

Major half marathon events typically have pacers you can run with at your desired goal time. They’ll carry a banner indicating the final time, such as two hours, or a minute per mile pace time.