Rewards of Running and Pacing

Being a distance runner for almost a decade and being on podiums I was invited for pacing in many of the local races. I was constantly requested to pace in Marathons because many organizers couldn’t get women to pace faster buses.

I always enjoyed pacing. More than the feeling of getting out there and run in a race, it is so rewarding to see smiles on the faces of fellow runners who may have run their first 5k or a first marathon or a new PR. Pacing in races has also given me that opportunity to share some ‘running wisdom’ especially to the new runners. Most of the time, it is random chats to keep them distracted :D.

Pacing for me is my way of giving back to the running community. Yes, I am not racing; but helping fellow runners achieve their goals.

This was before the whole idea of ‘social media runners’ and ‘brand ambassadors’ and ‘celebrity pacers’. Pacers used to be established runners who helped other runners. I the past few years, pacers in ‘big’ races seems to be the selected based on the fame and name of the club the runners are associated with than any other selection criteria. Running seems to be happening more on social media than on roads or trails. Anyway, for the past two years I was saying no to all pacing requests since I was training for myself and focused on selected racing and reducing the number of events just for fun. So, I was mostly away from the social media race madness in running!

Earlier this month, I got an opportunity to pace again. Paced the 25 minutes bus for 5km in a recent night race 6 days after my New Delhi Marathon race! It was the fastest bus of the night and I was a bit worried about the tired and sore legs after my race. But it was a good run and finished at 24:21; few seconds early since I was pushing a runner to print down the last 200m.

Overall a rewarding experience.