Well, you could run the race as a training run and then say: https://dasz.substack.com/p/but-im-actually-faster-yeah-then // On a more serious note: I quite often participate in races without going all out. There's plenty of reasons why one should do this, for example if you pace another runner (did this during our 20k "Winterlaufserie" in Munich 2 weeks ago, for example), or to "practice" certain aspects such as nutrition, new shows, pacing strategies, etc., or as you mentioned to use the race as a training run with the benefit of aid stations and other runners to make time go by fast. But I get the point, that racing without racing is a tough thing for some runners. My wife for example ;-)
I think, I wouldn't even go for nutrition, pacing strategies, shoes, etc. to a competition, because I can do that in training too... I think the one big thing which you cannot get from a training run, is handling your tenseness, nerves, anxiety before. Pacing someone else is a nice idea - never did that before - maybe that could be a workaround... 🙈 As always.. everyone is different, but I'm always interested in other peoples pov.
![never not [thinking about] running!](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zByA!,w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5e145abe-7461-4961-8b78-8e3e21c1e9ce_582x582.png)
Well, you could run the race as a training run and then say: https://dasz.substack.com/p/but-im-actually-faster-yeah-then // On a more serious note: I quite often participate in races without going all out. There's plenty of reasons why one should do this, for example if you pace another runner (did this during our 20k "Winterlaufserie" in Munich 2 weeks ago, for example), or to "practice" certain aspects such as nutrition, new shows, pacing strategies, etc., or as you mentioned to use the race as a training run with the benefit of aid stations and other runners to make time go by fast. But I get the point, that racing without racing is a tough thing for some runners. My wife for example ;-)
I think, I wouldn't even go for nutrition, pacing strategies, shoes, etc. to a competition, because I can do that in training too... I think the one big thing which you cannot get from a training run, is handling your tenseness, nerves, anxiety before. Pacing someone else is a nice idea - never did that before - maybe that could be a workaround... 🙈 As always.. everyone is different, but I'm always interested in other peoples pov.
I can imagine, that pacing is a fulfilling job! Always great to give something back.. and yeah maybe another category, but nonetheless a good point!