Pacers

so the first time I did 100 miles (Leadville 2011) i was trying to determine if pacers are a benefit. I spoke with a lot of people who had used pacers and it seemed mixed. Some  people swore by them, others said they got in the way more then were helpful. What it seemed to come down to was personality. A runner might be cheerful, friendly and bubbly at the beginning of the race, but by about hour 20 they might be the crabbiest person you have ever met. 

I point this out because having pacers is both a benefit and responsibility. Chances are you haven't paid these people, they are there because they are either friends/family or just generally interested in running that race some day. So in a way its a vacation for them. and the last thing they may want to do is deal with a problem child. When considering having a pacer you need to keep their needs in mind now, because at mile 70 you wont care.

So what did I do? I was lucky to find 3 people to pace me. 1 I ran with consistently, and another I ran with sometimes, and the 3rd I met once.. This seemed like a gamble but I wanted all the help I could get since I never ran over 50k before and for this race I didn't train over 13 miles at a time (Interval training only, maybe info for another post)

I'm not going to go into details about how the race went, it went well I finished! But I do want to take this time to thank the pacers (again) and point out that they did a great job.They are very patient people, who not only provided all I needed during the run (including the push at the end) but have become some of my dearest friends. 

I think overall pacers help, I think the personalities have to match and I think I was very lucky to find the people I have both as pacers and friends.