The tall, thin man with the salt-and-pepper beard hesitated before he stepped through a crush of runners and elbowed his way to a table at the Philadelphia Marathon Expo. "What," he shouted over the din, "what is this?" Seated behind the table, I launched into a prepared 60-second speech. "This is the Marathon participants running in a pace group," I said. "You can take one of these and use it to pace yourself." I gestured to the thin paper wrist bracelets, each printed with mile splits adding up to a 26.2 goal time; the bracelets were organized by predicted finishes from three hours, 10 minutes to five hours, 30 minutes.

"Or you can run with one of our pace-group leaders."

"Or you can run with one of our pace-group leaders."

"Or you can run with one of our pace-group leaders.".

"You mean I can run with my own pacer...for free?"

"Well, there'll be other runners with you. But you don't have to worry about your mile splits. Just stay with us, and we'll get you across the finish line in the time you want."

So thats the way its going to be, I thought. I handle the stick; she handles the schtick.

"No, really," I said, abandoning the script. "These people are good. They'll get you the time, or no more than two minutes faster."

He snatched up a four-hour bracelet and smiled. "I haven't run a marathon in 20 years," he said. "I wish you guys had been around then."

Indeed, 20 years ago, the only runners with pacesetters were elites who had paid "rabbits" to help them hit splits on their way to fast, incentive-pay-laden times. Today, however, pace groups have become as integral to the modern marathon experience as timing chips, gel stations, and postrace space blankets. If you've run a marathon--or even a large half-marathon--in the last five years, chances are you've seen them: troops of runners clustered around a leader carrying balloons or a banner emblazoned with a goal finish time. When marathons offer pace groups, an estimated 30 percent of the field chooses to run with one (the 4:00 pace group attracts the largest crowds). "Our runners expect it," says Virginia Brophy Achman, executive director for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.

Sometimes the pace groups are led by volunteers from local running clubs; sometimes they're outfitted and organized by major sponsors. Nike, for example, will sponsor the groups at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 12, where approximately 100 pacers will lead 20 groups, with projected finish times from three hours to 5:45. (Chicago employs multiple leaders per team, in case of injury or illness.) Part cheerleader, part psychiatrist, a pacer spends many hours during the race encouraging, cajoling, and reassuring scores and sometimes hundreds of relative strangers to their dream finish line.

The pace group booth is one of the most popular at prerace expos, and not only because people want to sign up or get a bracelet with the splits. In Philadelphia last November, a distraught woman with frizzy hair and frazzled, bloodshot eyes poured her running heart out to the Marathon participants running in a pace group's founder and cocaptain Darris Blackford. "I did my last long run three weeks ago. It was 20 miles, but now I'm thinking I should have gone farther. I'm not sure what pace to go at because the program I was following said I should run my long runs two minutes below race pace, but now I'm not sure what my race pace is because I didn't get a chance to do a tune-up race."

She paused to inhale. "So what should I do tomorrow?"

While I would have directed this woman to the nearest pharmacy, Darris listened patiently, asked a few questions about her training, then suggested a sensible goal. "Sharon is doing our five-hour group," he said, referring to Sharon McNary, a popular pacer from Pasadena, California. "You'll really like her, and she'll help get you across the line. Relax, don't worry."

The Clif Bar leaders currently handle the pacing chores at 12 marathons and three half-marathons, including five of the country's largest 26.2-milers: Marine Corps, Walt Disney World, Twin Cities, Grandma's, and Philadelphia--where I was set to colead the 3:50 group, a time 40 minutes slower than my recent best marathon. Thirty to 40 minutes are added to a pacer's "typical" time to determine what he can comfortably handle. Just how "comfortable" I would be on race day was an open question. Six weeks earlier, in the record heat of the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St. Paul, I'd tried to lead the 3:40 pace group but melted in the sun. No one in my hopeful group finished near that time--I staggered across the line in 3:44:46. Although team organizers denied it, I suspected I'd been demoted to coleader of a slower group just in case I ran into trouble again.

My teeth chattered in the predawn chill of race morning as red and white balloons bobbed behind my head in the crowded staging area. Next to me the 5'1" Starshine Blackford, Darris's wife, greeted runners she'd met the day before. Star ("My parents were hippies, what can I say?") can both talk the talk and walk the walk, meaning she can chatter while maintaining an exact pace for miles on end. My plan was to stick by her side the entire way. Despite my Twin Cities debacle, I was still worried about going out too fast. I confessed to Star that my typical training pace is about 45 seconds to a minute faster than the 8:47 miles we needed to average. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll set the pace. You hold the balloons."

The gun was fired. I raised the balloons high. Star inhaled and started talking. She wouldn't stop for roughly the next three hours and fifty minutes.

"Good morning. My name is Star, I'm with the Marathon participants running in a pace group, and my co-pace leader is John. I am here to make you run slow when you want to run fast, and to make you run fast when you want to run slow. Listen to me, follow us, and we'll cross the finish line together in 3:50."

So that's the way it's going to be, I thought. I handle the stick; she handles the schtick.

Pace groups have only recently become so popular and organized, says Les Smith, event director of the Portland Marathon in Oregon. While he has had pace groups at his race since the mid-1980s, they were more informal and much faster, with most shooting for sub or low three-hour times. Since 2000, the average size of the pace group at his race has grown fivefold, with the largest groups now numbering 100 to 200, and the slowest pace group has gone from four hours to eight. "It's a big deal now," says Smith, who uses a local running club to organize his pace groups. "Participants today want help."

"We're going to run these first 10 miles with our heads, the second 10 miles with our legs, and the last six miles with our hearts. So during this first 10, run smart, run conservatively, run controlled."

I looked at my watch at mile one. Because of the crowded start, we were a tad off: Instead of 8:47, we hit 8:52. Mile two, we hit 8:45. Mile three: 8:46. Mile four: 8:47. Mile five: 8:46. Just like that, we were on track. At the young age of 32, Star has already completed 101 career marathons, 60 of them as a pacer, while achieving a personal best of 3:17:05, which she ran at the Akron Marathon in 2007. "After pacing so many marathons, we learn what a certain pace feels like," she'd tell me later, "and we just maintain it."

Nutrition - Weight Loss Amby Burfoot came up with the idea of organizing groups at the 1995 St. George Marathon in Utah, which the magazine had crowned the "fastest fall marathon," for runners who wanted to try to qualify for the next year's 100th edition of the Boston Marathon. The team I'm running with began in the late 1990s as an informal group of runners from Columbus, Ohio, helping to pace their friends. They were noticed at the Flying Pig Marathon by Clif Bar, which offered to sponsor the team in 2002. It has now grown to 28 members--18 men, 10 women--selected on the basis of such criteria as endurance, consistency, and personality. Members of the group get travel, lodging, and gear through Clif, but they're not paid. They do it, says Scott Stocker, leader of the 3:30 group in Philadelphia, "because of the amazing feeling you get from getting people across the finish line."

Star met Darris at-where else?-a marathon (Pittsburgh, 2001). They got married in 2004; both hold full-time jobs in Columbus. Star is the team's co-coordinator and one of the most popular leaders (runners at the expo asked for her by name). We approached Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia, its sidewalks crowded with cheering spectators, around mile five.

"I don't want to see you 100 meters ahead of me, pumping your fists in the air, waving to the crowds as if you're homecoming king and queen. Every extra ounce of energy you expend now, you no longer have at mile 23. Yes, you do look great, but you'll look even better when you're able to run the final meters to the finish line."

No one sprinted. No one pumped fists. They're listening, I thought to myself. I could hear the sound of feet on pavement, the rustle of bibs, and the clatter of cups when we passed through a water stop. But with Star giving constant instructions, there was little chatting or conversation. "When I was listening to Star's stories, I forgot about the pain, I forgot about the distance," Aquilino Garcia of Harrisburg, Mississippi, would later tell me. "It helped me focus on the running."

Races - Places.

"We are using downhills for recovery. Drop your arms, cut the size of your footsteps, and let gravity do the work for you."

Among our group of about 75 was Kevin Nolan of Havertown, Pennsylvania, who was running his second paced marathon. "It really works," he said later. "It's kind of like driving while listening to a motivational tape."

At mile 17, Star bucked up the group with what she calls "our single-digit countdown." "We now have only nine miles to go!" A struggling, stocky runner looked up angrily as we came upon him. "How the hell can you listen to that for 26 miles?"

CA Notice at Collection.

Pace-group leaders learn from experience what works, and with 10-K to go, Star launched into her memorized countdown. It was so effective, I got absorbed in it myself, and almost forgot that my mission wasn't my own finish.

"Okay, everyone, this is where we start taking the race one mile at a time. For each mile, I'm going to ask you to focus on something. For mile 20, your focus is on the reason you're in this race. Is this a Boston qualifier, a personal best, a dare from a friend?"

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"Five miles left. Now for this next mile, I want you to focus on all the work that you've done to be here, and how it's all paying off now."

I recalled that it was around this point at Twin Cities that I had to stop and walk. It was humiliating. I was supposed to be the one suffering runners could turn to for help. Instead I was helpless as the temperature reached 80 degrees.

Pace groupers who have completed one or more marathons.

"For this mile, 22, we focus on the personal support system, on our families, friends, children, parents? -everyone who has helped you over the past few months. Give them a silent shout-out of thanks."

My family and running buddies had to listen to me whine endlessly about having to lug a balloon stick. Sorry, guys.

"Three miles to go. We all have a personal hero, someone who has been through something so much harder than a marathon. Let's think about what they got through, and use that strength."

My wife had gone through chemotherapy, and she was so strong during it?but wait, I'm a pacer, must stay steady.

"Just two miles left, guys. Remember a time in your life when you demonstrated great strength in some other arena. Tap into that strength now. Only one tenth of one percent of the U.S. population finishes a marathon every year, so you're about to achieve something special."

At this point, our group came upon Teresa Traxler, a 25-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, who was struggling. "I heard a voice say, 'You've worked so hard, are you going to lose it now?'" she would tell me later. "And I said to myself, No, I'm not!" Traxler snapped out of her doldrums and joined our group.

"Last mile, everybody. You are going to do it! Every step at this point is erasing that distance to the finish line."

We passed Boathouse Row and saw the art museum. A few members of the pack sprinted ahead. There was an older Asian woman, a guy in long pants, and Darris, who had come back to finish with his wife. And there was?the finish line.

We crossed in 3:48:55. I felt a sense of satisfaction and joy that I rarely had in a race. And I was relieved.

The line of finishers dissolved into a hug fest.

&All About 75 Hard.

"This was so inspirational," said Ariana Tauro, 23, of Leonia, New Jersey, who finished her first marathon with our group.

April Williams, 40, of Athens, Georgia, qualified for Boston. "Y'all were awesome," she said. "I just kept my eye on those balloons the whole time."

Run a Faster 5K with Run/Walk Intervals!


Based on Marathon participants running in a pace group in 10 major marathons

30%: How I Broke a 3:30 Marathon After a Long Break
4:00: Running Shoes - Gear
3:10: quot;Or you can run with one of our pace-group leaders."
38: Median age
69%: Pace groupers who have completed one or more marathons
* Based on Marathon participants running in a pace group in 10 major marathons


Nice Pace

How to behave (and not) in a group

Having the perfect pacing experience depends on who's leading the way, of course; but you also bear some responsibility-to yourself, to the leader, and to the rest of your group.

DO Make sure you're in the right place. When in doubt about whether to go with, say, the 4:10 or 4:20 group, choose the slower one. "You won't overextend yourself trying to keep up with faster runners, which defeats the whole point of the pace group," says Larry Indiviglia, fitness director of Island Fitness in San Diego.

DON'T Run ahead. Some runners, full of beans, want to prove to themselves or others how fit they are by running ahead. Bad move. "If you want to lead the pack, then leave the pack," Indiviglia says.

DO Take your cues from other runners. Some groups are quiet, others chatty. Same goes for the leader-some will offer encouragement, others focus quietly. Nothing wrong with a friendly "how you feeling?"-but don't become a Blowhard Bob.

DON'T expect the pack to cater to your needs. Clif Bar Teams' Darris Blackford recalls one woman who asked him if the pace group would stop when she had to go to the bathroom. "I told her politely no-that our purpose is to be the constant out there in a world of variables," he says.

...But if you have to stop, don't panic. Take care of your business, then take your time catching up to your group. "As long as you keep an eye out for my balloons," says Blackford, "our worlds are going to come together again."

DO give the leader space. "It's like the brownnose in class," says Indiviglia. "There's always some pace-leader's pet who glues himself to the leader's elbow."