Going Solo
“I’m doing a 100 this weekend with no pacers and have been excited about the challenge but am now getting nervous, specifically about the nighttime hours when my mood will shift - any tips?”
Pacers do a lot, starting with the obvious - setting pace. They monitor your pace compared to your goal or cutoff and let you know if you need to speed up.
And if they’re magic, they keep you going…fast enough.
And as if that’s not enough, runners often expect their pacers to take on other duties, like:
Navigating to keep you on course
Telling you what’s ahead, like climbs or easy sections
Reminding you to eat and drink on schedule
Asking about potential problems you may not be paying attention to
Problem-solving all the things
Doubling as crew in aid stations
Saving you from being alone
So when you’re used to having a pacer, going without feels like walking a tightrope without a safety net.
But learning to run confidently without a pacer gives you freedom. You become self-sufficient and can race whether a pacer is available or not.
Here are three tips for making your solo debut a success:
First, if you’ve handed your awareness over to pacers, it’s time to take it back.
You need to watch for flags, keep track of your eating and hydration, check your pace, monitor for problems, and think about the climbs and rough sections ahead.
No mindlessly checking out on autopilot. You don’t want to wonder how far back you saw the last flag.
Second, accept responsibility for your own decisions and trust yourself to make them.
Decisions like how fast to run, which way is right, what to eat and drink when, what you need to do in the next aid station, how to solve all the problems…
And whether to keep going.
A runner who decides to keep going is more committed to finishing than a runner who keeps going because their pacer told them to.
Third, your mood doesn’t happen to you - you’re in charge of it. And you need to be, whether you have a pacer or not.
Let’s say it’s night, around 2am with hours to go, and you’ve become increasingly alone as runners drop and spread out.
You might become anxious thinking, “I’m so alone out here by myself,” and when you get to an aid station with lights and other humans, you decide to stay.
But if you expect this to happen, you can decide now - before the race - how you’re going to set a positive mood by thinking:
“Finally, peace and quiet to focus on my race.”
“It’s exciting doing something new that stretches me.”
“I’m proud of myself for such a big adventure.”
Thinking like that will get you out of the aid station to the finish line.
Altogether, these three tips give you what you need to run without a pacer. Use them to plan how you’ll approach the race on your own and become your own safety net.
It’s an example how mastering anything in ultras takes mindset skills. You name it - mindset’s involved.
That’s why I coach mindset. It directly raises your results and chances of finishing.
If you’re curious about coaching with me, use this link to set up an easy consult call.
The best investment you can make for your races is your mind.
