Running Smart Is More Important Than Running Hard

The 2021 Berlin Marathon met significant hype, with the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Bekele, making headlines for making an attempt at Eliud Kipchoge’s illustrious marathon world record (2:01:39).

But the race would, on face value, be a disappointment. The men’s winner, Guye Adola, ran 2:05:45, which is over four miles slower than the marathon world record. Kenenisa Bekele finished in third place in 2:06:47.

But the face value of the race does not have context. According to Cathal Deny at Runner’s World, the conditions were not good for a world record attempt. The race went from 16°C (60°F) to 21°C (69°F), which is very hot for a world record attempt.

Any runner can tell you anywhere from 45°F to 50°F is perfect running weather for running the fastest they can. It’s not like you can’t run faster in hotter or colder conditions, but it’s difficult, especially in the heat as running 26.2 miles heats up the body quite a lot.

The race pacers did not take the race out being cognizant of the conditions: they went out in the first half in 60:48, which is the fastest opening half of a marathon ever. This was 18 seconds faster than Kipchoge ran his first half in the 2018 Berlin Marathon, but it was also a non-ideal day. Bekele had run a bit smarter than the leading four, going out at the target pace in 61:00.

The second half of the race was a death march where two of the top four dropped out, and everyone slowed down significantly.

But the lesson showed: it was not the best-paced race or most smartly run race by the pacers. Going out too hard and fast is a mistake often made by amateur runners and rookies, and although we can applaud the pacers for making it an honest effort at the world record, conditions also needed to be taken into account.

It’s better to run smarter, not harder.

This is a lesson I’ve internalized the past year and a half as I’ve taken a new approach to running and how to get into the best shape possible. I have run with some very fast people, but while that’s sound advice, what does it look like? Isn’t there nuance behind what it means to run smarter, and what it means to run harder?

Yes, there most certainly is. I can only say what this looks like for myself, and I cannot always say the way I approach running can be extrapolated to everyone else.

First, to know the context behind my running career, I am the guy that’s always worked hard. I am the person that always worked too hard. Every workout would be a race and an effort to run faster than I ever had before. I strained very hard — if you looked at my face, it always looked like I was in a lot of pain.

In high school and college, until the later stages of my career, I always felt like I had to compete with my teammates. Beyond workouts, many runs would devolve into a similar kind of competition where I was going all out, including 15 mile long runs and even some easy runs.

This would mean I wasn’t fresh and was not ready when it came to racing. I would always underperform compared to where I was in my workouts, where I would often lead. I wondered what was wrong, and why I always choked compared to when I was working out.

Knowing when to hold back and not give it 100% of what you have is essential to optimizing your ability as a runner. I recently had two races where for once, I didn’t underperform but overperform compared to where I was when I was working out.

During the summer, I could barely run five mile runs at six-minute pace. I felt like I was suffocating in the heat when I tried, and I called it quits on workouts much earlier than I planned.

A younger version of me would have freaked out if the workouts didn’t go as planned. But now, that was completely fine because it wasn’t the race. It was just a workout. And I’m also withholding the detail that it was incredibly hot in Baltimore most of the summer. Even in the mornings, when I would wake up at 5 a.m. and run, it was still 70 to 75 degrees and very humid. I would try my best to hit target splits, but listening to how I felt and where I was was more important than the target goals.

And during these races where it was around 55 to 65 degrees and not as humid, much faster splits that I hadn’t been hitting in my workouts magically felt a lot easier. It’s not like I became a magically different runner, but I was a lot more strategic about holding back before the race with shorter, easier runs and less intensity, and pacing myself in a rhythmic manner.

I know a lot of runners who have a different philosophy on when to push and when to hold back. I’m no Prefontaine in terms of that philosophy — I make sure to run my own race and not pay too much attention to what other people are doing. If something in the race is painful for me, like a very steep hill, I can look around me and realize it’s pretty painful for everyone else too. It’s better to hold back and run my own race, not put in any big surges, and run smarter, not harder.

I have two big marathons coming up where my goal is to run faster than I have. I hope to finally break 2:40 in the marathon and it’s my goal, now, to do it. I’m in the shape for it. But I will not say definitively that that is what I will do on both days. For one, conditions matter and they matter a lot. The first marathon is very hilly in my home city of Baltimore. People generally don’t run as fast as they possibly can there. But the second is if it’s hot, windy, or humid on the day, then I will run slower than my max capacity.

All I can do is listen to myself and run the smartest race I can. I won’t let other people dictate my race and I plan to be as strategic as possible, taking the conditions into account.

As a runner, it’s better to run smarter, not harder. I’ve run myself into the ground with injury and illness before. I haven’t recovered well a lot of the time. But I like to think I’ve become more mature and smarter about running now.

Takeaways

I’ve been working on extrapolating these lessons learned running to other aspects of my life. “Work smarter, not harder” is pretty common and cliche advice.

All I can say (in terms of what works for me) is to trust yourself.

You know yourself best. You know how to advocate for yourself. You know how you feel with certain approaches to work, life, relationships, and more. I’m not saying to never push yourself outside your comfort zone but to trust you are where you’re supposed to be.

You’re not crazy or doing everything completely wrong. This is where you’re supposed to be, and as a runner, this lesson is one I’ve taken to heart to optimize my performance and run in the most sustainable way possible. No one knows the conditions and context to your life, and you know them 100%.

Whatever working and living smarter and sustainably mean to you are also the best paths forward. It’s better to trust our instincts than trusting the noise from the outside.

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This post was previously published on Ryan Fan’s blog.

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