I have had an interesting day today, last Saturday I ran from Mousehole to Lamorna and back on the coast path. As I had not done the run before and I was in new shoes I took it fairly easy.

It is 6.11 km with 265m of ascent and I did it in 49.22, it felt fairly easy.

So when I did it again on Thursday evening I decided to go for it. I did it in 42.59, but found that when I got to the steep bits, particularly near the end, I had nothing left, and ended up waking alot of them. I felt absolutely knckered when I finished.

I did it again after work today, and held back on the flat bits and the downs and really concentrated on my form, so that I had energy left for the ups, the only bit I walked was a long flight of granite steps as you approach Mousehole. I did it in 43.45 and I felt like I could have turned around and done it again! I couldn't beleive I was only 45 seconds slower.

Guess I learned something about pacing my self!

Does anyone have any thoughts, tips or rules of thumb about pace, or is it just something you have to learn by trail and error.

What do people do when they do a run for the first time, especially if you are racing?

James