Keeping a group together during a race?

[nanila]

I recently coaxed a few of my friends to run the 5k Race for Life in Cambridge, UK on 3 July. There will be four, possibly five, of us. We don't train together as most of them live in London (the fifth in the USA), but I do know that all of us are at different fitness levels and abilities.

I guess I'm the leader since I organised us, but I've never run with more than one other person before. I was wondering if people had tips for keeping a group together during a race. Is it even possible? Is it best to decide on a strategy beforehand? In other words, is it best to agree that we'll prioritise staying together over getting the best times? Should we try to stay in pairs? If someone needs to stop and walk, is it disheartening for that person to be left behind? Should I make an effort to be "cheerleader" and keep everybody going? Help, please?

Thanks!

Comments

[ell]

You totally should decide on a strategy beforehand!

If the faster folks want to run for PR's that should be clear from the beginning so they don't feel guilty for leaving anyone behind. If folks do want to run together, the faster folks have to be vigilant about not speeding up and either burning out or demoralizing the slower (slowest) folks.

Also, if the fast folks go on ahead, then they can be at the finish to cheer everyone else on.

You should get folks to tell you what they want before you decide what the group is doing. Does the team want to stay together or run at their own pace? Also, at many charity runs, the field is so huge that you can't really run anyway...

Does this help at all?

[nanila]

Wonderfully helpful, thank you so much. I'll send out an e-mail to the group asking whether they want to go for PRs or not.

Maybe I should suggest that everyone time themselves on a practice run so that I have some idea what pace we can set if we do run together, too?

[ell]

yes, that sounds helpful! Then maybe there will be a few sub-groups and it will be easy to group folks :-)