JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Among the over 55,000 people expected to run the New York City marathon on Sunday, there will be about 80 runners who will be their guides. They are pacers - experienced athletes who set a steady effort as a beacon to those who want to finish in a certain time. ALL THINGS CONSIDERED producer Matt Ozug spoke with one pacer ahead of the marathon.
MYLES LOCK: Personally, I like to blame it on being a Capricorn. We are really good at managing time. On Sunday, I'll be out there running with a 3-hour-and-15-minute-finish-time pace group.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOCK: One thing is running a pace, but the other one is the cadence. Somewhere around 170, 180 is going to be the sweet spot of the churn in the legs that will yield sort of the most efficient result. I'm sure there's tons of playlists on all the subscription services that, you know, people can look up, but for me, it's inside, right? It's in my heart.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DECEPTACON")
LE TIGRE: (Singing) Who took the bomp?
LOCK: Let us do the thinking and let us do all of the mental gymnastics because there's so many things that you have to take into account in New York - the uphills, the downhills, the bridges. We're going to maybe cue, OK, let's not try and push it up the Queensboro Bridge because we know we have a nice little downhill after that, and we can, you know, recover some of the time that might have been lost.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DECEPTACON")
LE TIGRE: (Singing) Every day and night.
LOCK: What do I get out of this as a pacer? There's nothing more satisfying - because it's not about you - to actually show up on race day and help someone accomplish their goal. I don't think that I would be able to perform as well in my own marathons if it wasn't for this aspect, which is showing up for the rest of the community.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLEACHERS SONG, "ROLLERCOASTER")
LOCK: If there's anything that people take away from running with a pacer, it's that we're going to run the even effort. And that's often a little bit of a difficult concept for people because they're used to a watch saying, you know, to run a particular pace. We say, well, at the beginning, it might feel incredibly slow, but you will thank yourself, and you'll thank the pacers, towards the end.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIME BOMB")
RANCID: (Singing) The boy's a time bomb.
LOCK: We see people finishing, of course, at the finish line, and there's huge celebrations. However, for a pacer, when you've done all of the work and you've run really smart up until that last one or two miles, it gives us so much joy to encourage them to actually go ahead of us. I often won't see those people finishing because I'm there, holding the pace to the very end.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOT TO GO!")
CHAPPELL ROAN: Five, six, five, six, seven, eight.
LOCK: My name's Myles Lock, and I'll be running 3 hours and 15 minutes this weekend at TCS New York City Marathon.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHAPPELL ROAN SONG, "HOT TO GO!")
SUMMERS: And good luck to all of the runners.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOT TO GO!")
ROAN: (Singing) I could be the one or your new addiction. It's all in my... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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