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Key Points
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For a 1-km split-time resolution, runners could be classified as having experienced “hitting The Wall” (HTW) if they ran any 1-km segment 11% slower than the average of the remaining segments of the race or if the standard deviation of the normalized 1-km split times was >0.0532.
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For a 5-km split-time resolution, runners could be classified as having experienced HTW if they ran any 5-km segment 7.3% slower than the average of the remaining 5-km segments of the race or if the standard deviation of the normalized 5-km split times was >0.0346.
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Researchers, coaches, and athletes can adopt these thresholds to evaluate the prevalence of HTW among groups of athletes without subjective questionnaire data.
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A greater variety of marathon courses, environmental conditions, and participant demographics should be examined to devise a more definitive pace-based definition of HTW.
The marathon (42.2-km) footrace is one of the most popular sporting events worldwide for athletes of both sexes and various ages and abilities. In the past 2 decades, the number of United States runners has almost quadrupled. In each year between 2004 and 2016, an average of 470 000 runners (approximately 42% female) completed a marathon in the United States alone,1,2 with consistent participation rates across years.3
Recently, race record datasets for numerous city marathon events have been made available online.4 This has enabled researchers and the public to examine the races of elite and recreational runners, gaining new insights into the characteristics of the participating groups and their associated in-race splits and overall finish times.5 For instance, in analyses of the race records from the Boston, Chicago, and London marathons, researchers4,6,7 demonstrated that marathoners who finished the 42.2-km distance in <3 hours typically had an even or negative split time4,6,7 between the first and second halves of the race. In contrast, marathoners who exhibited a positive split4,6,7 tended to finish in >3 hours.
Based on these data, it is clear that pacing, or the actual distribution of speed, power output, or energetic reserves during a given sporting event,8 is a fundamental determinant of competitive endurance performance.9,10 A phenomenon widely recognized as disrupting marathoners' pacing is associated with extreme fatigue and is known as “hitting...