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Greetings,
My son is a sophomore at St. John Bosco in Bellflower, California and he is completeing his first year of Cross-Country. He recently came in second at the Mt.Sac Invitational and his fastest time this year is 16:44. The problem he is having is maintaining a specific pace. So, I am asking for any theories or practices that might help him maintaining a competitive pace. He does not seem to be as tired as one might think after running 3.0 miles. However, when he is running with someone that he knows is faster than him he seems to run faster and use their pace to guage where he should be. I suggested a wrist timer, but he feels that it will mess with his form if he raises his arm to check his time.
Thanks in advance,
Jemjr67

although i am a sprinter my training partner in highschool was a 4:17 miler who also ran a 15:45 5k and his first races he also had a problem with pacing himself he never wore a watch for the same reason as your son the thing that helped him learn pace was just experience and learning the courses he would be running as best as he could ahead of time so just keep training well and the concept of pace will come with time.



p.s. if that doesn't work there is always sprinting hahaha no concept of pace required