Five tips for correctly pacing your marathon. Have a goal finish time in mind. Work out what time you want to finish in and work out how fast you need to go to finish in that time. Do not go out too fast. Don't try to bank miles or time do every mile at your goal pace. Set up your watch to show average pace and lap pace. But don't just rely on your watch. Make sure you're hitting the mile markers on the course as well. Don't be afraid that you're going to slow down in the second half. If you've done the training, you won't. For a four hour marathon, you hit halfway in one hour 59. For a five hour marathon, you hit halfway in two hours 29 minutes. You don't want to get bogged down queuing up at aid stations to collect water. Have a friend run with you so they can go to the aid stations and collect the water for you.