AORTA News: September 21st, 2026
Arrr! It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

AORTA’s Saturday crew went searching for buried treasure.Turns out it was 14 miles away. No treasure. No rum. Not even a parrot!

Upcoming Local Race This Week!

Auburn University ODK Cake 5K
When: Thursday, September 24, 2026
Time: 5:00 PM
Where: Cater Lawn, AU Campus
Distance: 5K
Fee: Free
Description: Omicron Delta Kappa will be hosting Auburn University's Annual Cake Race to kickoff Homecoming Week. The 5k is open to the Auburn community, and the top three male and female finishers of the race will win a cake! This longstanding Auburn tradition will begin and end in front of Katherine Cooper Cater Hall, and the route will take participants around Auburn's campus.

Upcoming Local Races

Mercy Medical 5K/10K
When: Saturday, Ocbober 03, 2026
Time: 8:00 AM (1-Mile) 8:30 (5K/10K)
Where: Ogletree Shopping Center, Auburn
Distance: 1M, 5K, 10K
Fee: $20 (1M), $35 (5K), $45 (10K)
Description: Come join us for the 3rd annual Mercy Medical Run to raise money from this race, all of it, will be donated to Mercy Medical. For over 25 years, Mercy Medical has fulfilled this mission through the generous financial support of our community. The clinic is staffed primarily by volunteers who selflessly give their time to love and serve the underserved of our community.

The 7th Korean American Youth Leadership 5K

When: Saturday, Ocbober 03, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM
Where: Kiesel Park
Distance: 5K
Fee: $25
Description: Organized by Korean American students in the Auburn area through Auburn University Outreach Global’s Korea Corner, the event is part of a youth leadership initiative that gives students hands-on experience planning and managing a community fundraising project. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Korean American Paralympic Committee. Participants of all abilities are invited to come out, get active, and support a great cause.

Walk For Life + 5K
- When: Saturday, October 10, 2026
- Time: 8:00 AM (1-Mile), 8:30 AM (5K)
- Where: Opelika Sportsplex
- Fee: $30 (5K), $10 (1M), $0 for 12 & Under (1M) 
- Description: Looking for an easy and fun way to make a difference for LIFE? Join Women's Hope Medical Clinic & Hope Adoptions as a runner or fundraising walker for our upcoming Walk For Life + 5K! By getting sponsors to support your walk, you can help reach our fundraising goal and play a significant role in cultivating a culture of life.

Tutu Trot 5K
- When: Saturday, October 17, 2026
- Time: 8:00 AM (Fun Run), 8:30 AM (5K)
- Where: Town Creek Park
- Fee: $30 (5K), $25 (Fun Run)
- Description: Join us for this fun, family-friendly event that benefits the Down South Cancer Foundation and celebrates breast cancer survivors while raising awareness and support for those affected by cancer in our community. Participants are encouraged to embrace the theme and run or walk in a tutu — a tutu is included with registration! Come run, walk, wear your tutu, and help support a great cause!

Beat Bama Food Drive 5K
- When: Sunday, November 01, 2026
- Time: 2:00 PM (1-Mile), 2:30 PM (5K)
- Where: Cater Lawn, Auburn University
- Fee: $38 (5K), $18 (1-Mile)
- Description: The Beat Bama Run Fest is a charity color run benefiting the Food Bank of East Alabama. It offers a 5K race and a one-mile fun run for participants of varying fitness levels, encouraging community involvement by collecting non-perishable food donations. Pre-registration is encouraged to save on fees, and the event includes water stops, refreshments, and children's entertainment, making it a well-rounded experience focused on fitness, community engagement, and philanthropy for participants of all ages.

Unity Wellness Center AIDS Day Run/Walk
- When: Saturday, November 14, 2026
- Time: 8:00 AM (1-Mile), 8:30 PM (5K)
- Where: Town Creek Park, Auburn, AL
- Fee: $5 (1-Mile), $5 (5K) (t-shirt $20)
- Description: Join us for the 9th Annual Unity Wellness Center World AIDS Day Run/Walk, featuring a $5 fee for both the 5K and 1-mile events (with an option to add a shirt for $20). Age group awards will be given, and there will be a raffle and refreshments for the whole family. The 1-mile walk starts at 8:00 am (untimed), and the 5K timed race begins at 8:30 am. This event commemorates World AIDS Day, a global day of unity against HIV, and supports Unity Wellness Center's vital services, including HIV testing, counseling, medical care, case management, and prevention education. 

Weekly Whimsy

Risk-Based Pacing As A Race Strategy
Matteo Sargenti, The Running Week

Risk-based pacing is the race day method elite coaches use to hit big goals without blowing up. Here is how to build the strategy in plain language.

Every race is a bet you place with your body. The pace you pick is the size of the bet. Go out too fast and the payout gets wiped in the last 10K. Go out too cautious and there is nothing left in the account to spend.

Risk-based pacing is the framework that names this trade and helps you manage it in real time. It is how experienced coaches quietly plan race day for their athletes without ever using the phrase out loud.

What Risk-Based Pacing Actually Is
Every kilometer of a race carries a risk premium. That is the extra effort you cannot fully recover from if you spend it too early. The goal is not the fastest average pace on paper. The goal is the fastest pace you can hold without triggering an unrecoverable spike in effort.

The Two Failure Modes You Are Managing
There are only two ways a race really goes wrong. Understanding both is the whole game.

The first is the blow-up. You banked seconds in the early miles, cardiac drift catches up around 25K to 30K in a marathon, and the wheels come off. Splits collapse and the finish clock adds minutes you can never claw back.

The second is the under-shoot. You held back too much out of fear, crossed the line with legs that could have gone harder, and left the personal best on the pavement. This one hurts differently but it still hurts.

The Three Risk Zones Every Race Has
Break the race into three zones. Each one has a different rule for how aggressively you are allowed to spend.

Zone 1: The Cheap Miles (First Third)
This is where discipline is worth the most. Adrenaline, taper energy, and cool morning temperatures make the target pace feel ridiculously easy. The trap is obvious: banking time when the risk premium is lowest feels smart, and it never is. Every second you steal here gets paid back with interest in Zone 3.
The rule: hold goal pace or 3 to 5 seconds per mile slower than goal. That is it.

Zone 2: The Honest Miles (Middle Third)
The nervous energy is gone and the race gets quiet. This is where the honest work happens. The middle third is where you find out whether the pace you chose was actually appropriate for your current fitness. Effort should climb a notch, breathing gets rhythmic, and you settle into what physiologists call the steady-state effort window.
The rule: hold goal pace, protect your form, and stop looking at the watch every mile. Check every 5K instead.

* Zone 3: The Expensive Miles (Final Third)
Now the risk premium is highest. Every second you spend costs more than the second before it. This is where fitness gets audited. Cardiac drift is real, muscle glycogen is depleting, and pace holds only because you decided in Zones 1 and 2 that it would.
The rule: spend everything, but only after the point where a blow-up cannot ruin the finish. That point is roughly the final 20 percent of the race distance.

How To Set The Risk-Based Target Before Race Day
The mistake most runners make: they pick a goal pace from a training PR or a race-time predictor and then treat it as fixed. Elite pacing does the opposite. It sets a band, not a point.

Build A Three-Tier Goal Structure
Write down three specific paces before race day. Not one.

A-goal pace: the personal best target and the ceiling. You only aim here if the weather cooperates and the first 5K feels comfortable at goal pace.

B-goal pace: the strong-effort target, roughly 5 to 10 seconds per mile slower than the A-goal. If the day is warmer than forecast or you feel a bit heavy in the first 5K, this is the pace that still delivers a very strong finish.

C-goal pace: the finish-well target, roughly 15 to 20 seconds per mile slower than the A-goal. On a bad day, this is the pace that keeps the race intact and preserves the training block for the next attempt.

Assign The Decision Point
Pick a specific point in the race, usually the 5K to 8K mark, where you commit to one of the three tiers based on how the effort actually feels. The site has already covered a related tactic in real detail.

The full breakdown of how to run negative splits on race day pairs cleanly with a three-tier goal structure, and it is worth reading alongside this one.

The Environmental Modifiers That Change The Risk
Two runners at the same fitness will not run the same race in different conditions. Risk-based pacing treats the environment as part of the price.

Temperature
For every degree Celsius above 12 to 14 C at race start, marathon pace slows by roughly 1 to 3 seconds per kilometer. Half-marathon pace slows by a smaller but still meaningful amount.

If race-morning temperature is above forecast, downgrade one tier automatically. That is not caution, that is arithmetic.

Course Profile
Rolling hills, false flats, and long headwind stretches all change the risk of a fixed pace. Effort is what actually costs you, and pace is only the accounting. On a hillier course, target even effort, not even pace. Watch the heart rate or the breathing rate through climbs, and let downhills give the time back.

Recent Illness Or Poor Sleep
These are unglamorous inputs and they matter more than most runners admit. A poor two-week sleep average is worth downgrading a tier on its own.

Why This Beats Even Splits, Negative Splits, And Heart-Rate-Only
Traditional pacing frameworks all have blind spots. Risk-based pacing borrows from each and covers what the others miss.

Even Splits Ignore The Cost Curve
Even-pacing looks disciplined on the watch. It ignores the fact that the same pace costs more per kilometer as the race goes on.

Negative Splits Assume Perfect Fitness Knowledge
Negative splits are elegant when they work. They require the runner to know their real fitness on the day, and race-day fitness is not always what the last long run suggested.

Heart-Rate-Only Pacing Lags Reality
Cardiac drift makes heart rate an unreliable guide in the middle third of a long race. A drifting heart rate zone will tell you to slow down at exactly the moment your fitness would let you hold pace.

For a deeper look at how pace and effort actually interact when the goal is sustainable improvement, the guide to improving pace without burning out is a solid companion read to this framework.

The Race-Morning Checklist For Risk-Based Pacers
Do these four things in the corral. In this order.
- Check the temperature. Compare it to the conditions your training paces are calibrated for, and downgrade a tier if it is warmer than forecast.
- Confirm your A, B, and C paces on the pace band. Write them on your wrist in permanent marker if the paper band worries you.
- Set the watch to autolap by kilometer or mile. Then commit to not looking at the watch during the first 3K except at autolap.
- Pick the decision-point kilometer and repeat it to yourself before the gun. That is where you commit to the tier.

The Deep Value Of Naming The Trade
Most runners lose time on race day not because they lacked fitness but because they treated pacing as a single number.

Risk-based pacing turns that single number into a decision. It gives you permission to downgrade without treating it as failure, and it gives you the structure to upgrade when the day cooperates.

The physiology behind pacing decisions has been studied at length. The framework here is consistent with the peer-reviewed evidence on cardiovascular drift and endurance pacing in the NIH-hosted research on drift and pacing during prolonged exercise, which is worth a read for anyone who wants the underlying science.

The Bottom Line
Pacing is not a number. It is a priced decision you keep making from the first kilometer to the last. Risk-based pacing gives that decision a shape through zones, tiers, modifiers, and a committed decision point. On the days when the fitness is there, this is the strategy that lets you take it. On the days when it is not, this is the strategy that keeps the race whole.

Link to article: https://tinyurl.com/98cpb9mu

Quote of the Week

         I love running

         I love running

         I love running

         I love running

         I’m dying

               All marathon runners at “the wall”

Video of the Week

I Ran 27 Miles in Sandals with the World's Top Runners (31:33)

Eva zu Beck heads into the Copper Canyon in Mexico to meet the famous Rarámuri (Tarahumara) runners, known for their exceptional endurance and ability to run extremely long distances. Through her time with the community, Eva learns about their running techniques, the cultural significance of running, and the mental and physical endurance required. She takes on the challenge of running an ultramarathon distance, embracing the traditional lifestyle and equipment of the Rarámuri.

** AORTA provides this informational video to its members as a courtesy and does not endorse any particular product, process, or service. 

Ongoing Events

RunGo For Turn-By-Turn Directions!
RunGo provides turn-by-turn navigation allowing you to just enjoy your runs without having to think about looking for street names and when you may have to turn next. Other great features include, audio cues with your running stats, split updates, the ability to share your runs via social media, and create new routes. Another great feature of the app is the ability to work offline. You can create and download your routes ahead of time, before your run so you don’t have to use data during your run.

Race Volunteers Needed!
As a runner, we know your time is valuable. But if you have a couple hours to spare, we could use your help for one of the upcoming AORTA supported or directed races! Assisting at a local race is a fun and rewarding experience. You are surrounded by health conscious individuals that, like you, are motivated fitness enthusiasts and appreciate the effort of volunteers.

Water Stop Volunteers Needed
Water stop signs and coolers are available at the following location: 1536 Professional Parkway, Auburn, AL. (Thank you Adahli Massey!). Coolers and signs can be picked up Monday-Thursday from 8AM-4PM and on Fridays from 8AM-12 noon. Items are in the room next to the back door. If you are unable to pick up supplies on these dates/times, e-mail clemster@aol.com to make alternative arrangements (we deliver!).

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