Every event I join has a purpose.

Sometimes it’s part of a long build-up to a big race—like when I used a series of long runs to prepare for the Osaka Marathon. I treat these events not as stand-alone races, but as checkpoints. Opportunities to test fitness, pacing, and mindset.

And because I’m aiming to break 2:30 in the half-marathon—something I haven’t done in a long time—the purpose behind my participation in tomorrow’s Rexona 10-Miler is clear: To see if I can continuously—with no walk breaks—run 16 kilometers at my half-marathon goal pace of 7:00/km.

I am both anxious and excited. It’s been a while since I’ve run this kind of pace straight through. I’ve gotten used to regulating effort through run-walk strategies, typically a 5:1 run-walk ratio. This time, I want to see if I can hold the line. But I’m also realistic enough to admit that I don’t know if I can and there’s a good chance I might blow up.

And here;s where the Self-Regulated Tempo run comes into play. It’s a concept I learned from Steve Magness and I’ve recently been recommending to some of my runners.

In a Self-Regulated Tempo, you pick a distance and a target pace that reflects your race goal (in my case, it’s 16 km at 7:00/km). Then you start running at that pace. But if you feel yourself fatiguing and on the verge of collapsing in exhaustion (an RPE of about 8), you dial back to an easier pace for 1–2 minutes. Once recovered, you resume race pace and hold it again. You repeat this cycle until you finish the distance.

If you can run the full effort continuously, great. But that’s not the point. You don’t have to be strict about your splits. The goal is to listen to your body and respond, guided by honesty and effort, not ego.

If you’ve been stuck in cautious pacing, or haven’t tested your race pace in a while, you might find this kind of run helpful. Not as a “workout,” but as an experiment. A quiet conversation between your mind and body.

And for me, the big questions I want answered are these: Can I hold the effort without burning out? Can I recover after 1-2 minutes? And in the end, what lessons will the run teach me?

I don’t know how tomorrow will go. Maybe I’ll surprise myself. Maybe I’ll maintain the pace easily. Or maybe I’ll have to slow down — hopefully when I’m close to the 16K finish line.

Stay tuned. I’ll definitely share how it goes.