By Charlie B an
Erica Ferrell with some of her pacing group. Photo by MarathonFoto
60 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | JULY AUGUST 2014
The number — 4:40 — looked like it belonged with a Bible verse. It bounced above Erica Ferrell, attached to a long stick. As she toted that sign through Columbia Heights, NoMa, Capitol Hill and Anacostia, her disciples followed. In the end, her message was indeed the truth. She crossed the line at the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon in 4:40:06, right on schedule. “I lost the last few people around mile 23,” she said. “They stopped to get water. I slowed down, but they started walking.” Least she seem uncompassionate, it wasn’t Farrell’s job to hold her runners’ hands for 26.2 miles. She worked in some flexibility in her pacing for water stops, but she was to be the metronome her runners needed. “When I was on my own, there were times that I thought about running ahead to finish it up,” she said. “But that wasn’t why I was here. I stuck to the plan.” Pacing groups are marathon mainstays, and crucial for many novice marathoners to complete the race. Among the string of solitary runners, they pack up and their dozens of footsteps announce their presence. Spectators use them as reference points when trying to locate friends and family members in the middle of the race. “People really look for them, either to hang on as long as they can or to gauge their pace,” Ferrell said. “I’ve run with plenty of pacing groups in my own racing and they’re good at helping you chill out and not rush. When you’re in the early miles of a marathon, you get eager and you want to see what you can do, but signing up for that group means a reminder that you need to run a pace you can maintain the whole way.” Ferrell, a Thurmont, Md. resident, came to the job at the behest of Nate Nudelman, coach of the Navy Academy Marathon Team. He has a core group of pacers that have worked the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon and Half Marathon and its previous incarnation as the National Marathon, a crew he supplements with Midshipmen who cut their spring breaks short to come and pace. For Ferrell, a 12-time marathoner with a 3:40 best, it was a chance to give back. “I’ve run a lot of my PRs thanks to pacing