LA ULTRA RACE INTELLIGENCE · BY DR. RAJAT CHAUHAN

The reality test
before race day.

You have done the training. Given the runner you actually are today, how should you race?

8–10 min
THE REALITY TEST
3 ranges
REALISTIC · AGGRESSIVE · DO NOT CHASE
5 parts
FIVE DECISIONS, NOT ONE PACE
21 / 42
ANY HALF, ANY MARATHON

A race does not begin with the starting gun.

By then, you have already built the runner who is going to stand on that start line.

The weeks of running. The long runs you did, and the ones you missed. The paces your body has experienced. Your previous races. Where you held together. Where you slowed down. What you ate and drank. How you slept. The shoes your feet know. Work. Travel. Family. Stress. Confidence. Life.

Race day does not magically erase any of that.

Race Intelligence helps you make the best race out of the runner you have actually built.

Any half marathon. Any marathon. Anywhere.

Berlin or Bengaluru. Delhi or Mumbai.

Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Goa, London, New York, or a race we have never heard of yet.

WHEREVER POSSIBLE, WE ALSO STUDY THE RACE ITSELF
routegradientclimbs and descentsaid stationsweathertemperature and humidityaltitudelikely congestion

Because population averages can teach us a lot. But you are not the population average.

HOW WE THINK

We look backwards before we look forwards.

Think of an archer. Before the arrow can move forward, it is first drawn backwards. Race Intelligence does something similar. We look at where you have been before helping you decide where to aim.

But a race is not lived in the past or the future. It is lived now.

The rear-view mirror tells you where you have come from. The windscreen shows where you are headed. You still have to drive the road that is underneath you.

The pace matters. So does your breathing.
Your watch matters. So does what your body is telling you.

And somewhere between all the numbers, don't forget the scenery, the air on your face, and why you wanted to run in the first place.

This is not a pace calculator.

Tell a calculator you want to run a 1:45 half marathon and it can divide 105 minutes by 21.1 kilometres. That is arithmetic.

Race Intelligence asks something harder: does the runner you have built support 1:45?

What pace have your long runs actually been?
How much time have you spent around your proposed race pace?
What happened in your previous races?
Do you usually hold pace, or slowly unravel?
How much long-running have you actually done?
What happens to your breathing at that effort?
Have you practised your fuelling?
Are you arriving rested, exhausted, stressed or thriving?
What does this particular course demand?

Sometimes the answer will support the race you want. Sometimes it will not.

We will not reverse-engineer a race strategy simply because you paid us and asked for a particular finish time. Honesty is part of the product.

WHAT YOU GET

Your Race Intelligence.

Your information is assessed against sports-science research, large-scale pacing evidence, Indian race-result evidence and what we know about the race you are preparing for.

Race Intelligence is informed by published research involving hundreds of thousands to millions of race performances, alongside large Indian race-result datasets covering more than three million performances.

We study what runners actually do, not merely what pace calculators predict.

THE RUNNERTHE RACETHE DAY
REALISTIC RANGE

The race your present evidence supports.

AGGRESSIVE RANGE

Available if the day, your breathing and your body are giving you permission.

DO NOT CHASE

A target we do not believe today's runner should force.

Ambition stays. Fantasy does not get to masquerade as strategy.

Five parts. Five decisions.

A race should not be one pace blindly defended from start to finish.

HALF MARATHON
0–1 km1–6 km6–11 km11–16 km16–21.1 km
MARATHON
0–2 km2–12 km12–22 km22–32 km32–42.2 km

Each section has a job. And as you arrive at each stage, you choose from three options.

PROGRESS

Today's runner is feeling better than expected.

HOLD

Everything feels where it should.

PROTECT

The pace is costing more than it should. Protect the race that remains.

You are not a dumb machine following another machine. We give you intelligence so you can make better decisions.

Sometimes the smarter race looks slower.

Race Intelligence may tell you things that initially feel counter-intuitive.

The first kilometre may be the cheapest place in the race to lose a minute.
Sometimes you need to run slower now to finish faster later.
A target pace your body has barely experienced in training is a hope, not yet a strategy.
Your watch measures your pace. Your breathing tells you what that pace is costing you.
You can theoretically walk every 2 km and still run a sub-2 half marathon or a sub-4 marathon.
Walk before the race makes you walk.
Fuel before you need rescuing.
The best race-day nutrition is usually something your gut has already met.
Sometimes the smartest kilometre on your watch is the ugliest one.
WHEN TO COME TO US

Why we want you two to three weeks before the race.

We are not trying to rebuild your fitness in three weeks. That work has already happened. We want enough time to fine-tune and rehearse.

If we suggest a different opening pace, practise the feeling of restraint.
If a planned walk through an aid station makes sense, try it.
If your fuelling timing needs adjusting, test it during training before asking your stomach to discover it during a marathon.
If breathing is going to guide your decisions, learn to listen to it before race morning.

Race day should not feel like an experiment.

By the time you reach the start line, the important parts of your strategy should already feel familiar.

START WITH THE REALITY TESTHYDERABAD PILOT · ₹499

It takes about eight to ten minutes.

WE ASK ABOUT
your race and targetyour recent runningweekly distancelong runs and their regular paceyour exposure to target race paceprevious races and splitsplanned walkingfuellinghydration and electrolytesrunning shoes used over the last six monthssleepwork and personal lifemood and happinesswhat you actually want from the race

Where possible, paste a link to the run in your watch app rather than spending your evening typing splits. We will do the boring bit.

Please tell us what you actually did, not what your plan said you should have done.

There are no marks for good behaviour here. The better the reality, the better the Race Intelligence.

Race Intelligence does not pretend that a race report substitutes for appropriate medical care. It is not medical advice. If something in your body is worrying you, please see a doctor before you race.

THE REALITY TEST

Welcome to your reality test.

Give us about 10 minutes. Don't prepare for it. Don't try to give us the “right” answers. Open your running app if you have it handy, because links to your recent runs are often easier than remembering everything.

Tell us what actually happened in training. That is much more useful than telling us what was supposed to happen.

14 short sections · ₹999 ₹499 at the end
ONE MORE THING

The human context of performance.

Your watch knows quite a lot about your run. It knows almost nothing about your life.

SO WE ASK: HOW'S LIFE?

Because the person who slept brilliantly, trained consistently and arrives relaxed is not necessarily the same runner as the person with the identical PB who has travelled all night, barely slept and had a brutal week at work.

Running does not happen separately from being human.

Numbers are very useful. We just don't want you becoming their slave.

And after the race?

The finish line gives us more information. Your official splits and finish time tell us one story. You tell us another.

What did this race teach us about you? Every race can make the next one more intelligent.

How did it actually feel?Where did things change?Did you follow the strategy?How was your breathing?Did you fuel as planned?Did you walk when you intended to?Were you happy?Did you enjoy yourself?What surprised you?

Smile before socks and shoes.

Then go find out what today's runner can do.

Keep miling and smiling.

Start my Race Intelligence →