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    Optimal Pacing of 400m and 800m Races: A Standard Microeconomics Approach (2016)

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    Type of Content
    Discussion / Working Papers
    UC Permalink
    http://hdl.handle.net/10092/15227
    
    Publisher
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY
    Collections
    • Business: Working Papers [193]
    Authors
    Gunby PP
    Watt R
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    Abstract

    The optimal way for an athlete to run 400m and 800m races has long been debated by athletes, coaches, and more recently by physicists and applied mathematicians. These two particular running events are different from both shorter and longer races, due to their emphasis upon an athlete’s lactate system. If the first part of the race is run either too quickly (in which case the fatigue that is generated makes the second half of the race both slow and painful) or too slowly (in which case even though the second half will be fast, it cannot make up for the time lost earlier on),2 the total time for the entire distance will not be as fast as it could otherwise have been. In this paper we discuss this choice problem in a standard microeconomic setting, and we solve for the optimal “split” times for the first and second half of the race.

    Citation
    Gunby PP, Watt R (2016). Optimal Pacing of 400m and 800m Races: A Standard Microeconomics Approach. DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY. Christchurch. DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY.
    This citation is automatically generated and may be unreliable. Use as a guide only.
    Keywords
    constrained optimization; microeconomics; athletics
    ANZSRC Fields of Research
    11 - Medical and Health Sciences::1106 - Human Movement and Sports Science::110699 - Human Movement and Sports Science not elsewhere classified
    38 - Economics::3803 - Economic theory::380304 - Microeconomic theory

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