Pacing advice for first ultra?
I’m running 100km with 2000ish mt elevation gain on relatively non technical trails right at the end of June. The cutoff time is 20h which is very generous (you could walk the whole thing technically), but I am really unsure how fast I should go. I was thinking 15 hours or less? So far I have followed my self made training plan with no issues… Right now I’m in my second to last peak week and so I’ve been testing gear out and nutrition. Most of my long runs that are over 30km sit around about 8:00 min/km, but I feel like that is due to the fact that my long runs have much more elevation gain than the race does per km, and also I previously had stomach issues which I resolved by changing food recently and drinking more. Usually at the end of most of my Long Runs I feel tired but my legs don’t feel destroyed at all. My main struggle has been side stitches which appear after really steep climbs (the course I do for my long run has 2-3 climbs which have 100mt+ per km). My best (and only) marathon I feel does not reflect my actual ability because it was poorly executed in multiple ways - 4:45 (flat on road).
Any other advice would also be helpful!
TLDR:
Advice needed on pacing for first ultra, 100km with 2000m elevation gain, given long runs 30-40km @ 8min kms
Advice needed for side stitches appearing late in long runs
Any other advice is welcome.