Ah, the truth lies somewhere between the posts in this thread. The Conga lines in the W's DO help, if you've timed your arrival at the trail to account for the slowdown, so that by the top of the W's or No Name Creek you're on pace- assuming you know the pace you should be at. If you don't account for the slowdown... well see the posts on almost missing cutoffs. But that's mostly in the Ascent. You'll be slowed to slower than recovery speed in the Ascent in the W's, and need to account for that in your "speed" approaching the trail, or as someone has already said you may miss cutoffs. In the Marathon you're more on your own to keep the lid on- and obviously it's even more important. It's all relative however, as the average time in the Ascent, 4:32 last year, is a 20:26 per mile average. SO, to answer the question, that's walking, a lot, my friend. If you're doing 3.1MPH at your 14.5% you're ahead of the average times even for the Ascent, let alone folks doing the round trip. Best of Luck! In response to: Starting out too quickly can get you in worse trouble higher up... the couple minutes you gain on the W's can cost you 10x that above treeline... not just my 2 cents, read Matt's book or visit his website,,, he's won the PPA and PPM more than anyone--pacing is everything and conga-lines on the Ws actualy might help,,,
