Run Your True Race Distance by Following the Shortest Path
You’ve probably run more than five kilometers in the last 5 kilometers, like most runners who have run the distance with you. There is a trick to get you the fastest way in a race, and it’s not cheating.
Race distances are measured along the shortest possible track along the track with an additional 0.1% added just in case. (These are the rules for any course that says it is “USATF Certified,” which includes most organized road races in the United States.)
How do you make sure you are running a real racing distance? Taking the shortest path through any curve in the road is not the same as driving along the inside of the curve. As Kelly O’Mara explains in Competitor:
If you are running down a street in a race and make a right turn and then a left turn, the shortest path from one corner to the next is a diagonal straight line. However, most people do not take this path. Most will run on one side of the road and pull out at the last second. Or they get messed up and still come in line.
You may have to grapple with the crowd, but as long as the path is clear, “tangential run” (as the technique is called) can save you a little distance – for example, half a mile during a marathon.
Find out more on the Competitor website on why and how to draw tangents, and for more information, check out the USATF Course Measurement Guidelines , complete with diagrams showing how to find the shortest path.
How to run tangentially in a race (and why you need it!) | Competitor
Photo by Peter Mooney .
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