Race strategy: What’s the best practice for picking the right start corral?

Line jumpers, best beware. I’m about to drop a line on you.

Plenty of runners cross the line, in terms of truth-telling, when it comes to listing their per-mile paces on race registrations or choosing their spots (when allowed) on race days. Tons of athletes claim to run faster than they actually do, simply to snag spots in the prized early start corrals.

There is a fine line between ambition and exaggeration, especially when it comes to lining up for a big race.

Maybe runners who misrepresent their own mileage paces are simply angling for a head start, as if they don’t grasp the difference between gun time and chip time.

But that’s just corral dust, so to speak.

Sure, it’s encouraging to start up front with the faster folks. But it’s sort of demoralizing to see tons of fellow runners zipping past you throughout the first mile or so of a race. It may be just as invigorating to pass a bunch of runners at the outset of a race, although the zigzagging can slow a runner down.

That’s not even the point.

It’s considered bad form (and poor sportsmanship) for a runner to line up with the speedy athletes, if he or she doesn’t plan to bolt from the start at the listed pace. It means that runner will block those who can sprint off, making them duck and dodge and leapfrog past him or her.

A prime example would be a runner or slow jogger who slips into the elite runner corral, only to stroll onto the course at the starting gun.

One might say that behavior sort of draws battle lines.

Starting from the wrong corral definitely gets one off on the wrong foot.

It can even be dangerous.

Pile-ups and trip-ups happen. I’ve even seen runners actually shoving slower ones aside, just past the start of a race.

What’s the best practice for picking the right start corral?

It’s probably best to be as accurate as possible. Sometimes mistakes happen, even when race organizers assign start corrals. I’ve been in too-fast and too-slow corrals, and neither is ideal. But when we can help it, choosing the appropriate corrals helps everyone.

That’s the bottom line.

Images:

Marathon Start – public domain photo

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