Race Day Tactics Part 4: Starting Lines
Whether you’re running a 5k, a marathon, or an Ironman triathlon, your starting line strategy matters. Combine this with race pacing, running tangents, and navigating aid stations smoothly, and you’ll have better race strategies that will lead to stronger races and PRs.
Many athletes treat the start line of a race like a waiting room. But randomly choosing a spot and just standing and waiting for the gun to go off will give you much different race results from strategically choosing a location, staying loose, and mentally preparing. The start line is part of the race and where you line up on race day can set you up for a controlled and confident race.
Why The Starting Line Feels Different
Starting lines are more than just the beginning of a run or triathlon. They feel different because your adrenaline is high, you’re feeling full of energy from your taper, and you place importance on a race that you’ve trained months for. If this is a race that you plan to PR in or place, then there’s even more importance placed on it.
Two of the most common mistakes at every distance is going out too fast and starting too far back at the start. The first mile feels easier because of a combination of those pre-race nerves, extra energy bottled up from the taper, and the crowd around you. But if you follow along with faster runners, it could backfire later in the race.
Having a pre-race routine will help calm those nerves and having a race plan will carry you through the rest of the race. Knowing where to line up will help you get a clean start to your race.
Why Start Line Positioning is Important
Your placement is important no matter what your speed.
Remember that corral placement matters more than ego. So seed yourself honestly, not aspirationally.
Starting too far back will hold you back from going at your correct pace. While starting too slow is a better mistake than starting too fast, it could lead to aggravation and stress from having to get past slower runners. And if you weave in and out of the crowd, you’ll waste precious energy.
Seeding yourself in a faster wave than your fitness warrants does not make you race faster. It puts you in a crowd moving at a pace you can’t sustain, leading you to going out to fast, erratic pacing, and slowing down later in the race.
Besides it negatively affecting your race, it actually creates a hazardous condition for everyone around you. When you place yourself in a faster group it causes the faster athletes around you to either weave around you or brake unexpected trying to avoid collisions. And when this happens it affects all runners in the area, causing unexpected jostling. This will lead to everyone having a bad start to their race.
In a triathlon, starting in a faster wave will put you in a similar situation with the added factor that faster swimmers might overtake you by swimming over you, hitting your feet, and bumping into you. The swim start is already considered a washing machine, don’t add to the hectic chaos.
Where to Start
If a race has signs or corrals set up with pace times, stick to the pace area that you know you can keep up with. Use your past training and racing as a guide to know what you’re capable of. Besides your current fitness level, you also want to take into account your goal for the race and how hard you’ll be pushing. But it’s important to keep your current fitness level in mind.
Not every race has corrals and chip timing. Smaller, local races and trail races have open start lines that are self-seeding.
If the start area is open, then see who lines up and where. Pay attention to how they look. With experience, you’ll be able to pick up which runners are faster or slower. Talk to the other athletes near you about what pace they expect to run. Talking to the other athletes is the best way to know where to line up.
Race etiquette dictates this is how start lines are arranged:
- Front and center are the fastest and most aggressive. They expect to win.
- The middle are the mid-pack runners. The more competitive mid-pack runners will be at the front of this group.
- The back are the slowest runners.
The more race experience you get, the easier it will get to know where you should start. But if you’re ever in doubt, you’re better off going further back than further in front. It’s easier to run a good race starting off a bit slow than it is starting too fast and blowing up mid-race.
Triathlons
Triathlon starts, similar to running starts, have the faster swimmers in the front with the paces getting progressively slower as it moves to the back. If you’re not a strong swimmer, then place yourself on the outer edge of your pace group so that you have more space.
Trail Races
If you’re running a trail race, know what to expect from the course ahead of time. Some trails might start in a wide open area and then bottle neck to a narrow trail. If you’re competitive, you can take advantage of this by using the open area to get into a good position and ahead of your competition before it narrows.
Starting Too Far Back
If you do start further back than you should have, be patient.
Weaving around other athletes trying to get out faster will backfire because it consumes too much energy and you’ll be adding more distance to the race than you need to. The added stress will also lead to an energy zap.
Try to keep a steady pace and slowly make your way through without too much weaving.
Chip Time vs Gun Time
For races with electronic timing, your chip time is your exact race time from when you cross the start line until you cross the finish line. There is a timing mat at the start and finish lines (and sometimes on other parts of the course) that will pick up your chip.
Your gun time is the time from when the gun or horn goes off, signalling the start of the race, until you cross the finish line. This may be a slower time because it starts at the exact time the race starts, not when you cross the start line. In larger races, there will be a much bigger difference between chip time and gun time as opposed to smaller, local races.
For chip-timed races, you don’t have to worry about starting too far back as long as you’re lined up with your correct pace group because you’ll be timed accurately. You’ll notice that in chip-timed races, athletes will make their way a bit more casually to the start line. In contrast, races that are gun-timed only require a more urgent start because the clock begins the moment the gun goes off and every second counts.
Either way, it’s important to line up according to your accurate pace so that everyone get a clean start to their race and will get the best race results possible.
Waiting at the Start Line
Before going to the start line, make sure you’ve already done your pre-race routine and taken care of everything, including:
- Pinning your bib number on the front of your shirt
- Double knotting your shoe laces
- Visiting the porta-potty
- Warming up
- Taking care of any last minute fuel or hydration needs
Once you’ve selected your spot, try to stay loose and warm. You won’t have too much space around you for dynamic warm-up movements, but you can shake out your legs and arms or perhaps a few high knees. Just pay attention to the other athletes around you and avoid bumping into them.
If you’re racing in colder weather, plan out how you’ll stay warm before the race.
While you wait for the start, mentally prepare by visualizing the race and repeating mantras to yourself. Some athletes may prefer to chat with others around them and some may prefer to keep to themselves. Know what works for you pre-race and stick with that.
The starting line is where many races are lost, not won. And PRs happen with an entire race, including the start line.
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