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Tangents |  |
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See the Index for more topics, information, hints and tips.
Running the tangents lets you run the shortest race distance and can cut minutes off your finish time.
Have you ever used a GPS watch in a race and it said you had run 13.6 miles when it was only supposed to be a 13.1 mile race? Well, your GPS was probably correct. You ran an extra 0.5 miles. And how much extra time did that take you to run that extra half mile? 5 minutes?
You may have heard the saying, ‘The shortest distance between two points is a straight line’. Well, in races the distance around the course is NOT the middle of the race track. In order for a race to be certified at a certain distance they have to guarantee that a runner has to run at least that distance.
So, as you are running you need to look ahead (or study the race course before hand) to know when it is turning and in which direction. The inside of a curve is shorter than the outside. Below are a couple of examples. The black outlines the course. The red represents taking the middle of the course and the green the shortest route.
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Now this means that you may have to go from one side of the course to the other. During training this is difficult to do because you are sharing the course with others going in both directions. Even during a race this can be difficult because not everyone knows about tangents. Be courteous to other runners and don’t cut them off. You risk them clipping your foot and sending you for a tumble. If it is clear, slowly progress across the course to prepare for a turn in that direction. That is, go to the right side for a right hand turn and the left side for a left hand turn. The inside of a turn is always the shortest. In an S turn or right and left turns on a street, you may need to weave back and forth across the course in order to take the shortest path.
A technique that you may find helpful is to pick an object in the background and run straight towards that. When the route is crowded pick a tall object like the corner of a building, lamp post, landmark, anything that catches your eye, that you can focus on.
