If I'm a beginner, should I get to the front of the starting line?

Question

Dave McGovern · Answer

As a beginner, should you get to the front of the starting line? Short answer is no, not a good idea. Number one, just for courtesy's sake, you'll probably have faster runners behind you that are going to want to get by, and you're impeding them. But for safety's sake, same reason. I mean, they can push by, and you're in danger of getting knocked over or trampled. But also, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I mean, most of the races we have now are chip timed where-- it's called a chip because it used to be a little-- like actual little disk that you used to lace into your shoe. But now, usually it's on the back of your race number-- your race bib. And it's a telemetric chip or timer. What it does is once you cross that starting line, it turns on. And then, when you cross the finish line, it turns off. It gives you your net time from start to finish. So if you're five rows back, or 10 rows back, or 10 minutes back, it doesn't matter. It's going to deduct the time from when the gun goes off until you cross that starting line. So it doesn't really pay. It's not going to give you any real advantage when you get that net time. The other thing is just for your own pacing. I mean, usually, you want to do a nice, steady-paced race, or maybe go a little faster each mile, or have a negative split where the second part of the race is faster than the first. If you're right out there with the leaders, you're at risk of going out way too fast at the outset and blowing yourself out in the first two minutes of the race. So start where you should be. They usually have signs with predicted pace. Line up there, and you're going to have a great race.

Kate Edwards, PT, DPT, OCS · Answer

Hi everybody. This is Kate Edwards and the question I'm answering is if I'm a beginner. Should I get to the front of the starting line? So my first response in gut response is no, but that might not be right for you. I'm not sure. The biggest thing is, if you've never run a race, you don't know what it's like. And the people at the starting line, or in the front of the race are typically the fastest Runners and you don't want to get caught with them and run too fast in the beginning and burn. Self out. So that the rest of the race is really hard for you. So you want to find somewhere in that space where your pace is and you may not know the answer to that but typically the fastest people go in the front and then the Walkers, go in the back. So find your way in between. The other thing I would say is try not to be directly in the middle of the puck. Find something a little bit closer to the edge, because if you've never been in a race before you'll find that, as soon as everybody takes off, it gets pretty intense. Tents for the first quarter mile or so and you just don't want to get caught up in everything. Once you've done your first race you'll know how you function in a race and you'll be able to find your space a little bit easier.

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"If I'm a beginner, should I get to the front of the starting line?"