Crowded Marathon Advice (Read 830 times)

Maybe start a little farther up than you normally would, but dont get caught up in the faster paces. Also, I always find (even in the larger races) that if you hang to the edges (dont be right in the middle) that there is usually a little more wiggle room. I dont recommend the slaloming at all because that just wastes precious energy that you will need later. I have run Boston and Disney and both were pretty crowded at teh start (I seem to recall Disney being moer crowded because when I did it they also had the HM starting at the same time). But even with that I had some room to move on the outside, and it really cleared up by mile 2-3 enough that you could settle into your pace.

I've run in a marathon with 45,000 runners (twice) and a half-marathon with 35,000 runners (3 times) so I have some experience dealing with large crowds. Yes, you should expect to lose a little time in the first 2 (maybe three miles) until things thin out a little bit. Frankly, for a marathon this isn't the worst thing in the world. You'll be able to get into a groove soon enough and any lost time will be negligible. DON'T PANIC. Probably the worst thing you can do is freak out and start weaving through runners like a crazy person. You'll expend so much energy (physical and mental) that it'll cost you in the long run (pun intended). That being said, you may have to be a bit aggressive in passing. If you just accept the pace dictated by the crowd, you find yourself running significantly slower than you are capable. Usually many people are aware of the other runners around them and try to give room for faster athletes who want to pass. Sometimes running right on someone's heels or a semi-shouted "on your left" etc.will get you a clear path past a slower runner. I've been on the giving and receiving end of some gentle (and not so gentle) pushing and elbows in my larger races. It happens, and no one has died as a result. Technically, there is no right of way in a race -- no one has the obligation to yield to you, but no one has the right to obstruct you either ... and this is where the rock sometimes meets the hard place. Try to be firmly polite about establishing your line and your pace, and you should be ok. Stated simply: don't ruin someone else's race experience by being a jerk, but don't let someone who lined up farther ahead of their capabilities ruin your race either.

You should line up with people who run faster than you and wear an Ipod. Turn it up so you don't notice the noise. If the pace gets to be too much, go ahead and stop and take a walk break in the middle of the road.

Maybe start a little farther up than you normally would, but dont get caught up in the faster paces. Also, I always find (even in the larger races) that if you hang to the edges (dont be right in the middle) that there is usually a little more wiggle room. I dont recommend the slaloming at all because that just wastes precious energy that you will need later. I have run Boston and Disney and both were pretty crowded at teh start (I seem to recall Disney being moer crowded because when I did it they also had the HM starting at the same time). But even with that I had some room to move on the outside, and it really cleared up by mile 2-3 enough that you could settle into your pace.

Line up where you think you belong. Whether you line up with 3:25 people, 3:50 people, or 4:15 people, it will be crowded. The only way to avoid the crowd is to line up with the 2:30 people and KEEP UP. All you are going to do by lining up with people faster than you is become an annoying roadblock to the faster people behind you trying to keep pace in the crowd (think of that annoying slow person driving in the left lane on the freeway who refuses to get to the right). This reminds me of the woman with headphones who lined up on the FRONT ROW of Chicago one year (don't ask me how she got in the corral)...the gun went off, she yelled indignantly as she got run over. ok, a little exaggerated but seriously, nothing ticks people off more in a race than people who can't be considerate enough to others to line up where they belong. There's not much you can do about the crowd except a) pick a smaller race, or b) start near the edges like suggested.

That there might actually ruin someone else's race experience and seems, well, jerky.

*Shrug* I saw medal-caliber Olympic athletes do more pushing and elbowing on the track than I've done in a 45,000 person race. Anyone who has run in a large race knows there can be plenty of unintended body contact in the early miles. As long as you're not trying to intentionally pummel another runner, I don't see the issue.

Thanks all for the advice. I guess I'll stick to lining up according to my target time, sticking to the side and not showering. - R

I can't think of a single college cross country race where at least one person didn't get bloody, and probably 75% of the time it was intentional.

I think it depends on the venue and overall mentality of the race and runners. In a competitive race or championship event, you're likely to a) see elbows etc, and b) it be considered just part of the normal event by the competitors. In a large marathon where people are mostly there for the experience, I would think most people would react pretty negatively to it. In college such contact happened quite often and it was normal. But several years out of college when I went back and ran a collegiate race to get my current 10K PR, my reaction to continuous shoving from behind me was very different. I was no longer in just another college 10K race with another one next weekend, I was in a race I had been focusing on for months with no other opportunity and couldn't have cared less or about place just the speed. So my reaction was to shout "You shove me one more time and this race will end with you bloody on the infield" or something to that effect, and mean it.