Thursday, March 31, 2016

About Corrals...

Corrals are mostly used in larger races to help keep runners of different paces separated and runners in general spread out along the course.  Smaller races up to a few thousand depend on runners to self-seed themselves, meaning they can start as close or as far from the starting line as they feel comfortable.  (This however can lead to some irritation since people sometimes will start further up when they intend on walking the whole race or more often just slower than those around them.  This unfortunately is pretty much unavoidable and I've run into this at almost every single race I've ever run.)

Some corrals are actual physical barriers like police tape or banners that can be easily pulled away, simple flags with expected pace printed on them or even just colored balloons that correspond with wave colors that are easy to see.


For larger races like this Sunday's Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, they will actually use a wave start system.  It is meant to stagger runners to give everybody plenty of space to run and keep similarly paced runners together.  This means that you will be placed in a corral based upon a finishing time from a previous race given to race organizers (usually a PR) when you register.  For example, the last time I ran the Cherry Blossom I was placed in the very last wave because at that point I wasn't very fast, and my expected finishing time was over 2 hours.  This time the finishing time I gave them was faster and I was bumped up a whole 3,000 places and that pushed me into a whole new wave!

One other thing to note is that in races like the Cherry Blossom with a strict cutoff time that timer does not start until the very last person crosses the starting line.  So this means with a race that starts at 7:30 the final runner might not cross that line until almost 8am!  (When I was in the final wave of the Cherry Blossom in 2014, I crossed the starting line a full 24 minutes after the gun went off.)  Some people not knowing otherwise will actually jump ahead in corrals, meaning that they will move ahead in order to try and "beat" the cutoff time.  This doesn't actually accomplish anything except cause more people to have to run around you.


If you do jump corrals, most race organizers recommend you actually go back in corrals (so to the later finishing times) if you're running with somebody who's further back from you.  So rather than having your friend meet you in the 3rd corral, you should go back to the 5th and meet them.

So what if you feel like you've been placed in the wrong corral?


The answer is simple!  If you feel like you're too slow for the corral, just move to the back.  If you think you're faster than the pace you've been assigned, move to the front!

And now that you know about corrals, go out and have a great race!

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