Training Tip Tuesday: Scout For Tangents

Today's Training Tip comes from Coach Joe Bacon, Dallas Marathon team coach.

Tangents are important no matter what distance you are walking or running in a race. Here is why! We know "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" right? Well, course certifiers certainly do. When they measure a race course, they calculate the shortest distance from start to finish, measuring the far inside of every turn, which is exactly where you want to be.  Every time you round a curve, scope out the flow of the course ahead and position yourself so you can take the inside (run the tangent) of the next turn.

Here is a good example: one of our runners at Disney usually runs about 27 plus miles. Now, it isn't just not running the tangents, but more because of the running right and left to get his photo with the characters of Disney.  But, when you are walking or running 13.1 or 26.2 miles in a race, you don't want to add an extra step.