How to deal with fast starters at big meets?

Get tougher

You need to experiment getting out harder.

Next race: Get out slightly fast 5:20 ish - then try to work hard to 4k. Hopld on relax and be tough the last k.

not to criticize you here but it sounds like you're used to sand bagging the first mile of your races and then catching people from behind when you pick it up.

That's a safe way to race, but if you do that you're not racing up to your potential and you'll get killed in the larger meets.

So you ran

5:50

5:15

5:15

Unless that first mile is up a hill, you are starting about 20-30 seconds too slow. Go out at the right pace and you will only have to deal with like 30 runners. Other than maybe the foot locker regionals, I there are few races where a 5:20 mile doesn't give you clear running. Heck even a very conservative 5:30 is going to be enough. Now maybe this is some crazy course (i.e. it funnels way down after 400m) but you rarely see them.

Different situations require different strategies. In big fields, usually you need to go out more aggressively so that you don't get boxed in. If the race is going to stay crowded throughout, you might have a hard time passing people, or expend more energy than usual passing those people (which is the primary benefit of starting off more conservatively). That's why all those other kids were going out harder than you expected. As for how to deal with it? Get out more aggressively, or hope that you get lucky enough that you can find holes to surge through and pass people a little later in the race.

Negative splitting and worrying about even pacing is great in track, when the fields aren't huge and getting too much in the way of you running the race you want. The same isn't true in bigger cross country races, where you're often in a race with a hundred or more athletes of similar ability and with multiple hills and turns to throw off rhythm/pace on top of that.

Some good, some bad and some ugly suggestions so far.

OP, the question is how hard did you run the 2nd and 3rd miles?

If your answer is as hard as I dreamed I could, then getting boxed in didn't cost you anything. If you just cruised #2 and #3 because you felt out of the race, then your problem is effort not strategy.

Look, you dreamed you could finish 10th but you finished 70th. Well if you ran the first mile in 5:20 instead of 5:50 and ran the whole race in 16:25, what place would you have finished?

My guess is that 16:25 would not have put you ahead of 60 guys. Even if it did, running the first mile 30 seconds faster would have cost you and your might have run 5:20, 5:20, 5:20 and 35 for 16:35 and certainly NOT 10th.

Your strategy worked fine, you just were never going to finish 10th in this race. Don't get too tied up in splits, they might not be accurate. Races early in the season are for learning. One thing you might learn from this race is that there is no perfect strategy for a large XC race so the guys that sprint the first 400m aren't just idiots.

If you have never tried sprinting out, maybe you should try it. If you have or if your 3200 is much better than your 1600 time, then stick with your plan and push the entire last 2.1 miles so you don't have a 35 second 0.1. After you have done it a few times, you will get better at figuring out how fast you can run the first 400 and still keep even pace.

What do you typically split for first mile in smaller meets?

OP, this is XC. It is not track and people are going to run from the gun. I learned this the hard way once I got to college and ran pre-Nats early in my freshman season. Holy sh-t!

XC is about racing other people, it is not about splits. Throw out the watch and race.

In my experience, you typically only hammer for the first 400 or so before settling into a pace, so it really isn't that bad. Make sure you've done enough strides prior to the start and just go with it. You don't want to be passing people all race. You want to be racing your competitors.

Your style of racing is not conducive to winning races outside of maybe yokel duel meets. You're a better runner than that. Do you have a coach?

Of course, his style of racing works for U of Colorado at Nats....

There is NOT just one answer.

oj74%&*&) wrote:

Of course, his style of racing works for U of Colorado at Nats....

There is NOT just one answer.

No. No. No.

If you've actually raced Colorado, especially in the Running with the Buffaloes days, you would know that they went out way ahead of the majority of the field, just not all with the leaders. They weren't running 45 seconds slower than average race pace in the first mile. Also, they were sure to get out from the gun to avoid the mess. They were picking off a dozen or so places each over the last 5k, not 60-100 men.

There is something between going out at suicide pace and sandbagging behind the slow guys. OP needs to race if he wants to compete.

You need a better warmup. More strides. Faster start. Don't have to put yourself in the top 10 immediately, but you don't want to be 200th either

here's the deal:

You lined up with 300 other runners.

Each runner used their conditioning and mental capabilities to devise and execute a race strategy.

Yours netted you 70th.

You were 70th best that day,

Hopefully you learned that your strategy is bad and that you need to change it to be more competitive.

Big meets aren't gucci,

Ok, brother, I'm about to give the best specific advice given to a specific athlete EVER here at Letsrun.com, and YOU are the beneficiary. You ready? It will be in BOLD

You often hear "don't be afraid to win", but that's not your thing. For you, DON'T BE AFRAID TO LOSE! Seriously, another poster had it right when he said you were playing it safe. You should be racing to place as high as you can, not to feel superior by passing everyone (but not quite everyone) at the end.

Shoot for the gold, brother. You may fall short, but when you go out at a more honest competitive pace, you WILL have the day when all things click and you will run WAY faster than 16:55.

That's one of the things about cross country...depending on the layout of the course, the number of people in the race, etc., that determines how you need to start the race. You can't just hold on to a philosophy-fits-all mentality.

Just figured I'd BUMP this post.