For a marathon, if you're just trying to get your best personal time and don't care about where you finish gun time wise, and the race is chip timed, is it better to start at the back of the pack so you don't have to go slow while you wait for the crowd to disperse?
Also, is there a point where the starting mat gets turned off, such that if you waited too long your start would never be registered anyway? This could/would obviously be problematic.
Or lobby the RD to instruct people who scrape their way into corral 1 to see that they’ll do just as fine if they start toward the back?
Or maybe tell EVERY SINGLE person after row 2 in the corral that they’re not actually helping themselves or anyone else by starting on the heels of the people in front of them?
Seriously, how could marathons go on for this long without people understanding that maybe the faster people can line up toward the front, and that everyone behind the first row can count to five before taking off after the people in front of them have left? (Yeah, I know the reason; it’s just not a good thing to say out loud).