Do you warm up before a longer race?

Depends somewhat on how you've trained, and how fast you want to run. I usually had concerns about my endurance, so would only do a 5-10 min warmup for a half marathon, and usually less than that for a marathon. Just enough to make sure the shoes and socks feel good.

I think a mile or two easy jog is a great idea before a half marathon.

Some people don't think warm-up for a full 'thon is necessary, but I don't see how a slow jog of something up to a mile would hurt.

Does the reclining tiger warm his muscles before arising to slaughter his prey? No, he is always ready.

For a 15k-half I do a little 10 minute shuffle, dynamic stretching and a few stretches and I'm good.

Mile-10k I will do a 20 min jog with the last 5 minutes at a steady clip. Dynamic stretches, drills, strides.

And I do about 50-60 MPW, long runs maxed at 14.

I warm up even before a marathon. I think it's essential to get my metabolism in "running mode". For a marathon the warmup would be about 15 minutes of jogging absolutely as easily as possible, interspersed with walking, and a few strides. I feel "time" spent warming up is more important than "distance". As races get shorter my warmup would be longer in duration and would include more intensity. The optimum warmup is probably very specific to the athlete and it seems to take me longer to get going than most.

Generally, the shorter the race, the bigger the warmup.

For any thing under a half, I usually jog a couple of miles and do lots of strides.

For a half, I jog a mile or two with some half marathon pace pickups thrown in.

The marathon is a different story. You need the energy, and there's no point wasting it on a warm up. The race is long enough that you can warm up in the first mile or two and have it not really affect your overall time.

I just jog easy. Helps ease the nerves if anything. I don't like the feeling of starting cold. I jog a few miles for the half and similar distances. I've only done one marathon and I basically jogged half a mile which was insignificant. I think to some degree this is personal preference. Routine helps but obviously you don't want to expend too much energy before a marathon. For a half I can't see any harm in running a few miles first.

I don't. I prefer the surge of energy I get when I warm up in the first couple of miles. Psychologically it also gives me a bigger lift.

It's not like I'm going to be ice cold. Usually there is a fair amount of running around before the start of a race. Parking, to the start line, running off looking for a bathroom etc.

for a half I'll jog 5-10 minutes and do a couple of hard 300s. You don't want any surprises either bodywise or equipmentwise after the gun goes off.

for a marathon - just enough to make sure my shoes are laced right and nothing is chafing. No real warmup needed.

if it is really cold I'll warmup more just to stay physically warm - nothing worse than freezing for an hour and then starting a race.

GrassHopper's Teacher wrote:

Does the reclining tiger warm his muscles before arising to slaughter his prey? No, he is always ready.

Have you ever actually watched a cat stalk its prey?

I have and they never jog a few miles and do strides.

My concern is always that there is a ton of standing around before the gun. I don't want to warm up, stand around and get cold, then begin the race. The lesser of two evils tends to be start relatively slow and build. Ideally I'd like to slog around for 15-20 minutes then have 5-10 minutes of drills/movement, then the gun.