Best Fitness Trackers marathon PR Running Shoes & Gear qualify for the Boston Marathon What to Know About Your Running Gait time cutoff as there had been in previous years.
How to Run a Marathon With the 10/10/10 Method negative split and a second half of mile splits all under my goal pace of 8 minutes per mile. However, my finish time was 3:30:14. I finished with a total of 26.4 miles on my watch. If only I shaved off those 0.2 miles, I might have actually hit my intended goal of breaking 3:30.
What I should have done in order to make that happen? Run the tangents. Learning to run tangents can mean capturing that one-minute PR or hitting that 30-second BQ you need to nail at an upcoming race. So, to conquer your goal—not matter how tight your timing—here’s what to know about running tangents.
What exactly does it mean to run the tangents?
“Running the tangents” is a phrase that’s frequently thrown around in the running community, both among pros—you may have heard Emma Bates mention it in her post-race press conference when discussing why she was running outside the pack—and recreational runners alike.
According to Sydney Devore, a Ferndale, Michigan-based RRCA-certified run coach with McKirdy Trained and a two-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, running the tangent line means running the shortest possible distance from Point A to Point B (i.e. start to finish). This typically means you’re running on the inside curve of the road at all times.
If a race course is USATF-certified, it’s going to have been measured on that tangent line, which means that if you don’t run along it, you’re going to end up running more than the official race distance, Devore says. Sometimes a race may have the tangent line marked on the road—like the blue line in the Berlin and Chicago marathons—though crowds may make it difficult to follow it perfectly the entire time.
“Most races have turns throughout, or they’re like the Boston Marathon, which is very snake-like and kind of winds along the way,” Devore explains. For a course like Boston, to run the tangents, you have to run on a diagonal to the inside of each curve you encounter them (see diagram above). “So it’s almost like you’re zig-zagging the whole time, but in fact, that’s the shortest distance from Point A to Point B,” she says.
While it might sound simple in theory, running the tangents is a concept many runners at various levels struggle to grasp, let alone execute. Devore herself is one such example: In running this year’s Boston Marathon, which she finished in a personal best of 2:31:08, she went into the race (her seventh marathon overall) planning to be conscious about running the tangents. She came out with 26.3 miles on her GPS watch instead of 26.6 like the first time she ran it in 2021.
“I’ve been saying ‘run the tangents’ for years and I truly don’t think I understood what a difference it could make until Boston this year,” Devore says. “I’m typically so focused on running hard that the last thing I’m really thinking about is how I’m running the course and this year’s race was the first time where I truly saw people in front of me not running the tangents and I watched myself catch them without having to put in any more effort simply because they weren’t doing what, in that moment, to me, seemed so obvious, but had never been obvious before.”
Don’t assume you’re home free if a race is point-to-point or appears to have very few turns, Devore says. Boston is one such example that can be deceptive if you just look at the map and only factor in that famous, “right on Hereford, left on Boylston.”
“Even if a course looks straight with no obvious right or left turns, there is definitely a tangent line if it’s run on a wide road,” she says.
Is running the tangents beneficial to all runners?
Even if you’re not out there trying to win your race, running the tangents is still worth focusing on, Devore says. The biggest reason why is that most runners do want to get to the finish as quickly as possible.
“Additionally, if you run the straightest line, you’ll end up running the least amount of effort, from a physics standpoint, which benefits runners at any level,” adds Andres Padilla, a 2:28:14 marathoner and USATF Level 1-certified coach in Corona, California. “You don’t want to waste any more energy than you have to.”
Not only that, but accumulating too much extra distance from not running the tangents correctly can add minutes to your finish time.
This is something I know firsthand—it pains me that my Strava activity for my Houston race says my marathon PR is 3:28:43, when on record, it’s 3:30:14. While I should have paid more attention to the tangents, I also know that I stop at every water station and they’re not always placed on the side of the road that allows for strong tangent running. Even still, it would have saved me those few precious seconds (maybe minutes).
“If you don’t know how to run tangents, then you need to factor that into your time goal because you’re going to run three to eight seconds slower depending on your pace per mile [and the extra distance you run, which is typically an additional 0.2 to 0.3 miles],” Devore says.
Finally, focusing on running the tangents is a great way to distract your mind Published: Jun 7, 2023 mentally hard, Devore adds.
“Fun Half Marathons smaller chunks, like just running to that next inner curve, and focusing on very small achievable boxes you can check, you can distract your brain by focusing on something you can control,” she says. “Instead of focusing on how much further you have to go or that you’re going uphill, you can at least control that you’re running the tangent to your best ability.”
While there are benefits to running tangents even if you’re not trying to PR, there are also cases when you don’t have to worry about them. For example, if you know there will be sharp turns in your race, such as very tight U-turns, Padilla says.
“A race with U-turns can make it hard to efficiently run the tangents [because] if an angle is too sharp, you may slow down and throw your pace off as you round the turn to run the tangents,” Padilla says. “Additionally, if a race course is on a banked curve, you can end up running on a slant and throw off your knees, which would obviously do more harm than good.”
Can you practice running the tangents in training?
While it is possible to practice running tangents on roads, Devore only recommends doing so if you live in a residential area where traffic isn’t busy.
“You will be constantly crossing traffic from one side to another to do this, thus breaking the universal running rule of always running against traffic,” she says. “But if you have a place where it’s safe to do that, you can definitely practice.”
you can at least control that youre running the tangent to your best ability mentally prepare for a course by studying the route and getting an idea of how many turns it has so that you’re extra-conscious about running the tangents from the get-go.
What should you do if you find you’re off mid-race?
If you realize you’re not running the tangents while racing, Devore warns against panicking about making up the time by drastically picking up the pace, especially if it’s still early on in a race. Instead, she recommends waiting to focus on it after you hit the 10-mile marker, which is often where even the most crowded marathons start to thin out as people speed up or slow down.
“It wouldn’t be wise to react too quickly and start speeding up because, unfortunately, you’d be risking dipping into a lactate threshold pace and causing your heart rate to skyrocket,” Devore explains. “For a lot of people, the difference between marathon effort and threshold effort is not that far off, so you really can’t just suddenly pick up the pace.”
Devore instead advises her athletes to turn off the auto-lap feature on their watches and instead manually lap each split to avoid becoming frustrated by seeing faster splits well before they hit a mile marker.
“Additionally, if you’re in a situation where a race is crowded and the only way to follow the tangent line is to weave around people, then it’s probably not worth expending energy,” she says. “This would prove to be counterintuitive and still get you to the finish with that extra distance that you were trying to avoid.”
Ultimately, running the tangents perfectly doesn’t have to be the be-all, end-all for having a good race, Padilla says.
“If you’re trying to shave every second and minute possible, then it’s imperative to factor in running the tangents,” he says. “But if you’re not married to a specific time, then it’s not necessarily as important as just pacing yourself well.”
Emilia Benton is a Houston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to Runner's World, she has contributed health, fitness and wellness content to Women's Health, SELF, Prevention, Healthline, and the Houston Chronicle, among other publications. She is also an 11-time marathoner, a USATF Level 1-certified running coach, and an avid traveler.
