Running tangents better

So, how do you run tangents in a crowd?

I ran two-tenths more at Houston, with 75% of it in a crowd before mile 9, when the Half people went back downtown. I know some of it is the Garmin and some of it is the measurer, but I figure I could get it down to a tenth.

Wherever there was a curve, I aimed to tangent it. Do y'all just do the best you can or is there some trick? Thanks.

The best strategy is to memorize the course. The more turns you have, the more the tangents matter. If you know the turn sequence and approx distances you can position yourself on the tangent coming out of each turn and try to hold it. If I don't know the next turn I will usually go to center (if there is no significant crowding). If there is a crowd, I take whatever line is required to not impede my pace.

Besides Matt's excellent advice, I know a few other tricks to run the best tangent line:

• Sometimes you find yourself in a big city race where the crowds are so large you can't see the turns down the road. In this case, look up over the people and judge the turns using the tall buildings and lamp posts on the side of the street.
  
• If you aren't sure of the best line, get to the middle of the street. At least you'll cut your possible error in half.
  
• In a 180 degree turn, don't take it too sharp or you'll lose momentum. Don't take it too wide or you'll waste distance. Find a happy medium for whatever speed you are running. In the center of your turn you should almost brush whatever cone or post they are forcing you to run around.
  
• Don't follow the guy who is right in front of you. He doesn't know the best line any better than you.
  
• Do follow the guy who is 100 meters in front of you. He has a line of sight that is ahead of yours and you can watch where he goes. I've used this many times to pass that guy right in front of me. He takes a bad line and I take a good one based on which direction the runner far ahead is going.
  
• If someone is blocking access to your best tangent line just push his lower back. He'll go down quickly and easily.
  

Stan

I thank y'all for the tips. It hadn't occurred to me to memorize the course, since I pretty much knew all the corners, just not two or three corners ahead of time. This would apply just to Houston. And Stan's point of staying in the middle confirmed an idea of mine.

Thank you both.