Some hazards that you will encounter as a runner in a foot race have nothing to do with careless spectators or the physical hazards themselves that are present on the road or trail.
No, unfortunately, some racing hazards come from your fellow participants. Review this list of hazards before your next race, so that you can run more safely.
Hazard: Swinging an arm to stretch
This hazard can be downright dangerous and is especially likely in a race with lots of runners or in a race with narrow roads or trails. A careless runner ahead of you, not thinking of other runners, can swing an arm out to stretch a tight or sore shoulder. And the result can be a bruised eye, a bloody lip, or even broken teeth.
Avoid this hazard by watching for runners with odd postures.
Hazard: Slowing to a walk
Those who regularly practice micro-level pacing, in which one repeatedly mixes running and walking, know to move to the side of the race course whenever they are about to switch from running to walking. But other runners often do not consider that slowing from a run to a walk can cause the runners behind them to "run up" on them, which can lead to painful falls for all involved.
Avoid this hazard by listening for runners who are breathing heavily. That lack of breath control will lead them to slow down to a walk -- or even to stop in the middle of the road.
Hazard: Cutting in front
This is a classic hazard. Someone who has little practice running among other people all of a sudden cuts in front of you during your race -- to change sides of the road or to cut a corner at an intersection.
Avoid this hazard by watching for "twitchy" runners who move from one side of the road to the other side and back again, as well as for those runners who cut off other runners.
Hazard: Blocking others' view of a tripping hazard
If you are a runner who has trained for your race in a group training program, then you probably were taught during your group runs to call out tripping and other hazards to your fellow trainees behind you -- as in "pothole" or "concrete" or another short word that alerts those behind you that they are approaching a hazard. But some people in your race may have trained alone, so they will not necessarily know about this courtesy. So this hazard occurs when one of these runners abruptly steps around a hazard without saying anything.
Avoid this hazard by keeping your distance from runners in front of you and by scanning the course beyond those runners for upcoming hazards.
Author Resource:-
Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D., loves to walk and run, and his SpryFeet.com website provides practical research for runners and walkers. By going to http://www.SpryFeet.com/Reports/, you can get his FREE "Pace Tables for Runners and Walkers" special report, letting you look up paces needed to complete several different race distances within given durations and for different micro-level-pacing methods.
(c) Copyright - Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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