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Left, Right, or Straight? Leg Analysis #15

 

 Left, Right, or Straight? Leg Analysis #15

On May 31st 2024, a long-distance race was held as part of the training camp for the Youth European Championships in Poland.

The courses offered competitors many typical legs for this type of terrain.

One of them was leg 3–4 for M18 and M16 (the same as leg 2–3 for D18 and D16).

This leg offered a range of three classic route options:

  • The shortest, but with two 30-metre climbs;

  • The middle-length option (left), with one 30-metre climb (+200 metres in distance);

  • The longest option (right), with only 15 metres of climb (+350 metres in distance).

On the Livelox website, only a few GPS tracks from competitors are available, and we don’t know their fitness level or how much effort they put into running this leg.

However, it’s still clear that — among competitors of similar speed — the straight route lost to the right-hand option by approximately 30 seconds on average.
See the GPS tracks from the D18 class.


The left-hand route appears to be about equal to, or possibly better than, the right-hand option.
However, there is very limited information available — only a few competitors chose that route, just two in total.
See the GPS tracks from the M18 class.

The left-hand route was less predictable in the middle section, where accurate execution of the path transition was crucial.
It also presented a more difficult approach to the control compared to the right-hand route.

Several mistakes were observed on the control approach from both the straight and left-hand routes.
See the GPS tracks from the M16 class.


On the right-hand route, no mistakes were made during the approach stage — one could say it was almost elementary.

Conclusion: On legs like 3–4, choosing a direct route can lead to losses rather than gains — especially at the beginning of a long-distance race.

Source: Livelox, http://3drerun.worldofo.com/2d/courseplanning.php

Note: Some time after publication, public access to the full GPS data from this competition was restricted.

Aleksandr Alekseyonok, June 3, 2024

Updated: November 7, 2025.

📚 Looking for more?

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  • Book 2: Planning Reliable Routes, released just recently, has already been purchased in 31 countries in its first two weeks, with four translations already underway.

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