The SMR8 is the relay lots of people love to hate, but any coach serious about winning a girls state title (regardless of classification) eventually makes at least a tenuous peace with the event long enough to put a team together to garner some points out of the relay.
It's been widely observed that the SMR8 amounts to a second 400 meter event for that racehorse of a girls quarter miler you have every five or ten years or so. But, whatever the truth of that observation might be, there is also an enormous practical problem--well, actually two of them, though they are related--with the SMR8.
Consider that the SMR8 is a two-lap relay, with the first lap in lanes and the second lap free of lanes. The SMR8 uses 4x100 meter relay exchange zones at the first and second exchange and the 4x400 exchange zone (for exchanges two and three) at the third exchange.
Pause and ponder on that a little bit.
That means when the baton crosses the start/finish line the first time, each team has run 400 meters, but each fourth runner receives the baton in a different lane. The teams that have to break in must necessarily run a greater distance on the second lap than the team in lane one. For lanes two and three, it's probably no big deal, but it starts becoming consequential somewhere along the way as you move across the track.
If you look at the waterfall start arc for the 1600 meters, you'll get a very close idea of the minimum additional distance a competitor in lane eight must run versus the competitor in lane one--nearly two full meters farther (though this depends somewhat on where the finish line is relative to the start of the curve).
The matter of breaking in constitutes the second big issue with the SMR8 relay. Runners are allowed to break in once they have the baton, but this often creates a momentary melee of collisions and near misses. All too often, and even when there is no actual obstruction, runners must slow down a little to pick their way through to the inside lane for the curve.
In all other sprint relays (or at least until the second exchange on the 4x400), you simply stay in your lane and you're golden, as is everyone else. Not so with the SMR8.
In some sense, it is a free-for-all at the third exchange zone. To be sure I got my facts straight on the rules applying to this relay, I contacted K.C. Logan, chief rules interpreter for Colorado, on the question of the third SMR8 exchange. What Mr. Logan told me was this:
- The third exchange must take place in the same lane where the team started. As soon as the baton is exchanged, however, the outgoing runner may cut in.
- It is, however, the responsibility of the outgoing (fourth) runner to avoid contact with other incoming and outgoing runners as she cuts in.
- The only way an incoming (third) runner may be called for obstruction is if she leaves her lane and, in so doing, creates an obstacle for another team. If she stays in her lane until all teams have passed, she cannot not be called for obstruction.
- An outgoing runner may stay in her lane until she has cleared the exchange zone, though doing so adds a little to the total distance covered. And it still doesn't ensure she will have a clear path to the inside lane once she has cleared the zone.
If you stop and think about this, it seems almost inevitable that some extra distance (beyond what is already necessarily entailed in cutting in from lane 8 to lane 1) is added to the race for all runners in outer lanes, and most especially lane 8.
The theoretically most optimal route from lane 8 to lane 1, once the baton has been exchanged, will typically be cluttered, and could involve perilously narrow misses, with incoming (third) runners from other lanes, and possibly outgoing (fourth) runners as well. And, adding a further element of risk to it all, if a fourth runner cutting across to lane 1 impedes a fourth runner from another team who has stayed in her lane, the former fourth runner may be called for obstruction.
In a relatively tight exchange, it could easily end up that the fourth runner for the team in lane 8 might end up running as much as five meters more than the runner in lane 1 as she seeks to navigate traffic en route to the inside lane.
There is no more optimal way to run the SMR8 short of painting yet another set of exchange zones on the track and running the race in lanes through at least the first three turns. For anyone who has ever worked as an exchange judge on a 4x200, though, it is safe to conclude that exchange zones are confusing enough for athletes without adding yet another set of exchange zones to the track.
So, to review, those two problems inherent in the SMR8 are:
- The second lap of the relay is necessarily a little longer for each lane that you move out.
- Due to the unconventional nature of the SMR8 third exchange, the actual additional distance run by teams in outer lanes is almost certainly longer than the theoretical minimum distance necessary to cut across to lane 1.
It is most definitely a disadvantage to run the SMR8 from lane 8.