In the Greek text rendered The two of them were running there is an adverb (homou) rendered “side by side” by New English Bible and New American Bible. Good News Translation and several other translations omit it as superfluous. This same adverb is rendered all together in 21.2 and together in 4.36.

Ran faster than (“outran” in many translations) translates a rather redundant Greek expression. Most translations do not express the redundancy, but some do, for example, Anchor Bible (“being faster, outran”), Barclay (“ran on ahead, faster than”), and Moffatt (“ran ahead, faster than”).

Reached the tomb first is literally “came first to the tomb.” The preposition rendered “to” in the literal translation usually has the meaning of “into,” but since Peter and the other disciple do not enter the tomb until verses 6 and 8, respectively, this preposition must mean “to” in verses 3 and 4.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .