THE RUNNING
MANN the running mann by STUART MANN
Life Lessons from the Road : It ’ s a Jog , not a Sprint
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown , I have not been able to get my usual marathoning and travel fix in for a while , so this month I ’ d like to talk about something a bit different , delving into the world of business , and how lessons learnt in running can be applied to that very different world .
Business agility has recently become a big buzzword in the corporate world . If you work for a large corporate , there ’ s a good chance that you are currently part of a ‘ business agility transformation .’ These are characterised by consultants throwing Japanese words around like ninja stars in a ‘ pot-noodle eastern ’ ( as opposed to a ‘ spaghetti western ’), and lots of talk about sprinting and scrumming !
The good news is that sprinting is really easy – even if the last time you did any running was in PE class at school , when you were forced to . Everyone can manage a sprint : It ’ s a short burst of energy , after which you ’ re doubled over gasping for breath and can ’ t run any more . The bad news is that sprinting won ’ t get you very far . It ’ s unlikely that anything worthwhile in life can be achieved with a short sprint . In running , as in life , the real challenge is running long distances over hostile terrain and torturous conditions .
In other words , it ’ s a jog , not a sprint … and the best way to cover long distances is to get your pacing right and run at a consistent speed . Now let ’ s look at a few examples to show you exactly what I mean .
Ultimate Even Pacing
We ’ ll start with one of the most incredible athletic achievements in recent times , Eliud Kipchoge ’ s sub two-hour marathon feat . The post-race press release stated , “ Kipchoge ran a consistent pace set by the electronic timing car and the pacemakers of 2:50min / km throughout the race with every single kilometre split being between 2:48min / km – 2:52min / km .”
In actual fact this is not quite true as the diagram below shows , where I ’ ve added the average pace to the published five kilometre splits . Kipchoge did indeed run an incredibly even pace for the first 40 kilometres but after that he sped up , running the last 2.2 kilometres at a blistering 2:45 average . Had Kipchoge started off at this pace he definitely wouldn ’ t have broken two hours – and he probably wouldn ’ t even have finished . Kipchoge got his pacing just right , and became the first human to break the two-hour mark .
Although this was not an official world record , since it was run in contrived , noncompetitive conditions , one can also study Kipchoge ’ s official marathon world record splits , when he clocked 2:01:39 in the 2018 Berlin Marathon , and you will see a similar pattern of incredibly even pacing . Regardless of whether you want to
Eliud Kipchoge becomes the first human to cover the marathon distance in under two hours
Images : Martin Mulder , Ineos . com , Comrades Marathon Association
24 ISSUE 140 APRIL 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za