Zero One

Let me start with  a story. My good friend PL ran a brilliant PR in the Queens Half Marathon in 2007, destroying his previous record by over 5 minutes. After the race, he told me with hint of sadness, "you know Doc, I don't ever want to run faster than that."

Here was a man who had just run a great race, but it hurt. And he thought he might have reached his peak. 

That night, PL got home and checked out the official race results on line. His pace for the race was recorded at X:01 per mile. 

It doesn't matter what the X was, the point is that it was one second from being a minute faster per mile. The next time I spoke to PL,  he was looking for a Half Marathon to run. He couldn't let the X:01 stand. He wanted to run faster.

Here is a quiz: 

Runner A runs a race in 8 minutes and 1 second per mile.

The next month, Runner A runs a race in 7 minutes and 59 seconds per mile.

How much faster did Runner A get?

Answer: One minute per mile (i.e. a LOT faster). 

There are some who would say that Runner A only got 2 seconds per mile faster. I'm sure these people are excellent mathematicians, but any runner will back up my answer.

That's why I'm driven to beat my own zero one. My 10K PR is 7:01 per mile. If I can hit 6:59 on Sunday, I'll be as happy as can be.  

As for PL, he's beaten that X:01 PR twice since that day in Queens, and I don't think he's hit his fastest time yet. Not by a long shot.