Running

Run! Run, like the devil's behind us. Run, to where no one can find us. ~ Alessia Cara

Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of gravity vaults over the stance leg or legs in an inverted pendulum fashion. Ancestors of mankind developed the ability to run for long distances about four and a half million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas.

Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! ~ Lewis Carroll

After erroneous reports of a pack of “wretched women” runners ruined at the 1928 Summer Games, the Olympics eliminated all women’s events that stretched beyond 200 meters. In 1967, commentators told Kathrine Switzer that her uterus would collapse if she competed in the Boston Marathon (she finished, and it did not). Women didn’t gain clearance to compete in all the track events available to men at the Olympics until 2008. As women demolished the cultural barriers to competition, Epstein writes, they swiftly gained on men, prompting some commentators to argue that they’d eventually outrun them. But their quickening pace soon plateaued, while male runners are still “ever so slightly pulling away.” ~ Amanda Hess

If we wanted simply to see the fastest runners, we could have cheetahs race instead of humans. ~ David Epstein

Track and field events get you outdoors, improve health, are not as dangerous or as expensive as other sports, require very little equipment, and can be indulged in any time of the year one wishes. Moreover, running is the basis for nearly every other sport on the calendar and therefore part of the training routine for each. ~ Harold Keith

Silhouette of a jogger under a pink sunrise

Quotes

• Run! Run, like the devil's behind us. Run, to where no one can find us. Be my compass.
  • Alessia Caracciolo, "Outlaws", Know-It-All (2015), Def Jam

• Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
  • Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, chapter 2.—Logical Nonsense: The Works of Lewis Carroll, ed. Philip C. Blackburn and Lionel White, p. 177 (1934). First published in 1872.

• After erroneous reports of a pack of “wretched women” runners ruined at the 1928 Summer Games, the Olympics eliminated all women’s events that stretched beyond 200 meters. In 1967, commentators told Kathrine Switzer that her uterus would collapse if she competed in the Boston Marathon (she finished, and it did not). Women didn’t gain clearance to compete in all the track events available to men at the Olympics until 2008. As women demolished the cultural barriers to competition, Epstein writes, they swiftly gained on men, prompting some commentators to argue that they’d eventually outrun them. But their quickening pace soon plateaued, while male runners are still “ever so slightly pulling away.” Today, the male world-record holder in the 100-meter sprint is 10 percent faster than the female record holder. The fastest male marathoner also boasts a 10 percent advantage over the fastest woman. This gap is not exclusive to running: In speedskating, the gulf is 9 percent; in the long jump, it’s 19 percent; in weightlifting, it’s 25 percent.
  Epstein argues that these physical and ability differences shouldn’t be leveraged to make a cultural determination about the relative worth of men and women’s sports: “If we wanted simply to see the fastest runners, we could have cheetahs race instead of humans,” he writes. “We must be vigilant to ensure that all women who want to compete have the opportunity to do so, but the idea that women’s athletic performances must be equivalent to men’s in order to be deemed remarkable belittles the achievements of female competitors.”
  • Amanda Hess, "Why We Love Watching Female Figure Skaters, But Not Female Basketball Players", (magazine)|Slate, Feb 10, 2014

• Boys should not be afraid that running will give them a weak heart or shorten their lives. Statistics prove that longevity has favored the athlete. In 1904 John M. Gaines and Arthur Hunter made a study for the New York Life Insurance Company of the eight hundred and eight men who won athletic letters at Yale from 1863 to 1904 and discovered that the athlete was not only a better physical risk than the average insured person of his time, but also a better risk than the general run of college men of the same classes. In 1928 the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's statistical department completed and published a study of the longevity of athletes at ten leading American colleges and universities and found that athletes at outlived insured people (who had passed strict physical examinations) by 6.5 to 8.5 per cent and that after the age of forty-five, track athletes outlived those of any other sport.
  • Harold Keith, Sports and Games (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941), p. 241

• Track and field events get you outdoors, improve health, are not as dangerous or as expensive as other sports, require very little equipment, and can be indulged in any time of the year one wishes. Moreover, running is the basis for nearly every other sport on the calendar and therefore part of the training routine for each.
  • Harold Keith, Sports and Games (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941), p. 245

• The world's greatest milers today distribute their pace evenly. For instance, if you are trying for a 4:40 mile, your laps would probably go 69, 72, 71 and 68 seconds. Your opponents will have a tendency to slow up on the third lap, so this may be your opportunity to maintain pace and get a good lead. Although it is well to hug the pole, there are instances when the smart runner will want to go wide, even on a curve. For example, if you are following a runner who slows down on the curve, holding you back while the man leading the race dangerously widens his lead, pass the exhausted man on the curve or you may have too much ground to make up when you reach the next straightaway. Always remember that the runner on the pole can be so closely surrounded or "boxed" by other runners that he can't get out. To avoid this pocket and also to assure yourself of an even start with an opponent on the drive for home, pull out slightly and run at the outside shoulder of the leader around the last half of the curve or around all of it if a cluster of runners threatens to close in and box you.
  • Harold Keith, Sports and Games (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941), p. 248

• The wise runner, in crowded company, will want to glance around him occasionally to study approaching traffic that may result in his being trapped by methods described above. So while "Don't look back!" and "Don't run wide on curves!" is good general advice, there are times when a runner must disregard them and think for himself.
  • Harold Keith, Sports and Games (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941), p. 248

• Samsung has told Radio 1 Newsbeat it was never its intention to "be insensitive to ongoing conversations around women's safety."
  "We apologise for how this may have been received," it adds.
  "The 'Night Owls' campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise at all hours."
  Women's safety group Reclaim These Streets has described it as "tone deaf" in light of the death of Ashling Murphy who was killed on a run in January.
  The 23-year-old's death in Tullamore, Ireland, opened up the conversation about how unsafe some women feel running alone, especially at night.
  It sparked the hashtag #shewasonarun as posts and stories were shared about women being harassed while out running.
  • Rick Kelsey, “Samsung apologises for advert showing woman running alone at 2am”, BBC, (28 April 2022)

• Jamie Klingler, the co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, said the ad was “completely and utterly tone deaf, especially in light of Ashling Murphy”.
  “It’s the Kendall Jenner Pepsi moment for Samsung. It isn’t safe for us to run at night and the last thing I want is for anyone to violate our space while we are trying to exercise. It’s almost laughable how bad this ad lands,” she said.
  Klingler said it was difficult to imagine a woman who would feel safe running at that time of night, and that was what made the ad “beyond unrealistic”.
  • Jamie Klingler as quoted by Hibaq Farah, “Samsung ad featuring woman running alone at 2am criticised as ‘naive’”, The Guardian, (28 Apr 2022)

• All day he ran. He did not rest. He seemed made to run on forever. His iron-like body ignored fatigue. And even after fatigue came, his heritage of endurance braced him to endless endeavour, and enabled him to drive his complaining body onward.
  • Jack London, White Fang (1905).

• He can run. But he can't hide.
  • Joe Louis, remark to a reporter prior to the Joe Louis—Billy Conn boxing match (June 19, 1946); reported in Louis, My Life Story (1947), p. 176.

• Sahra-Isha Muhammad-Jones, the founder and head of partnerships of Asra running club, a group for Muslim women, said: “There seems to be an unawareness of how unsafe it is for women running at this time. As a woman who is running, it’s not safe already, but as a Black Muslim woman, it’s even more unsafe. This advert felt like what would happen in an ideal world.”
  “It can be triggering for women watching this advert and then having to come to terms with what is actually happening in reality to women in this country.”
  • Sahra-Isha Muhammad-Jones as quoted by Hibaq Farah, “Samsung ad featuring woman running alone at 2am criticised as ‘naive’”, The Guardian, (28 Apr 2022)

• Women don't run at that time because we are too scared to. It's really shocking. I don't know any woman who would be running at 02:00 in the morning. Certainly not in a city.
  • Esther Newman as quoted by Rick Kelsey, “Samsung apologises for advert showing woman running alone at 2am”, BBC, (28 April 2022)

• Wearing headphones is a contentious point. Most women runners I know don't wear headphones, and that's during the day, because they are concerned about their safety.
  • Esther Newman as quoted by Rick Kelsey, “Samsung apologises for advert showing woman running alone at 2am”, BBC, (28 April 2022)

• “My first reaction was to laugh. The ad is completely unrealistic and totally blinkered,” says Esther Newman, the editor of Women’s Running magazine.
  “We have worked for years on the issues of women’s safety when it comes to running and the vast majority of women in our audience have felt unsafe whilst running, from heckling to actual abuse. We know that women often think about stopping running because of this,” says Newman.
  “Women feel unsafe when it comes to running at any point of the day. Seeing a woman choosing to run at 2am, with headphones, it’s just ludicrous.”
  • Esther Newman as quoted by Hibaq Farah, “Samsung ad featuring woman running alone at 2am criticised as ‘naive’”, The Guardian, (28 Apr 2022)

• Woah, look over here
  We got a cute little ol' runner to the right
  Blue shorts, no shirt
  Whoo! You're looking good darling
  That's right, stay in shape
  • KT Oslin, "Younger Men", "80's Ladies" (1987)

• Is track and field really a professional sport?
  For Usain Bolt, it is. A Forbes magazine survey released this month estimated the Jamaican sprinter's annual earnings at $23.2 million, ranking 45th on a list of the world's richest athletes.
  What about Kind Butler III?
  He is a world record-holder, too, albeit in a relay. The Indianapolis sprinter estimated his 2013 earnings from track: $6,000, or about 4,000 times less than Bolt. That underscores a challenge facing American athletes and their Indianapolis-based governing body, USA Track & Field.
• Max Siegel, CEO of USATF for two years, is a former president of global operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc. He said he is "perplexed that there is this angst toward the shoe companies" that he didn't find toward automakers in NASCAR.
  "I'm careful with it because they'll take my head off because people feel a certain way about it," Siegel said. "But it's interesting that the very bedrock and the foundation of the sport is supported by those shoe companies, who get a bad rap. So I often ask the question, coming in relatively new, ... has anyone ever sat back and asked what this industry would like if the shoe companies divested?"
  • David Woods, “Pro track athletes make as little as $5,000”, Indianapolis Star, (June 23, 2014).

• Scare myself to death
  That's why I keep on running
  • Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, Feel, Escapology (18 November 2002)

See also

• Walking