To preface, and while it goes without saying - I'm by no means a world class endurance athlete. That being said, I've done a couple of marathons, a handful of triathlons and a dozen other races of varying distances. So tonight I went up to the local high school football field to do some "speed work"... just work on doing some sprints, get the heart rate up, work on the 'fast twitch' muscles if you will, etc., So for kicks, and using my GPS watch to measure my time, and the football lines to measure the distance - I took off on a flat-out-100-yard-sprint... goal to goal, with the wind at my back on a brand new AstroTurf field. I wanted to see how fast I could run it. I'm pushing.. and when I'm about half way my quads are aching, I'm even throwing in audible grunts every few strides as I am REALLY trying to let it rip for 100 yards straight, leave it all out there, etc. I even start to fade with about 20 yards to go but notice this an hit the pedal again, knowing I can rest once I cross the opposing goal line. Right as I cross the line, marking 100 yards - I stop my watch .. I proceed to put my hands on my head and walk around in a meandering circle as I struggle to even out my breath again. My lungs are burning, and with every heart beat it seems that my vision also blurs. When I look down at my watch, I ran a 100 yards at a "pace per mile" of 4:37 ... meaning if I could carry on that pace for 1 mile, I'd run the mile in 4:37. Not too bad. Then I read this....
"...Geoffrey Mutai won the 26.2 Mile NYC Marathon, finishing with a time of 2:05:06. It was something of a spectacle for the thousands of fans who lined the city's streets to witness what Mutai accomplished. He averaged a 4:47-per-mile pace over the course of 26.2 miles"
un-bee-lievable.
