When talking about running to a non-runner, it helps if you can put the task of running into perspective. Perspective is a way of comparing things from one discipline to another discipline so that a common language is reached. Here in Texas, the temperature is “hot” when it is over 100 degrees and a cold front drops the temperature down into the 80s. A person in the northern part of the country will think of a heat wave as temperatures in the 80s and a cold front drops the temperature into the 40s. I have seen a few Texans wear a light jacket when the temperature drops down into the low 70s or mid-60s. It is all a matter of perspective.
Trying to explain the different distances in races is a language that has most non-runners at an extreme disadvantage. It is hard enough for runners to convert kilometers to miles. A 5K race is 3.1 miles and even if the race is advertised as a 5K distance the course is marked in miles. This is an example of putting the distance in perspective for a runner. Marking a course in kilometers would have the majority of runners wondering how far they have run. It helps if you tell a runner a kilometer is about .62 of a mile. Of course that makes the runner do a little math to determine their pace in a race.
It is easier to tell a non-runner a distance that they can relate to when explaining how far a race is. As an example, a 5K distance is running from City Park turn right on C.M. Allen and on out Aquarena Springs Drive to Thorpe Lane. Turn right on Thorpe Lane and run to Hopkins. Follow Hopkins across the bridge and back to City Park is a close 3.1 miles. An explanation for five miles is to run from City Park out Charles Austin Drive to Hopkins and out to the Holiday Inn. Take the I-35 access road down to the Little League fields and back via C. M. Allen and the bridge across the river back to City Park.
