After many years of running and putting on races. I have come to the conclusion that runners are, for the most part, a compulsive group. They tend to generally be obsessive about three things. One is the distance they run, another is the time they run and the third is the time and distance they run. A runner or walker may mention that they run for fun and the distance and time are not important. There may be a few runners and walkers that actually are not concerned about the distance they covered or the time it took them. This may be true, but at races I have entered and organized, the clock keeps running until the last person crosses the finish line, and that last runner will look up to check the time.
I have known runners that have stepped on a rock in the road and sprained an ankle. They had their watch stopped before they hit the ground. One runner I know saw a car that had started to roll into the street. He stopped his watch before he jumped in and stopped the car as he was not running during this rescue mission. I have known a number of runners that will run a new route, and after the run, they will get in their car and measure the distance they ran. I have to admit I was obsessive during my running years, and I knew the distance of most of the routes I ran. From my house to Hunter and back is 13 ½ miles, Holiday Inn is 2 miles, and the loop around the access road is 6.2 miles.
Distance was the one thing I noted in my runner’s log book. I ran over 2,000 miles several years ago and distance was the important thing. To qualify for the Boston Marathon I had to run under a 3:10 time. For that race time was the important thing. I tried to break my habit of keeping a time on my watch for every run. I put my watch on the table before I stepped out the door for a run. But I checked the wall clock as I went out the door. When I returned after the run, the first thing I checked was the time on that wall clock. That is what runners call obsessive about time.
