Ask any runner to tell you something about their last run and you’re guaranteed to get information pertaining to numbers. From bib numbers to mileage, runners are constantly talking about numbers.
Ask a runner to tell you about their nutrition or hydration and they’ll throw out numbers like needing to drink so many ounces per mile or eat a GU at mile 8.
Ask a runner about their gear and they’ll let you know whether they have a Garmin Forerunner 15 or Forerunner 610. They’ll even tell you how many miles they’ve logged on their device.
Ask a runner about their shoes and they’ll talk about how they have a 12mm heel drop, or a 0mm heel drop. Or maybe they’re now running in a Mizuno Wave Runner 11. Again, with the numbers!
Ask a runner how they train and you’ll hear about running 30 – 60 minutes on tempo days, or 3 hours on a long run, which they woke up at 5:00am to beat the 89° temperatures expected at 8:00am.
Runners love numbers whether they know it or not. It’s like an unwritten law of running that if you run, you will become obsessed with numbers. In the end, it’s a big numbers game and every number counts.