The Average Running Pace

When one first starts running or walking, just finishing a certain distance is an accomplishment.  At some point, however, most runners will eventually want to finish the same distance in a given time … and then beat that time.  This paper looks at four races (5K, 10K, Half Marathon, and Marathon) to determine what an average running pace is. The data for this came from four races in Atlanta, GA

5K - 3.1 miles - 9/22/2016 - KP Corporate Run/Walk

http://www.kpcorporaterunwalk.com/5k-runwalk/results/

http://www.kpcorporaterunwalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2016-Overall-Finish-List.pdf

10K - 6.2 miles - 7/4/2015 - AJC Peachtree Road Race

https://www.atlantatrackclub.org/participant-information-results

https://www.trackshackresults.com/peachtree/results/2015/ptresults.php?Link=10&Type=2&Div=C&Ind=0

Half-Marathon - 13.1 miles - 3/20/2016 - Publix Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon

https://www.atlantatrackclub.org/2016-publix-georgia

https://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-12972

Marathon - 26.2 miles - 3/19/2017 - Publix Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon

https://www.atlantatrackclub.org/2017-publix-georgia-marathon-half-marathon

https://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-20420

For this study, the participant count includes all participants whereas runner count only includes those who finished with a  15 minute/mile pace or better.  It is acknowledge that a 5K in South Florida will have a different pace than a Marathon up Pike's Peak.  In Atlanta, GA, the terrain is moderate with some rolling hills and all four races where in the same general area.  With this terrain, it would be hard classify anything slower than 15:00 as a "run".

Every runner has aspirations of beating their own time or achieving a Personal Record (PR).

Some runners additionally have a competitive spirit and want to be “above average”.

Average Pace For Each Distance

	3.1	6.2	13.1	26.2	AVG
AVG	0:10:58	0:10:47	0:10:17	0:11:02	0:10:46

Note: The average of the averages is 10:46.

Being above average does not mean that a runner was in the fastest 50% .

Consider these 10 finish times for a 1 mile race

Place	Pace
1	5:00
2	5:30
3	6:00
4	6:30
5	7:00
6	7:30
7	10:00
8	11:00
9	14:00
10	15:00
AVG	8:45

The average is 8:45, but to be in the top 50%, the runner needs a time of 7:00 or better.

Average 50% Pace For Each Distance

	3.1	6.2	13.1	26.2	AVG
AVG 50%	0:10:55	0:10:41	0:10:03	0:10:57	0:10:39

 Note: The average 50% pace is 10:39

As a runner advances from one distance to the next, one might expect the pace to slow.  This was not always the case.  Using the same races, there were 482 runners that ran that ran a 5K and then later ran a 10K.  There were 190 runners that ran a half marathon followed the next year by a marathon.  There were only a very few that ran a 10K followed by a half marathon, so their results are not shown here.

In most cases the pace difference between two races was 3:00 or less.

Hearing The Still Small Voice

If you are reading this (or having it read to you), then you and I have something in common - we are aging.  For the young, this means getting stronger, gaining new abilities, and learning new things.  For the old, this means getting weaker, losing abilities, and forgetting things.  Many have observed that "getting old sucks" and that it is not for the faint of heart.  I have always been inspired by the adage: "You can cannot always control what happens to you, but you can always control how you respond".  This has never been more evident to me than when I read the writings of Horace LaFavor.

When I was in middle school, Coach LaFavor was the PE teacher.  I was never much of an athlete in my middle school years, so he did not really "coach" me in anything, but we all called him Coach.  My mother worked at the school so I saw him slightly more than I would otherwise.  He and I were not all that close, but I always liked him well enough.

Since retiring some years back he and his trusty sidekick have become fishers of men as well as fishers of carp (he would be upset if I reversed the two).  In addition to loving God, his wife, his hound, and fishing, he also loves to write (which is how I know about his first loves).  He has probably served more as Coach to me through his writing than he ever did in a middle school gym.

The other day, one of his pieces drew my attention more than others.  He and his family have faced many struggles and he has always shared them with a "peace that passeth all understanding",  This most recent struggle was comparatively insignificant, but for some reason to me every bit as powerful.  I hope that as I get older, I am able to look at life with the same long view and have the same positive and spiritual perspective as Coach.  With his permission and without further ado, here is the piece that got my eye:

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Wednesday Thoughts- 1/20/16
It is 4:00 AM and I cannot sleep. When I cannot sleep it is usually caused by the anticipation of an upcoming event or eating too much Pizza or Mexican food the night before. When this situation occurs I often get up and write. I know it isn’t Sunday but with your permission, I’d love to share with you some “Wednesday Thoughts”……………………….
I have reached yet another milestone in my life. After being “encouraged” by my family and close friends to have my hearing tested I recently broke down and went in to see what they could do for me. There were several tests administered but the first one was the clincher for me. Ramona was asked to come (as a familiar voice) and she was given a list of 25 very simple one syllable words to read out loud to me. My task from approximately 15 feet away was to repeat each word back to her. As I approached the sixth or seventh word and saw the tears coming down my precious wife’s face I made the brilliant deduction that I wasn’t doing very well on this test. Bottom line is that I couldn’t clearly hear the voice of my precious wife of over 42 years. In fact, I only identified 10 out of 25 words correctly.
This coming Sunday morning I have been invited to speak to the Men’s Breakfast group at Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Hiram, Ga. We will be talking about voices. We will begin with voices such as Willie Nelson, Nat King Cole, Merle Haggard and Elvis but soon and very soon we will settle and stay on the topic …”The Voice of Jesus.”
Jesus has been speaking to many of us for years from just a few feet away but for some reason we have not heard or at least not properly responded to His voice. Maybe time has caused our ear drums to become hard and calloused but more likely than not, sin has blocked our ear canal like so much nasty ear wax.
This past week the administrator of my hearing test put some hearing aids in my ears and for the first time in years I could actually hear!!! It was a freedom that I didn’t realize I was missing. It was wonderful but to obtain this new found freedom a very high price had to be paid.
Perhaps Jesus is speaking to you this morning. He can clean your ears and make your hearing better than ever! He can show you a freedom and peace that you didn’t even know you were missing! This freedom however is eternally expensive but dear friends I am here to tell you that Jesus has already paid the price! Listen to the voice of Jesus this morning. It will be clear as crystal and He will never lead you wrong. And the price is right. The price was paid with His blood on the cross…....paid in full.

What would Gunny Say?

In the Army, they are known as "Drill Sergeants".
In the Navy, they are known as "Recruit Division Commanders".
In the Air Force, they are known as "Military Training Instructors".
In the Marines, they are known "Drill Instructors".

Those who have served know what they are like.  Those who have not have properly seen them depicted in movies or television.  Probably the most iconic is Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) in the 1987 film "Full Metal Jacket".  Ermey was an actual Marine Corps Drill Instructor in 1965-1967.

Having been to Marine Corps boot camp myself, I can attest to the fact that his portrayal of a drill instructor is spot on as is the portrayal of boot camp overall in the movie.  Boot camp serves a very specific purpose.  To train young men and women into Marines.  While every Marine has their own military occupational specialty (or job), they are all considered to be "a rifleman first".  The yelling, screaming, fast pace, and attention to detail are all intended to prepare a Marine for the very real possibility of combat.  They are no longer children, but are now men and women prepared to place themselves in harms way for God and Country.

I have little doubt that Gunny Hartman would agree with the many posts, videos, and memes that have mourned the loss of the resilience of our youth.  I am sure you have seen them.  They denounce the overuse of everything from bicycle helmets to anti-bacterial soap.  They all state the kids growing up in the [insert decade here] were tougher than kids of today.  I am sure Gunny would agree.

As I write this, my son is at Marine Corps boot camp right now.  I have recently learned of another practice that would have Gunny shaking his head in dismay.  Marines graduate on most Fridays.  This means families are on base Wed-Fri taking pictures of any recruit they see.  They then post these pictures to a common Facebook page and parents at home commence to playing "Where's Waldo" as they try to find their young recruit in the sea of look-a-likes (not unlike what happened when many of them were at summer camp when they were much younger).  In addition to Waldo pictures, these pages are filled with parents supporting each other and wondering how they are going to make it until their baby comes home briefly before going out again.  Gone are the days when the recruits shipped off and Mom and Dad got maybe a letter or two before graduation.  Now we have Facebook where Mom can see her little baby marching around the base.  I think it is time some of these parents land the helicopter and let their babies go... just a little bit.  I have to wonder "What would Gunny say?"

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go find my Waldo.

Pursued

The other day I was watching a crime show on tv.  The detective saw the suspect in the park.   He observed him for some time before approaching.  He then approached the suspect and said he would like to speak with him.  The suspect then gave chase and ran into an apartment building nearby.  The detective pursued right behind.  The suspect climbed the stairs and soon found himself trapped on the roof.  Fearful of what might happen if the detective caught him, he decided to try and jump from one roof to the next.  His attempt failed and he wound up hanging for dear life to a pipe near the top of the first building.  He cried for help.  The detective approached and tried to reach out to assist him.  The suspect was wearing a backpack.  The detective told him that the backpack was weighing him down.  He advised him to let the backpack go, but the suspect refused.  The suspect tried to reach up the detective, but restricted by his backpack, he was unable.  He soon lost his grip and fell to his death.

Afterwards, I could not help but think about how this is really of picture of God's desire for relationship with us.  So often, he will approach us in the park and just want to talk to us.  Just to sit on the bench and have a pleasant conversation.  We, however, are afraid of him and start to run.  Like the suspect, we are afraid of what he will ask us to do, afraid of what he will find out, afraid of what sins he will expose, and afraid of being asked to give something up.  So we run.  We run and try to hide from the one who created the entire universe.  The one who sees all and knows all.  Like an elephant hiding behind a bamboo tree we think we can hide from God.  Like the suspect, eventually our burden of sin causes us to stumble.  Were we to let our sin go, we would find it easier to take hold of God's hand and be drawn to safety.  Clinging to the sin will eventually send us to a certain death.  At this point, the analogy begins to break down.  In the story, the detective tried to reach out to the suspect who was crying for help...but he was unable.   In reality, when we cry out to God, he will reach down and grab us and left us ... with our burden of sin still attached.  Once he has set us safely down, he will take the burden and cast it as far as the East is from the West.  If only we would just stop and talk to him...while we are still in the safety of the park.

Word Search

Here is a Word Search application that I wrote.  You can keep it simple and just key in the words you want to use for the Word Search or you can get fancy and control the settings below:

• Shape - the shape of the puzzle
• Directions - which way the words should flow
• Case - uppercase vs lowercase
• Filler - what characters to place in the gaps
• Solution - whether to show or hide the solution
• Order - whether or not to alphabetize to word list
• List - show the word list beside or below

This is a windows application (an EXE) and is not a website or browser app.

While there are many applications and websites that will already do this for you, I created this one to solve a developer challenge that has bugged me some time.  Programmatically, what is the best way to fit words into a box and not overlay existing words?

The program is really just a series of nested loops.
Make several attempts to find a place for all the words
  For each word
    For each position in the puzzle (until you find a match)
      For each direction (until you find a match)
        For each letter in the current word
          Place the letter in the spot 
            if the spot is not already taken
            (otherwise try the next direction or position)

The code is a C# .NET Windows Application made with Visual Studio 2012.  If you are interested, you can download the source code.

Plotting Points On A Circle

I once developed a small countdown timer application that used a pie-chart to display the remaining time.  This involved some high school math to be able to plot a line from the center of the circle and plot a radius to specified point on the line.  The same code would also be helpful for developing an application with a compass.

w = width of the space where the circle is bounded
h = height of the space where the circle is bounded
d = diameter (the shorter of w or h)
r = radius = d/2 = SQRT((x2-x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2)

x1,y1 = circle center

x2,y2 = a point on the circumference
a = angle (from 12:00)
b = modified angle to convert from degrees to radians, reverse direction of unit circle, and start at 12:00 instead of 3:00.
t = total number of segments
s = segment number
a = (360/t) * s = 360 * (s/t)
b = (270 - a) * (Pi / 180)
x2 = x1 + (r * cos(b))
y2 = y1 + (r * sin(b))

x1 = w/2

y1 = h/2

For a space that  has a height of 400 and a width of 648
h = 400, w = 648
d = 400
r = 400/2 = 200
x1 = 648/2 = 324
y1 = 400/2 = 200

In the case of a clock, there are 60 seconds and thus 60 total segments
t = 60

Each second is 1 segment and thus 20 seconds is segment number 20
s = 20
a = (360/60) * 20 = 120
b =  (270 - 120) * (Pi / 180) = 149.9825

x2 = 324 + (200 * cos(149.9825)) = 324 + (200 * -0.5) = 324 + (-100) = 224
y2 = 200 + (200 * sin(149.9825)) = 200 + (200 * 0.866) = 200 + 173.21 = 373.21

In C#.NET, it looks like this:

  int radius = 0;
  double angle = 0;
  lineShape1.X1 = ClientSize.Width / 2;
  lineShape1.Y1 = ClientSize.Height / 2;
  if (lineShape1.X1 < lineShape1.Y1 ) {
      radius = lineShape1.X1;
  }
  else {
      radius = lineShape1.Y1;
  }
  angle =  Convert.ToDouble(360 *
              (Convert.ToDouble(TotalRemaining)
             / Convert.ToDouble(TotalStart)));
  angle = (270 - angle) * (Math.PI / 180);
  lineShape1.X2 = Convert.ToInt32(lineShape1.X1 
                   + (radius * Math.Cos(angle)));
  lineShape1.Y2 = Convert.ToInt32(lineShape1.Y1 
                   + (radius * Math.Sin(angle)));

download exe

download source code

Step Away From The Ledge

Today I saw a video online where Cenk Uygur was responding to the recent attacks in Paris at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo (Jan 2015).  Cenk described himself as agnostic and he made some good points I would like to recap and respond to.

He asks if God rules the universe, then how likely is he to look down at Earth and respond "Oh no, someone has drawn a negative cartoon about me and my prophets.  I don't know what to do about that.  I sure hope someone defends my honor and gets revenge."

Cenk went on to say that Islam (and other religions) teach that disrespect and/or denial of God and his prophets can lead to eternal pain, suffering, and damnation.  If that is true, then why do offenders need to be killed or punished now?  Isn't it enough that they will suffer for all of eternity?   Compared to that, torture or murder is a walk in the park.

He said that his god is science.  One of the prophets of science is gravity.  The prophet Gravity is not tolerant of disobedience.  If someone where to disrespect Gravity and step off the ledge of a great cliff, there would would be no need to for anyone to defend the honor of Gravity.  No one would need to seek revenge for Gravity.  Upon stepping off the ledge, Gravity would serve his justice swiftly and severely.

Although Cenk may be agnostic, I could not agree with him more.  God does not need me to defend him.  If you deny or dishonor him, that is between you and him.  Those who do not wish to spend eternity with him can spend eternity without him.  In my view, those that reject, ignore, or insult God (however you choose to define that) are indeed headed for a ledge.  I am not injured by such actions.  There is no harm I could do that would be greater than what happens once they leave the ledge.  On the contrary, my compassion for them would lead me to draw them away from the ledge.  I would hope to convince them to stay on solid ground.  I would tell them in caring and compassionate terms about the dangers of the ledge, the wisdom of keeping their distance from it, and the safety and peace that could be found if they would just turn and walk the other way.  The decision would be theirs to make.  I would not (could not) force them to choose the way that I have chosen.  

In short, I would lovingly plead with them to please step away from the ledge.