Coffee Shop Revolution

I just got home from a run, and had the chance to check out the ending of the Olympic 50km walking final. I’m not sure whether it was live or not (many of the televised events are not live). Not having thought about the sport of race walking, I looked at these guys and I thought…bah what kind of sport is this where you have to actually make yourself go slower? My initial conceited reaction had completely changed in about 10 minutes of thinking about this a bit more, and doing a bit of math.

The winner, of this 50km (31 mile) race, had completed the race in around 3 hrs and 37 mins. That works out to a pace of under 7 minutes per mile. I was shocked! I can barely run just 1 mile at that pace before having to slow down.  These guys walked 31 miles at an average of that pace. Wow!

Anyway, this just reminded me again of the general design pattern of life: when you don’t *really* understand a sport (or any skill really), it is easy to dismiss it, and lose appreciation for its best competitors.

It’s great that examples like Race Walking come by every once in a while to provide a lesson in humility and remind me this life design pattern again!