June 13; New method of running

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
13 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	55	29.19	1:16.22	07:20

          I tried to new method of running the 400 meters today. Rather than run at the limit of my exertion from the very beginning, I decided I would try to pace myself. I had been under the impression that the quarter mile was a short distance, and that I should be able to give an all-out effort during the entire sprint. No.

On June 11 in particular, I was barely able to remain standing while making the final steps after running at full-speed all the way around the track. 

          Today, I began at partial speed. I won’t say that I ran slowly (at least not for me), but I was not giving it everything I had. As I came around the last turn, leading into a long straight stretch, I tried to exert myself. As one can see from the graphic above, I finished in almost 1.25 seconds slower than my goal of 75 seconds.

          The logical person would think that running a second faster when running 75 seconds would be a simple question of giving a little more effort.  That logical person must not have tried running such as I am now. I, too, think that adding a bit of effort should be simple. I can remember some 25 years ago when my cousin Susie was running with me. She knew that I was considering running a marathon. At the end of my run with her, she screamed, “Come on, James! Finish strong!” or something similar. I think that is what I need—some kind of encouragement that will push me over the edge. It is an observed fact that people run quicker when they are running against another person. I’m sure I am no different. Roger Banister, the first man to run the mile in under 4 minutes, used several different pace runners so he would be sure to be remain at top speed. He didn’t want to lag and take himself out of striking distance from the 4-minute mark.

          My sprint up the 123 steps was so slow because I had to dodge a bunch of kids coming down the steps.  Many of them greeted me; while not ignoring them totally, I said no more than one word.