Thursday, January 14, 2010

Zero time

There is nothing worse than finishing and getting a time that ends in :00. It doesn’t matter how hard you kick, the clock always seems to speed up as you approach the line. The dreaded double-zero is the worst possible outcome. Conversely the best outcome would be a :59, then you can say “I ran 25 and change” (when you ran 25:59) or “I ran 2:59 and change” (when you ran 2:59:59) or even better in that case would be “I ran 2:50 something”.

Anyway, out of 1,086 races I’ve only finished at “00” or “59” a grand total of 33 times or just over 3% of the time. For the most part it has worked to my favor. I’ve collected 22 times that were :59 and only 11 that were :00. The most frustrating: 00 for me would be the 1,500 meter time of 4:00. It is my only PR that is a :00 and had I slipped under I could have claimed I was a sub-4 (metric) miler.

Dist --- Time
0.25 --- 01:00
0.93 --- 04:00
2.00 --- 11:00
2.40 --- 12:00
3.15 --- 18:00
3.11 --- 19:00
5.00 --- 24:00
6.21 --- 34:00
14.20 --- 1:12:00
26.22 --- 2:51:00
31.11 --- 4:31:00

Dist --- Time
1.00 --- 04:59
1.00 --- 04:59
2.00 --- 10:59
2.00 --- 10:59
2.85 --- 14:59
3.11 --- 14:59
3.11 --- 14:59
3.11 --- 14:59
3.11 --- 14:59
3.11 --- 15:59
3.11 --- 16:59
3.50 --- 18:59
3.11 --- 18:59
4.96 --- 23:59
5.00 --- 24:59
4.30 --- 24:59
6.21 --- 29:59
6.21 --- 30:59
4.00 --- 32:59
7.05 --- 34:59
7.45 --- 36:59
5.20 --- 46:59

4 comments:

Sara Montgomery said...

That is very neat. Compared to an equal distribution of 1.67%, your 00s are 1.01% and 59s are 2.03%, so grinding to the finish for that extra second works.

Though interestingly, no 59s in the longer races. Can't conclude anything without seeing your 58s and 01s. ;)

Maureen T said...

so true Dave! I always look at marathon results and look for the names of people who did 2:59:59 and the poor people who ended up with 3:00:00 and 3:59:59 and the 4:00's.

Petey said...

You were there for my Fred Slavin 5miler in 26:00. Still my PR. No biggie. Thank goodness I had a 1:14:59 at Mt Washington in 2006, my 40+ PR. My overall PR of 1:08:01 would look nicer in the 1:07's.

double-d Mountain runner said...

Petey: That day at Slavin was a classic. When you went through the mile with Eric B at 4:45. Can you believe we still say "4:45 too fast" after all these years?