Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Go Metric, America !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bill Hooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2004 June 11 4:56:14 PM EDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: kilometres not so hard
TO: Anick Jesdanun
You wrote in your recent article <x-tad-smaller>"Running Gadget Handy, but Only in Country"</x-tad-smaller>
:
<x-tad-smaller>As if I weren't challenged enough running the Paris Marathon, I had to confront a course marked in kilometers - it might as well have been in furlongs for an American like me.</x-tad-smaller>
I am amazed that a serious runner like yourself is not familiar with kilometres. Surely you have run in 5 K and 10 K races (5 kilometres and 10 kilometres long, respectively) and possibly others.
What's to understand?
After you've run one 5 K race, you know how far five kilometres is; it's how long that 5 K race was. Etc.
What's the big deal?
When you run a marathon marked off by kilometre markers, you know how far a kilometre is every time you pass a kilometre marker.
It ain't rocket science!
Perhaps your problem is that you want to pace yourself according to some previous experiences that you've learned in miles. You can of course just repeat those experiences using kilometers to learn the pacing in kilometres. But that may be avoided and some effort saved if you want to do a little simple arithmetic. You need to know that 1 mile equals 1.6 kilometres* . That number is rather easy to look up if you don't know it (but you don't have to since I just gave it to you).
Then, you can easily calculate that:
3 miles = 5 kilometres (approx*)
5 miles = 8 kilometres (almost exactly)
6 miles = 10 kilometres (approx.*)
10 miles = 16 kilometres (almost exactly)
25 miles = 40 kilometres (almost exactly)
26 mi 385 yards = 42.19 km (Marathon at Athens Olympic games)
etc.
(Actually you DON'T have to calculate these because I just did them for you.)
Thus, if you know (or can measure or calculate) the desired time you want to run the first three miles, then just learn that that is the desired pace for the first 5 kilometres. If you can run a 26 mile Marathon in 2 hours then you can run a 42 km Marathon in 2 hours. Any other bench marks you need can be found in similar a way. Once you've learned any one of these kilometre bench marks, you never have to figure it out again. Just remember the ones you need or want. There couldn't be very many, could there?
Finally, you also commented:
<x-tad-smaller> Along with distance in miles (you can change that to kilometers if you know what they are), you get your pace.
</x-tad-smaller>
I DO know what kilometres are! And so does the 95% of the Earth's population. They use them regularly. You need to get with the program.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, FL
==========================
* 1 mile = 1.6 km is close enough for most practical purposes but you may use 1.61 or even 1.609 km if you want to be overly precise.
So 3 mi is only approximately 5 km; that's about 4% high. It is more nearly 4.8 km.
Similarly, 6 mi = 10 km is about 4% off. It is more nearly 9.6 km.
