Footstrike, armswing, how they won and why they didn’t–here’s the running form version of the 2019 Boston Marathon story. The Women Worknesh Degefa, women’s winner in Boston, has a powerful style despite the quirks of her armswing. Check out this video of her finish: From the front you can see that her elbows are bent … Read more
Nike’s carefully engineered attempt to shepherd three runners towards breaking 2:00 for the marathon this morning was amazing to watch. If you missed it here’s the replay: For me, watching these runners tackle this huge goal and understanding the work of the team behind them was a powerful reminder of how inspiring sport can be. Three Very … Read more
To say Eliud Kipchoge’s Boston Marathon didn’t go the way most people anticipated is putting it mildly. And yet this performance was actually more revealing about what makes him one of the greatest marathoners of all time than his many successes have been. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling a baffled sense of unreality … Read more
People have been asking me to do a gait analysis of Franka Potente’s character Lola in the film Run Lola Run for years. I love this movie and only hesitated to write about it because I was afraid only people my age or older would know it. (I was 28 when it came out in … Read more
Abs were the focus of my analysis of the finish of the men’s race in Boston, and it turns out they’re also a key point of interest in the women’s race in the 2019 London marathon. I’ve written about Brigid Kosgei, the women’s winner, a couple of times before. In Chicago 2018 I said she … Read more
As the finish line of 2017 comes into view I decided to spend a few moments looking over my blogging of the past year. I thought I hadn’t written much, but in fact I wrote 31 posts, covered a lot of ground, and learned a great deal. It may seem like I blog to teach, and while this is … Read more
The men’s and women’s 10,000 meters races this weekend each kept the focus primarily on one runner. In the men’s it was Mo Farah in his final 10k on the track, and in the women’s it was Almaz Ayana blowing everyone else away. My analyses are consequently focused on these two extraordinary runners. World Championships … Read more
A few days ago the New York Times carried an article about new research showing Usain Bolt has unusually asymmetrical gait for a world-class sprinter. How do we square this with his extraordinary performance and what does it mean for you and me? The article reports that analysis by researchers at SMU shows his right leg … Read more
While there were lots of interesting comparisons to make between runners in the 2016 NYC marathon, what really jumped out at me was the unusual thing both Molly Huddle (3rd place woman) and Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (1st place man) were doing with their legs. Here are screenshots of Huddle: And here are screenshots of Ghebreslassie: As you can see, the space between both runners’ knees … Read more
Last week I wrote about the top women finishers of the 2016 Boston Marathon. Today I have some observations about the top two men, Lemi Berhanu Hayle and Lelisa Desisa. The two men run a bit differently and both run well, so while we could use the images below to compare them to each other, the … Read more
What I saw in the 2015 Boston Marathon this week is what I learn over and over again in my practice and my own running: the farther up from the ground a part of your body is, the greater its effect on your running. So mostly this blog post will be about arms, chests and … Read more
