{"id":1085,"date":"2023-10-28T14:53:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T14:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2023-10-28T14:53:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T14:53:27","slug":"why-are-you-so-slow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/28\/why-are-you-so-slow\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are you so slow?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Recently a shoe store in France ran a promotion called “Rob It to Get It”, which invited customers to try to steal something by grabbing it and running out of the store. But there was a catch — the “security guard” was a professional sprinter, M\u00e9ba Mickael Zeze. As you would expect, he is fast, but you might not appreciate how much faster he is than an average runner, or even a good runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? That’s the topic of Chapter 4 of Probably Overthinking It<\/a><\/em>, which is available for preorder now<\/a>. Here’s an excerpt.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Running Speeds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you are a fan of the Atlanta Braves, a Major League Baseball team, or if you watch enough videos on the internet, you have probably seen one of the most popular forms of between-inning entertainment: a foot race between one of the fans and a spandex-suit-wearing mascot called the Freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route of the race is the dirt track that runs across the outfield, a distance of about 160 meters, which the Freeze runs in less than 20 seconds. To keep things interesting, the fan gets a head start of about 5 seconds. That might not seem like a lot, but if you watch one of these races, this lead seems insurmountable. However, when the Freeze starts running, you immediately see the difference between a pretty good runner and a very good runner. With few exceptions, the Freeze runs down the fan, overtakes them, and coasts to the finish line with seconds to spare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n