Nick+Drendel

Running Tree "Some people create art with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." This is a quote from the late great Steve Prefontaine, possibly the most famous American runner. As a dance or a painting a race is a work of art. It is made with skills but mostly imagination and heart. Without loving to run a race will never be a positive experience. Without hard work and running skills the masterpiece would look like a three year old coloring out of the lines. Only when these skills, hard work ethic, heart, and most of all physics come together a perfect piece of artwork is formed.

As a runner I know how important perfect mechanics are to run efficiently. Although I do not display perfect mechanics it is something I focus on every run. The perfect stride has been argued over the past two years but scientists are finally coming to conclusions. A long stride length, a quick turnover, and a forefoot strike are main factors in the perfect stride. With the new technology in stride efficiency scientists have been arguing whether a sub 2 hour marathon is possible. []. This link describes why just fixing a couple of minor flaws in form could result in a new world record by over four minutes! This next link goes deeper into running economy but not from a technique standpoint, from a biologic one. []

The picture below is the work of art that I have chosen. Everytime our cross country and track teams wear out a pair of shoes we bring them to "the tree." We never throw them out but keep them up there, forever symbolizing the amount of miles we have ran. Each pair of shoes can range from 300 miles to 600 miles. It has been estimated that there are about 60 pairs of shoes in the tree as of now. Say each pair has 450 miles each, do the math, and that tree contains 27,000 miles, which would go around the world 1.086 times. If this is not art I can't imagine something that is.

Citations: "How Many Miles Around the Earth?" //Universe Today//. Web. 17 May 2012. []. Prefontiane, Steve. "Quotes." //Steve Prefontaine//. Web. 17 May 2012. []. The Science of Sport: The Sub 2 Hour Marathon Debate." //The Science of Sport: The Sub 2 Hour Marathon Debate//. Web. 17 May 2012. []. "Somax Sports - Sub-2-hour-marathon." //Somax Sports - Sub-2-hour-marathon//. Web. 17 May 2012. [].