Crunching the Numbers

Just Another Runner’s Perspective February 2025 Written By Gale Fischer

Running the Numbers

“Exercise not only tones the muscles but also refines the brain and revives the soul.”

—-Michael Treanor

Sustaining an active routine is beneficial to one’s whole health. First and foremost physical activity can raise the level of your physical health. The cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems are strengthened through movement, but studies also show that physical movement will boost brain power and capacity. I’ve always felt that running can double the benefit given to brain function. Scientists believe that movement can increase blood flow to the brain, stimulate brain chemicals, and reduce inflammation, but many runners enhance brain power beyond this by explicitly exercising the brain during the run. The hours spent on the roads and trails can provide a magnitude of time for thought and reflection. As a runner, I’ve often experienced how running stimulates the poetic and linguistic sections of my brain with opportunities for philosophical thought and reflection, but I have also seen how the analytic side of the brain receives a power boost. Runners crunch numbers before, during, and after the run.

Running goals are often tied to numbers. Whether one strives for a four-hour marathon, a sixty-minute 10K, or a twenty-five minute 5K, math is an essential part of monitoring these goals. Mental computation is used to calculate distances and times for training runs as well as race-day mile splits. Time statistics are just one element of what runners may strive for when pursuing future athletic accomplishments. 

 For some, completing a distance of three miles becomes the mountain to climb, with running ten miles, a marathon, or one hundred continuous miles representing milestones that become bucket list items for others. Striving for weekly, monthly, or annual mileage distance goals will often help motivate some to keep up with a running routine. Regardless of the desired distance, milestone numbers become the catalyst for the work required. Time and distance targets are popular among runners but what one strives for can fall into multiple mathematical patterns. The constant mental manipulation of these numbers occurs through the process of planning a training schedule, during the reflection and action of analyzing a completed workout, and also within segments of the run.

Completing a marathon in each state or running one hundred marathons over the course of a twenty or thirty-year span can provide one with the stamina to remain mentally focused over a decade or more. For me personally, as a younger runner, I made a goal to attempt to reach the fifty marathon milestone before I turned fifty, but injury and two hip surgeries left me searching for another meaningful way to signify this milestone birthday as a runner. I eventually decided a fifty-mile race would be a great way to celebrate such a significant birthday. These number goals allow for extra practice of math skills while also providing the mojo to get even the most dedicated runner out the door to run on a day when the desire is low. 

Making calculations as a runner requires much more than a calculator or a pad of paper and a pencil. One's mental math skills are sharpened on the run.  A constant breakdown of these numbers, including lap pace, total time, and average pace may become the ideal way to survive the physical discomfort that might come from a run. Some might count up with each mile while others may choose to count down the miles. The time spent manipulating the numbers while running can provide a much-needed distraction.

Technology with GPS and watches has in some ways simplified the planning of running while also making running more mathematically complex. Before smart watches, runners were required to plan out running routes to hit a desired distance but now knowing the route ahead of time is not always a requirement. Although pre-planning is not as common, calculated scheming is required more during the run as participants must decide what turns to make mid-run to arrive back at the starting point to reach the desired distance. There are many runners who live and die by the watch. It is common to see runners circling a parking lot or zigzagging back and forth at the end of a run until their watch reads an even mile. Technology with watches has created even more opportunities to crunch numbers if desired with heart rate, elevation, calories burned, and weather statistics downloaded onto running apps for each run.

Running obviously is a great way to exercise the body but it can provide just as much opportunity to flex the mind as well. Between philosophical reflection and mental math, while running, the brain is also being put through a workout. Making goals involving numbers is a way to keep running fresh with a byproduct of exercising the brain. Many refer to running as a war between the mind and body but in many instances, the physical and mental elements work in tandem for runners. Running is a physical act but the mental element cannot be denied.

Until next time, this has been just another runner's perspective