Imagine for a moment that you have been hired as a pace-setter, or rabbit, for a professional track meet. Unless you are one of the very few runners who have made a career of rabbiting (thank you, Matt Scherer), or have become the personal rabbit of some other great athlete (thank you, Sammy Tangui), chances are that you’re a little inexperienced, as well as a little anxious about getting the pace right. Specifically, you have been told to run splits that are “too fast” for your ability over that distance. There might even be incentives in your contract that reward or punish you based on hitting or not hitting those splits. As you stand there on the starting line, adrenaline coursing through your body, you have one fearful thought in mind: I must not be too slow! Continue reading
the runner eclectic 