On Feb. 10, 2016, a second letter was sent to Harper by Smith, also titled “engagement.” It opens by saying this letter is to “clarify the terms of our engagement.” The clarification includes a new phrase that isn’t anywhere in the earlier 2015 letter: Now, Pepper Hamilton has been engaged “to provide legal advice…

14th birthday party: ate an entire large pizza, half a bag of salt & vinegar chips, and drank five beers.

Ryun remains a mythical figure among kid runners.* He went from high school junior to running phenom in what must have seemed like an instant. Every prep distance runner dreams of suddenly becoming a phenom like Ryun.**

My Garmin already measures pace and cadence, and I’m not sure what I would do with any of the other information.

You may have misunderstood. If you have low cadence, then you are spending a lot of time on the ground vs. flying forward in the air (hence the fewer strides per minute). And it slows you down. Here is a good explanation from Matt Fitzgerald:

Even if you’re on a training run, there’s no need to weigh yourself down with a belt. Just bring fluids and stash them somewhere (or run on a trail with water already there). I’ve run for 30 years in the most humid part of the country and don’t own a belt. It’s too much extra weight.

My coach basically explained that the higher the cadence, the more time you spend on the ground...which is ultimately better for improving time/staying healthier.

I’m not sure how any of that is relevant to what I wrote, but okay.

Most people will run their fastest on a 45-degree, overcast day.

Running with a water belt will absolutely slow you down under any circumstance and under any conditions. You won’t find any good runner wearing one of these.

that’s what double means, two.

1 x 2 = 1 + 1, simple math

guess there’s no such thing as the Prohibition on Double Jeopardy any more

The London Marathon—and most other big city marathons—bills itself as an event. An event, like a party, has participants, not competitors, and everybody wins.

Yeah, that’s definitely for lower-level runners. But even among 10:00 milers, you’re going to have pretty big variation. People like me (40+ with a running history) are going to have a pretty tight range, mainly because I can’t run fast anymore. I’m probably a 5:10 miler at best, but could hold 5:30 pace for a 5K. …

Not sure I necessarily agree with any of those statements (a lot of variation among runners, anyway), but I’m positive that there’s not a person alive who can’t break 5:07 in the mile but can run a sub-17 5K. That’s like saying you can’t hit a driver 300 yards but you can hit a 4-iron 290 yards.

Math doesn’t have anything to do with it. If you can’t run a 5:07 mile, there’s no way in hell that you’re running back-to-back-to-back 5:28 miles. And as you’ll see below, he confirmed that he meant sub-18, not sub-17.

That makes more sense. Still a good time!

If you never ran a 5:07 mile, you never ran a sub-17 5K.

He’s certainly the most likely candidate, but (a) I don’t see him trying again, and (b) even if he did, he’ll be another year older (he’s not young), and the odds of him matching Saturday’s performance are really, really not good. Saturday was Bolt’s 9.58, Bonds’ 73 HRs — a mark that even the guy who set the mark…