The Incomplete Book of Running

by Peter Sagal

I started the race fast, as I had been starting every run, fast enough to PR, but it would take effort. Since I had abandoned punishing myself to get faster, I used geekery. In the rebooted 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica, when they want to move the bulky spaceship a vast distance very quickly, the crew “spins up” the “Faster-Than-Light Drive.” Not “crank,” not even the Star Trekian “engage,” but “spin up,” a phrase that evokes effortlessly increasing momentum. So after clocking 6:18s or better for the first five miles, I started saying to myself, aloud, “Spin up! Spin up!” And so for the first time I think ever, I actually accelerated in the final mile of the race. I came roaring around the corner where I live, passed my house, waved without slowing down, and flew the final half mile to the finish, at light speed or better, crossing as the clock ticked over 39:09. My fastest time ever, by almost a minute.